Are you a Student? Learn More
Looking for Client Support?
Request a Demo
© 2026 Ready Education. All rights reserved.
Let's Talk
Home › Success Stories › Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
Success Story

MICA Moves Beyond Student Communication With CampusGroups to Expand Engagement and Streamline Operations

MICA transitioned from a student communication app to an all-in-one student engagement platform with CampusGroups. The transition helped MICA consolidate campus processes, automate manual work, and give students more ways to engage.
Type
Art and Design College
Student Population
+1,700
Client Since
2026
Location
Baltimore, Maryland

About MICA

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1826, MICA is one of the oldest art and design colleges in the United States, offering It undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs across a range of visual arts disciplines.

Outcomes

Since transitioning to CampusGroups, MICA has expanded student engagement and streamlined several campus processes. Early results from the first few months of use include:
89% student adoption
up from 38% on MICA’s previous student app.
Automated attendance tracking
for mandatory lecture series, reducing manual work for faculty.
More campus processes brought into one platform
including connection programs, forms and surveys, student organization activities, and student requirements.

Challenges

MICA introduced its previous student app during COVID-19. Its primary purpose was to communicate with students and share campus resources. The app gave students a central place to receive information and connect with one another. However, its functionality was largely focused on communication.

The previous solution had several key gaps:

  • Communication-focused functionality: The feed served as the primary way to communicate with students and share campus information.
  • Basic student organization functionality: Organizations had a space in the app, but few tools to manage their activities.
  • Separate systems for campus processes: Programs and services continued to rely on other tools.
  • Manual engagement tracking: MICA relied on manual methods to understand student participation.
  • Limited ways to engage: The app offered limited ways for students to interact with campus activities and services.

Solutions

MICA selected CampusGroups to move beyond communication and support a broader range of student engagement and campus operations. The platform helps MICA:

  1. Support diverse campus needs: A broad range of tools, including Events, Forms and Surveys, Tracks and Checklists, Badges, and Connections Program, gives departments ways to manage and automate different processes.
  2. Expand student engagement: The feed, events, organizations, and resources give students more ways to discover and participate in campus life.
  3. Support student organizations: Organizations can manage memberships, events, elections, and forms in one place.
  4. Consolidate technology: MICA can move processes from separate tools, including Calendly, EventBright and Google Forms, into CampusGroups.
  5. Improve engagement visibility: Dashboards and event data give MICA a broader view of student participation.

Implementation

MICA began its CampusGroups implementation with a kickoff meeting in April 2026. Erin Baynham, MICA’s Director of User Experience and Engagement, led the rollout as the platform’s internal champion.

Erin worked department by department to identify how each area could use the platform. These one-on-one sessions shaped the staff soft launch in late June, with departments exploring relevant functionality such as Reservations, Connections, Tracks & Checklists, and Badges.

MICA then made CampusGroups part of the first-year student experience before students arrived on campus. Communications and orientation information were delivered through the platform, giving incoming students an early reason to use it.

CampusGroups was a core part of orientation in August, helping first-year students build familiarity with the platform from the start. MICA then launched the full platform to all students on the first day of classes.

“CampusGroups changed the game”
“CampusGroups changed the game. It’s an ecosystem in itself, and it’s exciting to see how broadly students and staff are using it.”
Erin Baynham, Director of User Experience and Engagement
MICA
“The functionality opened people’s eyes”
“I took the time to work with each department and show them what was possible. The functionality opened people’s eyes to all the different ways they could use CampusGroups.”
Erin Baynham, Director of User Experience and Engagement
MICA
“It worked really well”
“Before students arrived on campus, we used CampusGroups to manage move-in time slots. Students from all over the world could select their slot, and it worked really well.”
Erin Baynham, Director of User Experience and Engagement
MICA
“Having everything in one place would save time and reduce costs”
“There’s so much more we can bring into the platform. Having everything in one place would save time, help us consolidate our technology, and reduce costs.”
Erin Baynham, Director of User Experience and Engagement
MICA

Conclusion

MICA’s transition shows how a student communication app can evolve into a broader student engagement platform. By expanding functionality beyond communication and supporting more campus processes, CampusGroups has become an increasingly central part of student engagement at MICA.

MICA is continuing to explore ways to bring more communication, engagement, and administrative processes into the platform, including personalized emails, budgeting, and Data Intelligence.