Are you a Student? Learn More
Looking for Client Support?
Request a Demo
© 2026 Ready Education. All rights reserved.
Request a Demo
Home › Success Stories › Johns Hopkins University
Success Story

Strengthening campus connections and engagement

Before the implementation of CampusGroups across all its campuses in 2021, Johns Hopkins University had utilized several separate instances of student involvement platforms, each specific to individual campuses.
Type Of Institution:
Four Year Private University
Student Numbers:
30,000+
Customer Since:
2020
Location:
Baltimore, MD, USA

About Johns Hopkins University

JHU was founded in 1876 as America’s first research university. Spread over nine campuses and three continents, JHU has over 30,000 students, including over 20,000 graduate students. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Homewood is the university’s main campus and home to two major undergraduate schools.

Outcomes

Promoted Events
0
In the initial two months, more than 22,000 events were advertised
Member Increase
0 %
Group membership rose by 42%, going from 24,000 to 34,000 members
Account Logins
0
In September 2021, there were 73,000 unique logins via web and mobile app

Challenges

Navigating Campus Fragmentation: JHU’s Pre-CampusGroups Dilemma

Prior to launching CampusGroups (CG) university-wide in 2021, JHU had multiple instances of the same student involvement platform at each of its 9 campuses (spanning 3 continents). The main challenges with the previous system were:

  • Segmented View of Campus Life – Each of the 9 campuses had its own separate instance. Students did nothave visibility into what was happening university-wide, meaning that interaction across campuses was very limited.
  • Lack of System Integration – The previous system did not enable integration or communication between different systems.
  • Inability to Generate Valuable Engagement Data – Accessing involvement figures from other JHU campuses and pulling university-wide stats was difficult.

Solutions

All-in-One Community Engagement Platform

JHU needed an all-in-one community engagement platform. Due to the university’s structure, the system had to be highly customizable. According to Calvin L. Smith, Jr., who served as JHU’s Sr. Director, Leadership Engagement & Experiential Development, “CG provided JHU with the solutions it needed in one place.” These include:

  • Multi Community Hub Campus Portal – The implementation of the (“Hopkins Groups”) portal
    established a comprehensive platform university-wide, connecting students across campuses. Each campus also has its own Community Hub.
  • Highly Customizable Platform – Each campus has created a custom landing page and menu. They can establish their own unique brand and send targeted communications to students.
  • Multiple Engagement Tools – Available on the web and mobile, the platform has over 30 modules. These include group and event management, attendance-tracking and gamification.
  • Robust Tracking and Reporting Features – All data feeds into an analytics and reporting dashboard. The university can monitor and assess student engagement over time, narrowing in on what is and isn’t working.
“CampusGroups provides all the solutions we need in one place.”
“From a visibility and statistical standpoint, CampusGroups has been transformational. Tracking and reporting features enable us to analyse overall platform use and pull stats for each hub. The university has been able to sunset providers for website creation, events, and budgeting, resulting in cost savings.”
Calvin L. Smith, Jr, Sr. Director, Leadership Engagement
Johns Hopkins University

Outcomes

Inspiring Global Leaders

Student engagement has significantly increased since CG’s implementation. The portal has also created a better user experience for administrators and students. This growth is reflected in the following user stats:

  • Over 22,000 events were promoted on Hopkins Groups in the first two months of the 2021 academic year.
  • In September 2021, there were 54,000 unique logins via the Hopkins Groups website and 19,000 mobile logins.
  • Group membership is up 41.6%, increasing from 24,000 to 34,000 members.
  • Over 80% of respondents are happy with the system and its functionality.