How a Community Portal Strengthened Campus Engagement and Improved the Student Experience

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has been a CampusGroups (CG) partner since June 2020. They implemented the campus engagement software during the global COVID-19 pandemic when Saudi Arabia was in full lockdown

Institution Type:

Private Graduate Research University

Student Numbers:

1,000

1,000 Location:

Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Client Since:

2020

About KAUST

KAUST was founded in 2009 and is located on the Red Sea in the small fishing village of Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. The unique Saudi campus is home to the kingdom’s first mixed-gender university campus, and hosts approximately 1,000 students and over 90 nationalities.

Challenges

Prior to implementing CampusGroups in 2020, KAUST had a legacy student life community platform that was abandoned by administrators and staff. The main challenges with the previous system were:

Unengaging and Complicated Interface

The previous system was not interactive and complicated. Students and staff got tired and bored and just stopped using it.

Little Room for Customization

As a small research-based graduate university, KAUST needed a portal that could adapt to their needs specifically.

Lack of Automation

The legacy platform was very manual and lacked analytics and reporting capabilities

Solutions

KAUST needed a unified and user-friendly portal solution available on the web and mobile. According to Frances Field, who formerly served as KAUST’s Student Engagement Specialist, “CG provides all the solutions we need in one highly-automated and easy-to-use system". These include:

1. Highly Customizable Platform

KAUST’s homepage “Campus Connect” was built to meet KAUST’s needs specifically. Photos and buttons are changed based on the time of year and what’s happening on campus.

2.Multiple Engagement Tools

KAUST’s campus app does all the day-to-day stuff for students. The activity feed, chat, events management tools, and career center are go-to features. The dedicated Commencement and Orientation apps also enhance the student experience, as does gamification.

3. Automated Workflows and Robust Tracking and Reporting Features

CG has automated key processes, with data feeding into an analytics and reporting dashboard in real time. The most popular workflows are tracks and checklists, event registration and check-in.

“Support Future Growth”

“Usership is growing and will continue to do so. This is because the system is constantly evolving. If there is a need, CG is quick to bridge the gap. For instance, virtual fairs were very quickly rolled out to deal with the pandemic.”

Frances Field

Former Student Engagement Specialist

“Easy and Quick Implementation”

“KAUST launched the CG platform in just six weeks during lockdown. This is because everything in the system is drag and drop, making the platform build out quick and easy.”

Frances Field

Former Student Engagement Specialist

Outcomes

Student engagement has significantly increased since CG’s implementation. The portal has also created a better user experience for students and administrators who use it daily. This is reflected in the following user stats for the first year of use, which continue to grow year-on-year:

Automated workflows were created, generating over 815 approvals.

Checklists created and 15,633 items checked off.

2,282

were completed in 2020 and over 5,400 check-ins in 2021.

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