University drives digital transformation with student-focused app

• Rapid growth: doubling in size over 7 years to 35,000 students
• Delivering high levels of services to a large student population
• Redesign how student needs are met online
• Improve student conversion by simplifying the enrolment and onboarding process
• Communicate new brand promise of Impact through Empathy
• Failure rate across the enrolment process was a major risk—at best requiring staff intervention, at worst, leading to students not enrolling

Today’s students are more tech-savvy than ever and recognize a good digital experience when they see it. MyCQU is designed from the ground-up to meet those expectations. A student portal reimagined, MyCQU is a student-centric, personalized, one-stop shop that guides and enables students throughout their journeys, on any device.

Through a headless, cloud-based, Sitecore Content Hub™, and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) integrated Sitecore approach, MyCQU’s agile personalization delivers information and resources hyper-relevant to a student’s situation, reducing clutter and surfacing what matters to them at exactly the right time. It works seamlessly with legacy systems, enabling the school to connect and aggregate data to create a highly integrated experience. Also, integration with Content Hub lets admins maintain and deliver an extensive content library with ease.

MyCQU has reduced the number of systems students need to log in to, delivering a simpler landscape to navigate and a powerful UX layer that interfaces with the rest of the student-facing digital CQU. And, because JSS enabled an app-like experience on the web, students get the same great experience across any device. Delivery partner Liquid Interactive pioneered a customized ADFS integration for headless, so that students and staff can log in to MyCQU using their standard university credentials, maintaining a consistent experience and removing a barrier to adoption.

Beyond dramatically reducing the number of systems students need to log in to, MyCQU is now an integral part of the University’s communications strategy, utilizing features such as alerts, notifications, and spotlights to keep students informed of changes relevant to them. Also, the app is transforming the way CQUniversity is interacting with and guiding students, along with additional transformative benefits.

For example, the app has essentially doubled student engagement in promoted spotlight opportunities and nearly doubled the number of Commonwealth Assistance Forms lodged for the same term the previous year.

Students report that MyCQU is easy to access and navigate, and they praise its mobile usability, saying that it provides a one-stop shop with access to key platforms, it’s not cluttered by unnecessary information, and it surfaces important reminders.

MyCQU was also designed to enable onboarding of new capabilities to further enhance the digital student experience. A componentized development approach, well-supported by Sitecore XP, allows for rapid updates and enhancements.