The University of New Haven has seen an incredible adoption of the Event Check-in App, with roughly 200 Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) and additional departments and various staff utilizing the app regularly. In this article, we highlight the initiative they have implemented to support this widespread adoption!
Incentivizing Use of the App
The Undergraduate Student Government Organization (USGA) at New Haven is responsible for managing an initiative to encourage organization attendance tracking.
The USGA recognizes all University of New Haven organizations. RSOs are required to use the Event Check-in App to report attendance to gain "points." The amount of points per event depends on a variety of factors including the goals of the event, size of the event, and types of attendees. The final point total is determined by a Points Committee, populated by selected student leaders who utilize a calculator and rubric to make their final decision on each event.
The organizations who earn the top 20% highest of points totals earn voting rights in USGA. Points are also one of several factors considered when awarding student organization funding.
Student Organization Training
When returning students came back to campus, a “How To” presentation on Mobile Check In was offered multiple times to teach RSOs how to use it the application.
Why Students Love It
Students at New Haven love how the app updates event attendance in real time, and they can watch the numbers increase as they are physically checking students in. This immediate data gives students an instant sense of gratification to the success of their events and gives them an instant picture of the event's audience. Students attending events also love the ease of pulling up their Event Pass on their phones and apple watches to get into an event.
Administrative Benefits
Because so many individual student groups are utilizing the app, administrators at New Haven have seen an exceptional increase in the amount of data being recorded. Each piece of attendance tracking data is used by the staff in the Center for Student Engagement, Leadership, and Orientation.
In addition, when students arrive for events now, many of them come with their codes in hand, expecting to be checked in, or they will ask someone before they walk in who should scan their code. It quickly became a campus norm, so much that now there are also other offices and departments on board.