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Home › Success Stories › Austin Peay State University
Success story

How APSU Upgraded its Campus Experience with One Platform

Austin Peay State University (APSU) launched Govs Connect, powered by CampusGroups, in Fall 2025 to unify campus engagement. Replacing multiple legacy systems, Govs Connect provides a mobile-first and web-based hub where students, staff, and faculty can manage academic and co-curricular events, connect with one another, and track engagement—all in one place.
Type of Institution:
Public University
Client Since:
2023
Student Numbers:
11,185
Location:
Clarksville, Tennessee

About APSU

Founded in 1927, APSU serves over 11,000 students, offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs across a wide range of disciplines. The university emphasizes student success, engagement, and community-building.

Outcomes

mobile logins (Aug–Nov 2025)
0 +
exceeding previous app usage by over 100,000 logins.
events tracked
0
in GovsConnect, up from 486 during the same period in 2024.
attendance tracking adoption
Universal
with students using tap-to-check-in.

Challenges

Prior to GovsConnect, APSU relied on multiple engagement tools, including separate mobile and involvement platforms, with some departments still using paper-based systems for events, inventory, and attendance tracking. This created several challenges:

  • Disconnected campus experience, leaving students to navigate multiple logins, platforms, and processes, limiting involvement and success.
  • Fragmented systems across departments, making event management, payments and budgeting cumbersome and inefficient.
  • Limited attendance tracking, requiring manual check-ins or multiple QR codes.
  • Data silos, preventing administrators from having a holistic view of student engagement.

The university needed a single, unified system that would integrate with their existing student information system (SIS), support both mobile and web, and accommodate diverse departmental needs—from academic affairs to student organizations.

Solutions

APSU started the implementation of GovsConnect in April and went live on August 1, ensuring first-year students could access the platform before the start of the academic year. The implementation included:

  • Seamless integration with SIS and other internal systems, including single sign on, course information integrations, and finance integrations.
  • Comprehensive training for faculty, staff, and student organization leaders.
  • Campus-wide engagement campaign, including app giveaways, tabling, email marketing, and orientation promotions.

GovsConnect replaced multiple legacy tools with one centralized platform, offering features such as:

  • Events & Attendance Tracking – Tap-to-check-in using student IDs, eliminating QR codes and speeding up entry.
  • My Courses & Academic Integration – Students can view schedules, room locations, and connect with classmates.
  • Groups & Connection Programs – Enabling peer-to-peer and student-to-faculty engagement.
  • Campus Feed – Giving students, faculty, and staff the ability to share upcoming events, ask questions, and connect.
  • Forms & Event Management – Consolidating event creation, RSVPs, and approvals in one place.
  • Email Campaigns & Analytics – Providing administrators with open rates and engagement insights to reach students more effectively.
  • Badges, Tracks & Checklists – Helping administrators monitor engagement levels and identify disengaged students to provide targeted support.
  • Enhanced data analytics – Enabling in-depth analysis of users, logins, attendance tracking, and checklist tracking.

Why Implementation Succeeded

  1. Strong executive support, from both Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.
  2. A single platform replacing duplicate systems across campus.
  3. Hands-on training with 15–20 sessions for faculty, staff, and student leaders.
  4. Student-led rebranding to “GovsConnect”.
  5. Campus-wide marketing campaign with giveaways, email outreach, tabling, and orientation integration.

Additional Outcomes

Additional outcomes include:

  • High Student Adoption – A unified, mobile-first design encourages consistent student engagement.
  • Improved communication and outreach, with student organizations using targeted email tools and tracking engagement.
  • Higher event turnout and RSVPs enabled by calendar syncing and reminder notifications.
  • Centralized engagement data through badges, checklists, and completion reports, enabling early identification of disengaged students.
  • Stronger cross-campus collaboration, as administrative and academic units analyze co-curricular engagement alongside academic progress.
“A tremendous impact”
“Students absolutely love the new platform. It’s so much easier to use, and having one system instead of two makes a tremendous impact.”
Zac Moore, Assistant Director
Department of Student Life & Engagement, Austin Peay State University
“Tools to support students in ways we couldn’t before”
“GovsConnect gives us the data and tools to support students in ways we couldn’t before—tracking engagement, attendance, and progress all in one place.”
Zac Moore, Assistant Director
Department of Student Life & Engagement, Austin Peay State University
“The structure of the implementation was the best”
“The structure of the implementation was the best that I’ve ever been a part of in terms of the layout of what we needed to do.”
Zac Moore, Assistant Director
Department of Student Life & Engagement, Austin Peay State University

Conclusion

By implementing GovsConnect, APSU has successfully unified its student engagement ecosystem, providing a central hub for students, faculty, and staff to connect, track involvement, and participate in campus life. The platform’s intuitive tools, mobile-first design, and robust integrations have strengthened engagement, improved data-informed decision-making, and positioned APSU for continued success in supporting student retention and achievement.