5 Ways to Engage with Students Through Mobile App
Students who are mostly millennials are already mobile smart for dealing with their academic tasks. Naturally, educators and institutions cannot undermine the role of mobility in communicating students for various reasons. But with a plethora of educational apps at disposal, it is a challenge to connect students and ensure consistent engagement. Various countries’ education sector enjoys various degrees of success in student engagement using apps. In the US the app development for schools, colleges, and universities has already become a norm.
Personalized Experience
The first and almost irrefutable obligation for any mobile app these days is to deliver a user experience that caters to individual preferences and needs. Students are more particular about their choices when communicating with their institution or for accessing the curriculum. Personalization of student experience in an institutional app can also be done with specific career choices and individual list of priorities. If every student can set his or her priorities within the app, the user experience thus tailored will be superb. Besides personalization, value addition like integrated support for students through the app is also essential. It is particularly useful for newly enrolled students who may have questions about various things. A report function within the institutional app based on student interactions can produce reports for future reference. It will be invaluable for evaluation and to deliver support for the student when needed. This can normally be done by integrating Artificial Intelligence and machine learning into the app.
Push Notifications
Any institutional app catering to students should actively utilize push notifications to inform students on every academic update. Push notifications by quick sharing of information with students can also boost student engagement to a great extent. Notifications can be segmented for the specific group of students based on common interests. Push notifications is an assured way to reach students.
Context-Based Messaging
Any University app can now incorporate more detailed segmentation into their app for students to access features and contents based on contexts. Similarly, the app notifications can also be more contextualized based on the individual student location and specific situation. The push notifications and messaging can further be contextualized if the function works in coordination with the institution’s respective learning software. This would allow updating the students in real time with messages whenever the teacher and instructor post any information. Through segmentation every student can easily be notified of any class cancellation or any circumstances leading to a change of class. With a university or institution making the app extremely useful for updating students about all their tasks, schedule and events through push messaging, the app is likely to become the best companion for the student.
Community Engagement
Connecting students and faculties across the spectrum and disciplines can improve student engagement. Some of the key features in an educational app that can allow building such community engagement are, Facilitate lively contact with students across the disciplines. Build up study groups and various common interest groups. Set alerts and reminders for new curriculum, enrollment and professional opportunities across fields. Update students and the staff members from time to time about events and various activities held within the institution.
A One Stop Solution
Institutions that do not have a mobile app can still manage ID cards and documents in their mobile wallet. A vast majority of mobile wallet users prefer storing their IDs and such valuable documents into this digital wallet. As mobile wallets are popular among millennials, it is ideal for student targeted institutional apps. Accessing ID cards and documents through an integrated mobile wallet or a standalone institution app has distinct advantages. This will also help to reduce the administrative cost of any institution.
Conclusion
With students being the most proactive mobile users, ensuring mobile engagement may not be a challenge. Today mobile apps, for various reasons, have become irreplaceable for any institution in student engagement. Read the full article











