Johns Hopkins University

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Portal strengthens campus connections and engagement at Johns Hopkins University

Before the implementation of CampusGroups (CG) across all its campuses in 2021, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) had utilized several separate instances of student involvement platforms, each specific to individual campuses. This decentralized approach meant that across JHU's nine campuses, spanning three continents, there were multiple systems in place for managing student engagement and activities, leading to inefficiencies.

Type Of Institution:

Four Year Private University

Student Numbers:

30,000+

Location:

Baltimore, MD, USA

About Johns Hopkins University

Pioneering Research, Transformative Education

Johns Hopkins University is an American private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1876, and named after its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur, abolitionist, and philanthropist Johns Hopkins.

It blazed a trail among higher education institutions by being the first US research university, and today it puts more money into research than any other US academic institution. It’s also widely credited with revolutionizing higher education by being the first US institution to integrate teaching and research. To date, Johns Hopkins has spawned 27 Nobel laureates, including the former US president Woodrow Wilson.

22,000

Promoted Events

In the initial two months, more than 22,000 events were advertised

42%

Member Increase

Group membership rose by 42%, going from 24,000 to 34,000 members

73,000

Account Logins

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., 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 analyze 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

John 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.

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