College Using Mobile App to Boost Recruiting

A small private institution in New York is using mobile to better communicate with students and keep them engaged with campus events. St. Francis College partnered with Modo Labs to create a mobile app that personalizes the user experience for different student populations. For instance, the college is catering to prospective students with modules for Open House and Accepted Students Day, and already seeing an increase in online applications, according to a news release.

"To combat enrollment and retention trends nationwide, we realized we needed to be more proactive about reaching and engaging with students in the most effective way possible," said Madalyn Hanley, chief information officer at the college, in a statement. "To support this critical initiative, we also needed a mobile strategy that enabled us to reach both prospective and current students, while directly involving students in shaping their digital campus experience. Modo Labs delivered a flexible, easy-to-use platform that allowed us to quickly create a mobile campus app with the participation of the entire campus community."

The Modo Campus platform integrates with existing campus systems such as the LMS and CRM, and offers a variety of pre-built modules so that administrators can provide students with the information they need with no coding expertise required.

"From our 'Get Stuff Done' section to Special Events for New Student Orientation, Commencement and more, our must-have mobile campus app allows students to access all academic information on the go and drives their participation at campus activities," noted Hanley. "We've experienced demand from many college departments to utilize our app to improve communication and engagement with the whole college community."

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • VSLive! session

    VSLive! San Diego 2026 Puts AI at the Core of the Campus IT Stack

    For higher education IT teams working through AI pilots, ERP integrations, student-facing apps, analytics projects, and mounting security concerns, Visual Studio Live! San Diego 2026 offers a look at the development practices that are shaping the campus technology landscape.

  • Binary code flows through a digital pathway with red and blue lights in a dark background

    Survey: Enterprises Say They Are Ready for Agentic AI Failures, but Few Test Recovery Often

    Most enterprise organizations say they are ready to recover from disruptions involving agentic AI, but a new survey of more than 300 IT decision-makers from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States suggests relatively few test those plans often enough to prove it.

  • Interface buttons of Generative AI tool

    Report: No Foolproof Method Exists for Detecting AI-Generated Media

    Microsoft has released a new research report warning that no single technology can reliably distinguish AI-generated content from authentic media, and that deepening reliance on any one method risks misleading the public.

  • abstract smartphone translucent screen displaying AI interface

    Apple Introduces Redesigned Siri AI

    At its recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple introduced Siri AI, a redesigned version of its voice assistant that Apple describes in its own announcement as "a profoundly more capable and personal assistant." The update is intended to make Siri more conversational, more context-aware, and more useful across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro.