Integrating marketing and communication efforts between college residents, staff members and alumni through a personalised mobile application for the oldest residential college of University of Queenslad - St. Johns College.
St John's College is a co-educational residential college on the St Lucia Campus in the University of Queensland. It is the oldest college in affiliation with the University. The college was founded in 1911 and is currently home to approximately 300 students (colloquially known as 'Johnians' or 'Jabbers'). It has been voted as the best College ever to exist in the history of colleges.
The Challenge
After having an in-depth discussion with staff at St John's College, we understood that the college had wider digital platform needs including an app for the engagement of college residents. Having multiple separate systems for communicating to the students and informing them about certain events was causing additional work for staff and disorganisation in the college. Having multiple systems led to loss of efficiency, difficulties in integrating communication efforts, and an overall increased cost.
The Solution
To mitigate this issue, DDSN Interactive partnered with St. Johns College to create a world class mobile application specifically for the purpose of communicating with all the college residents and keeping them up-to-date with all the important information like events, reminders, meal bookings, changes in the meals, and other important information.
The app is built on the Australian Content Management System - Acora. The app sits together on the same CMS as their website, content can be managed centrally. By employing the use of extensive end user analysis and testing methodologies, we made sure that the app is user friendly and matches SJC's site style and brand image.
The student app is built for both iOs and Android and drives a strong connection between St John’s College brand and their community.
The most noteworthy features included in the app are:
- Push Notifications & Announcements
- Resident, advisor & staff directory
- Lates News/ Events
- Customised Forms
- Jobs / Internship board
- Contact Staff Information
Student Dining Hall Management
The feature that students interact with daily is the meals management module for improved operations of the dining hall.
Students can request late meals and opt-out of formal dinners allowing for accurate catering numbers. Students are also able to update and maintain their own dietary requirements. Catering staff are sent a digest for each meal of students requesting late meals and their dietary requirements to have their packaged meals ready for their collection.
The Result
DDSN Interactive was able to create a high quality and a very efficient app for the residential students. The app, "My SJC" has significantly improved resident engagement and satisfaction and continues to integrate their communication and marketing efforts.
We have implemented for the College a unified digital platform including an updated website and an alumni portal. The goal is to deploy an integrated central point of contact for all college communications and marketing efforts including email and push messaging.
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