Lori Nidoh Director of Marketing

Communications The University of Scranton

Today’s Discussion

  The current mobile environment

  Our internal assessment

  Mobile initiatives

  Early results

  What’s next?

Today, it is completely unimaginable that a university would exist without a website. Bad, good, awesome, terrible – it doesn’t matter, you have one. It is expected, demanded, and if you didn’t, it would have a devastating impact on the impression people have of your school. We are little more than a stone’s throw away from this same trend for mobile web.

“Best of the Mobile Higher Ed Web”, Michael Fienen, Director of Web Marketing at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS, .eduguru, May 17, 2010

 Hand-held devices like smartphones and tablets are fast becoming the primary way many people use the Internet.

 Half of all college students used mobile gear to get on the Internet every day last year, compared with 10% of students in 2008, according to Educause, the educational-technology consortium.

“As the Web Goes Mobile, Colleges Fail to Keep Up”, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 23, 2011

Morgan Stanley Research, December 2009

Nielsen Wire, October 14, 2010

 The University of Scranton is a private, Jesuit and Catholic university located in Northeast PA

 We offer 61 undergraduate and 25 graduate programs to approximately 6,070 students.

 4,100 Undergraduate

 2,149 Graduate (includes online programs)

 Most of our students are from PA, NY and NJ

 Secondary markets - CT, MD, VA & MA

 November 09 – we began to examine the mobile phenomenon and to question how and when we needed to respond.

 Mobile traffic, while still very low on our site compared to overall traffic, was increasing - 247% increase from 2008 to 2009.

 Other projects underway were already utilizing resources that would need to work on mobile.

 Decided to reevaluate in spring 2010.

 Summer 2010 - IT department began evaluating options for mobile solutions – build? buy? combination?

 Marketing/Communications monitored

•  The use of mobile apps and the development of mobile sites in higher-ed.

•  The continued rise of mobile traffic on our web site.

•  Research on use of smartphones by teens.

 EDUCAUSE: Mobile Apps on Campus •  As of fall 2010 just 13% of institutions surveyed had

activated mobile apps.

•  10% expect to activate mobile apps in the coming academic year.

•  25% indicated that the mobile app strategy at their institution is currently under review.

 Data from the EDUCAUSE Campus Computing Survey suggests that the % of campus that have deployed mobile apps could increase by 50% or more between fall 2010 and 2011.

Visits to The University of Scranton Website from Smartphones

 Potential impact on prospective students

• What % of prospective students who see our advertising or receive our direct mail pieces will try to access our website via mobile devices?

 Noel-Levitz 2010 E-Expectations survey of more than 1,000 college bound high school seniors found that 23% have searched college websites from their smartphones.

 Potential impact on prospective students

• What effect would a negative experience on our full website when viewed via a smartphone have on their perception of the University?

  The E-Expectations report also found that 1 in 4 students reported removing a school from their prospective list because of a bad experience on that school’s website.

53.3%

46.7%

Mobile Traffic – Visitors by Type Jan – Dec 2010

New Visitor Returning Visitor

Avg Time on Site 2:11 Bounce Rate 50.5% Pages per Visit 2.8 Full Site 2.58 43.4% 4.4

Full Site: New 38% Returning 62%

 Impact on current students •  Teens and young adults increasingly rely on

mobile devices to obtain information - are the channels we currently use becoming less effective?   Our weekly e-newsletter Royal News gets around

1,600 visits and 2,300 page views, low considering over 10,000 students, faculty and staff.

  Events and news are also featured on the home page of our website but the user might not have a good viewing experience on a mobile phone.

  Fall 2010 – we decided to take the plunge!

  Several initiatives were identified with the initial focus on recruitment

  Functionality requiring authentication, such as registration for courses, grades, etc., was deferred to phase II.

  Mobile App vs Mobile Site •  Each have different strengths/weaknesses

Mobile App

•  More immersive •  More responsive interface

BUT

•  Requires install •  Multiple apps / platforms •  Longer to deploy updates or

changes

Mobile Site

•  Easier to add/change content •  Easier to support multiple

platforms •  No download required – use

redirects from full site

BUT

•  Can lack “slickness” of apps

“The Many Faces of Mobile”, Erik Runyon, CASE Indiana, 4/15/11 “Mobile Trends & Opportunities”, mStoner, College of William and Mary webinar

  Goal 1 – Identify a mobile app solution and implement by March 31

  Goal 2 – Build a mobile site that contains key content from full site optimized for mobile browsers. Also due March 31.

  Goal 3 - utilize QR codes to point users to mobile content that supplements the messaging of our recruitment materials.

 September 2010 – Mktg and IT began evaluation of mobile app solutions.

 Key criteria included cost, time to implement, number of modules, flexibility, frequency of new feature releases, higher-ed clients.

 Demo’s continued through October and a vendor, Straxis Technologies, was chosen in early November.

Requirement Blackboard Mobile

Pocket Campus

Macroview Labs

Straxis U360 Mobile

Blackberry Yes No Yes No

iPhone Yes Yes Yes Yes

Android In development 1.5 yrs away Yes Yes

Easy to customize?

No Yes Yes

Course Catalog

Yes Majors & Programs

Yes Yes

Time to implement

90 days, 6 features

60 days, approx 10

6 – 8 weeks, 15 features

CMS No In development Yes Yes

Social Media No – use Links FB & Twitter Integrated Twitter, links for others

 Project lead – Dir. of Marketing Comm.

 Team included Dir. of Info Tech Dev and Web Designer/Developer from Mktg.

 12/21/10 - Kick-off conference call.

 Weekly calls with our team and Straxis

 Per vendor, average implementation time is 6 - 8 weeks, largely dependent on us.

  Modules requiring most work

• Campus Map and Campus Tour   You will need good images and descriptions of

all your campus buildings, AND GPS locations

• Directory   Needed a clean file with distinct fields to be

imported.

• RSS feed for weekly e-newsletter

  It WILL take longer than you think   allow plenty of time

  avoid hard deadlines

  If you are the project lead – It will take LOTS of your time.

  many, many details to manage

  need to constantly monitor progress of vendor

  Testing takes lots of time – and should involve as many people and devices as possible

 Develop your promotion plan and get materials in the works as early as possible.

 App launched 3/26

 15 features at launch

 Downloaded over 2,200 times by 5/31

•  1,633 for iPhone

•  605 for Android

 Features include •  Campus News

•  Athletics

•  Events

•  Campus Map

•  Campus Tour

•  Multimedia

 Features (cont.)

•  References

•  Courses

•  Bulletins

•  Checklists

•  Polls

•  Weather

 Features (cont.) •  Twitter

•  Links

•  Directory

•  Radio

 New build submitted to Apple 6/17, expected live by 6/24 •  Admissions module –

Find Your Counselor, Events, Request Info

•  “Share” events and news via Facebook, Twitter, Text and Email

Tile on the University’s home page

And in the left hand navigation of key lower level pages.

Mobile and full site versions of mobile splash page.

Billboards in secondary markets

Mall posters in secondary markets

On-Campus

Show your Royal Pride!Get Scranton app for your smartphone and always have the latest news, events and information at your fingertips.

Features include: News

Events

Catalog

Directory

Athletics

Videos

Photos

Social Media

WUSR radio feed

Campus Map

Campus Tour

Royal News

And more!

Introducing the

Scranton Mobile App

for iPhone and Android

Posters

Dining Cards and Table Tents

Slide on tower in campus center

Ad in Student Newspaper

Featured in Royal News

Posted on Facebook

and Twitter..

 Press release  Article in local

paper and student newspaper

 Campus presentations

  Student Affairs

  Data Technology Coordinators

  Alumni Board

 Flyers in info packets at

  Accepted Students Preview Day (3/31)

  Reunion (6/11)

  Orientation (July)

  Recruitment brochures (starting 6/1)

  Undergraduate viewbook (Aug.)

Steps we took

1.  Identified top content currently being accessed by mobile devices

•  Google Analytics Top Content report with Advanced Segment “Smartphones” applied.

•  Based on this review a site structure was created consisting of eight top-level pages and 29 sub-pages.

10/1 – 10/31 Pageviews

Top Level (Index) Page

Sub-Pages

1,269 About Us Scranton Brand, Contact Us, Location, Campus Map, Jesuit Tradition, Directions

1,030 Academics Undergrad Programs, Grad Programs, Academic Calendar, Library

789 Admissions Visit, Apply, Request Info, Events, Contact

290 Alumni News, Events

1,321 Athletics News, Schedules, Scores, Teams

219 Financial Aid Checklist, Contact info

312 Human Resources Vacancy List

Social Media Links to social media hub page

News Add to top navigation of mobile site

Events Add to top navigation of mobile site

2.  Review content on target pages and decide what to include on mobile and what needs to be modified.

3.  Decide which mobile operating systems your site will support. •  Use Google Analytics “Mobile Devices”

report under Visitors section.

  Create mobile templates

  Establish a priority for mobile page development.

  Design and test pages on targeted devices.

  Create mobile templates

  Create mobile templates

Best Practices for Mobile websites  Don’t try and replicate your full site

 Focus on key tasks people come to your website to do

 Use analytics to identify what mobile users are doing

 Redirect mobile users to a mobile version of your site

 Keep forms minimal

“Design: Best Practices”, sixrevisions.com, August 18, 2010

Best Practices for Mobile websites  Keep the layouts simple

•  Re-engineer copy, hide unnecessary text, images or media

 Use large, easy to press links and clickable objects.

 Reduce the resolution & dimensions of images

“Design: Best Practices”, sixrevisions.com, August 18, 2010

How we built our mobile site  Scranton uses Hannon Hill’s CMS, Cascade

Server.

 Used the “Sites” feature within our CMS to publish mobile pages to m.scranton.edu destination (multiple publishing targets).

 Used jQuery Mobile for the framework and cross-device compatibility.

How we built our mobile site  End-users can enter different content on their

mobile page using a “Mobile Content” WYSIWYG text field.

 Or they can leave the text field empty and the default will be the same content as the full site.

 Built or used existing RSS feeds for University News, Athletics News, Events, Library Blog

Work in Progress  Lots of new content on the way

•  Working on mobile forms

•  Better interactive features (ex maps)

•  Grades, class schedules, etc. (authentication)

•  New web calendar and athletics sites going live with better mobile interfaces

•  Working on deep links to online catalog

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2010

2011

iPhone Android Black berry

iPod All Visits

Visits 16,244 10,542 5,536 4,075 971,530

% of Mobile Visits

45% 29% 15% 11% n/a

Pages/Visit 2.76 3.07 2.84 2.99 4:08

Avg. Time on Site

1:35 2:01 1:46 1:43 2:50

% New Visits 47% 47% 44% 53% 39%

Bounce Rate 46% 46% 50% 48% 43%

Page Pageviews

Exam Schedule 2,587

Academic Calendar 1,467

HR Vacancy List 1,250

Athletics Home Page 971

HR Home Page 898

Athletics – Men’s Baseball

867

Admissions Home Page

831

Tuition / Fees 693

Full Site

Page Pageviews

Home Page 1,464

Academics Home Page

1,243

Admissions Home Page

710

Athletics Home Pg 665

Campus Contacts 559

Undergrad Programs 533

About Us 514

Events 492

Mobile Site

Measurement Full Site Mobile

Avg. Pageviews 3.88 4.64

Time on Site 2:47 3:44

Bounce Rate 45% 26%

% New Visits 39% 50%

Region: PA 56% 38%

Region: NY 13% 28%

Region: NJ 12% 7%

Region: CT, MD, VA, MA 8% 7%

Next Steps:  New modules currently being developed

for 2nd and 3rd quarter 2011 •  Library – currently in development/test

•  Alumni – estimated for later this summer

•  “Audiences” feature being developed. Self-identify, “pick your path”, fall 2011

•  Foursquare integration with campus map and campus tour planned for later this year.

Next Steps:

 Licensed SunGard Higher Education’s Mobile Connection, a no fee mobile framework.

 Fall 2011 working on building features for current students, faculty and staff

 Features requiring authentication

 Integrate with current mobile app & site

The State of the Mobile Web in Higher Ed April 2011

 37% provide a mobile solution

 Most target Current Students (89%) or Prospective Students (86%)

 Goals include Supporting Campus Life (81%) and Marketing & Branding (50%+)

 58% implemented dedicated mobile sites

 Only 22% implemented native apps

“The State of the Mobile Web Report”, Karine Joly, www.higheredexperts.com

Just when you thought you were getting caught up with technology on campus……

Tablet Computing  More than 70% of college students and

college bound high school seniors are interested in owning their own tablet devices.

May 2011, Pearson Foundation Survey on Students and Tablets

 Nearly 20% intend to purchase a tablet in the next six months.

 iPad traffic to our site 5/31 YTD > Android

 On to the next challenge!

 Questions??

Thank you!