About The University of Lynchburg
1,500+
undergraduate students
72%
residential students
74%
retention rate
I love everything about Involve but if there was one thing that I would say is the gold star, it’s the analytics feature. It has everything we could want and more. I wish that I had it when I was making reports years ago; it would have made everything so much easier.
Emily OstrowskiThe Challenge
Students asked: “How can I get involved?”
There were two complementary trends at The University of Lynchburg: many students wanted to get involved in campus life, and student organizations wanted to engage more of their peers.
But there was no consistently reliable way for student org leaders and potential members to find one another. Flyers, emails and club fairs didn’t connect well with modern learners.
"Having an on-demand, virtual platform where students could see involvement opportunities and how to get connected was a gap we were looking to fill," said Emily Ostrowski, Coordinator of Student Engagement.
Students asked: “When and where are all the upcoming events?!”
Lynchburg had plenty of robust co-curricular events, but advertising was siloed. The university’s many offices, departments and student orgs relied on different digital spaces and processes to publicize their events. As a result, any student looking to find out “what’s happening on campus today?” would need to embark on a cumbersome internet scavenger hunt.
“Since we use additional technologies on campus, the ability for the Presence platform to integrate and ‘talk’ with our other virtual resources was also incredibly important to making the student experience as streamlined as possible," said. Ostrowski.
The Solution & Result
Modern Campus Involve = Students’ One-Stop Engagement Shop
Soon, Lynchburg students will no longer need to search multiple websites, apps and social media pages to get involved on campus. They'll be able to find a comprehensive view of each day’s events and hone in on specific opportunities—all in one digital common space: The Hornet Hub, Lynchburg’s student portal powered by Modern Campus Involve.
We're integrating more of our university processes into Involve, and once that's done, it'll truly become a one-stop shop for our students. We'll be able to make Hornet Hub our landing site for everything. For example, our housing portal and our course registration site are already super easy for students to find through Presence. Students know to check Presence for almost anything they need.
Emily OstrowskiLynchburg also uses Involve to make campus-wide announcements and communicate event themes. For example, they kept all students up-to-date with the institution’s COVID-19 vaccination policy and created a listing of all Halloween events, dubbed Halloween Happenings. It’s as simple as updating Hornet Hub, which Ostrowski can do herself or with support from her dedicated Modern Campus customer success specialist.
Involve's Gamification Tools are Championed Campus-Wide
By awarding students points for engaging in campus opportunities—such as attending events, joining student organizations or completing service hours—Lynchburg is taking things a step beyond event promotion; they’re incentivizing continued engagement.
The points program is resonating with students and staff alike. In the first semester of its launch (Fall 2021), nearly half of Lynchburg’s students earned points! Cross-departmental buy-in has played an enormous role. What began as a program used only by The Office of Student Engagement and Leadership Development quickly snowballed thanks to its clear, measurable success.
The points system is such a great, easy way to get students excited to go to events. We have seen tremendous growth in involvement because of it. What started out as an initiative for just our office has really grown campus-wide. All different offices and departments are excited by awarding points and are seeing the value in it.
Emily OstrowskiInvolve's Up-to-the-Minute Analytics Prove the Value of Engagement
The progress has been thrilling, but Lynchburg’s Student Engagement and Leadership Development team doesn't want to stay static in its engagement strategies; they want to continually improve and showcase the value of their efforts.
They’re meeting both those goals through data. Involve’s analytics dashboard gives Ostrowski and her coworkers an easy way to track quantitative data. With a few clicks, they can learn how students are connecting to campus activities—what’s working and what might need to change.
The University of Lynchburg's Favorite Features
Customizable Points |
Real-Time Assessment |
Forms management |
| Incentive engagement by designing a custom reward program that’s unique to your students’ interests and needs. |
Measure participation live and drive decisions to better support your learners—without opening a single spreadsheet. |
Reduce barriers to engagement through superior tools for managing student organizations and campus events. |
| Learn more | Learn more |
Tackle your biggest challenges
About Modern Campus
Modern Campus empowers 1,700+ higher education institutions to attract, engage, and retain learners for life with software solutions that enable a modern student experience.
The Modern Campus learner-to-earner lifecycle platform powers solutions for web content management, conversational text messaging, catalog and curriculum management, career pathways, student engagement and development, and non-traditional student management. The result: innovative institutions engage their modern learners for life, while providing modern administrators with the tools needed to streamline workflows and drive high efficiency.
Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner-to-earner movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn.