Increasing student engagement using custom mobile apps

When searching for specific information about a university programme or event, it can be difficult for students to locate exactly what they need. Information is often scattered across different areas of a university’s website, social media channels and emails, making it challenging for students to navigate the vast amount of information available to them. 

Mobile apps, by contrast, can act as a medium for institutions to provide information on events, course resources and support services. According to Statista, 58 per cent of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices. It’s crucial that institutions “meet students where they are”, said Casey Johnstone, EDU growth client relationship manager at Guidebook, a platform that enables institutions to develop and manage their own custom apps. 

Guidebook supports institutions at every stage of the academic lifecycle. “We support prospective students who are curious about a campus through to admitted students. We help with orientation and all the way up to commencement,” Johnstone explained. For student success teams, the drivers behind investing in such an app tend to be engagement and efficiency. As departments are increasingly under pressure to do more with less, having a centralised mobile platform saves both money and time. 

The app also creates networking opportunities for students and enables them to forge connections within the academic community. “Staying connected helps with retention. Having a student base that participates in the activities and engages with the resources you provide can make the difference between a positive experience and a negative one,” Johnstone added. 

At the Indiana Institute of Technology, for example, student attendance increased from 40 per cent to 82 per cent in 2023 after introducing Guidebook. Furthermore, transitioning from printed booklets to an app resulted in a 29 per cent reduction in costs because it eliminated the costs of printing, envelopes and correction inserts. However, the most impactful saving was in staff time. Before using Guidebook, the institution spent more than 400 hours and needed five staff members to compile student resources, which now takes two staff members around 25 hours. 

The University of Kentucky embraced Guidebook because it gives the university the flexibility to change content as needed. “They were looking for better retention of information rather than duplicating it for each new group of students,” said Johnstone, adding that the app has been downloaded more than 4,000 times at the institution. The app can be “white-labelled” with university or event-specific branding, where students can get details about the event agenda, registration and staff members attending the event. 

Guidebook’s interactive metrics dashboard enables institutions to see student adoption, engagement and usage. Being able to share tangible data with senior leadership means student success teams can show a return on investment for the resources they have created. For students, engaging directly with their institution and forming personalised connections build a sense of belonging that a printed guidebook cannot achieve, Johnstone concluded. 

The speaker:

• Casey Johnstone, EDU growth client relationship manager, Guidebook

Find out more about Guidebook.