Raftr Blog - Raftr

Campus Engagement, Student Engagement Platform

Why Traditional Student Engagement Platforms Fail to Engage

Oct 15, 2020

It’s become the norm for universities to utilize a student engagement platform to help manage student communications, maintain organization, connect student groups, simplify processes, and track and measure student engagement. Traditional student engagement platforms help you accomplish all of these, but can be limiting when it comes to modern capabilities and essentials for the modern student body. Modern student engagement platforms go beyond these essentials and offer a roster of features and benefits that can help universities thrive when it comes to operation and offerings. There’s multiple ways traditional student engagement platforms fail to truly engage, and where modern platforms…

Campus Engagement, Higher Ed, Residence Life

Safety in Numbers: How to Make Your Residential Communities Thrive in Small Groups

Oct 14, 2020

It's 2020, and nothing is as it was a year ago. In years' past, college and university residential communities would have been teeming with packed lobbies, movie nights with dozens - or more - residents packed into community spaces within the residence hall. Today, these busy, large-scale campus events are memories of the not-so-distant past, replaced by, in the best cases, small group activities led by student residential leaders. While this shifting dynamic has been received by most students as temporary, leaving them eager and anxious to a return to the campus experience they once knew, there are some great…

Campus Engagement, Contact Tracing, Higher Ed, Student Affairs

Beyond the Dashboard: How to Communicate COVID-19 Updates on Your Campus

Oct 10, 2020

While campus contact tracing and COVID-19 dashboards have become the norm at many colleges and universities worldwide during the second half of 2020, there are still some innovative ways to communicating with students in an interactive and informational format. Many institutions have established blogs, updated case counts, and other timely COVID-19 updates on web-based dashboards, there are a few ways beyond the dashboard to reach students, maintain order, and calm nerves. Make 2-Way Communication Possible It's not a great leap to suggest that most people - students included - are completely overwhelmed by the amount of information related to the…

Product Updates

Raftr Support: October 7 Update

Oct 07, 2020

Android: Rafts now show how many people are currently online Lots of fixes like: a new collapsed state for the prompts to create content adding access to the Notifications settings via the Profile settings enabling the "forever" mute option for rafts replacing the word "media" with photo/video videos on posts are now shown in their full aspect ratio link previews now have more info or are hidden when not enough info to show iOS: It's now possible to add a phone number to your profile for others to see there Rafts can now have a video as the cover image…

Alumni Reunions

5 Tips for a Successful Alumni Reunion App

Oct 05, 2020

Connecting alumni to engage with your college or university long after their last class on campus can be a challenge, and the alumni reunion or homecoming event can be the catalyst that brings alumni coming back again and again. That said, keeping up with alumni years after graduation can be a challenge, though advances in technology and development of an alumni reunion app have made great strides in reconnecting alumni. If your alumni relations team is considering introducing an alumni reunion app, read on for five tips for success: Distribute a Clear Calendar of Events Reunions and homecoming weekends can…

General, Peer Leadership

8 Ways to Strengthen Peer Leadership Communication

Oct 02, 2020

As a new student at a new school, it can be an overwhelming transition. From not knowing where key spots are located, as well as not knowing anyone on campus - this is where peer leaders play a crucial role in welcoming incoming students. In the midst of COVID-19, it can be even more challenging for the Class of 2024 to get acquainted with the community. How do you build an environment where students feel a connection to their new university? When planning a virtual orientation, orientation peer leaders can leverage multiple efforts online to help engage, communicate, and connect…

Admissions, Higher Ed

7 Tips for Driving Yield with Admitted Students

Sep 22, 2020

As your admissions team strategizes how to reach and surpass the next set of enrollment goals there’s a lot to consider. In addition to the typical obstacles, there’s also the unknown of the pandemic and how the roster of incoming prospective students will fluctuate then. In this new kind of normal it’s imperative to garner techniques that can be effectively applied in any situation. With the help of an admissions platform, shape your modern enrollment game plan to attract students in this competitive market, with these 7 ideas to implement and assist you persuade admitted students to select and enroll…

Product Updates

Raftr Support: September 22 Update

Sep 22, 2020

Android: Introduced a pending invitations section for admin of rafts, channels, and private messaging groups Admin of ProRafts now have more controls over content and membership Rafts can now have a video as the cover image Some fixes like updating fields when creating/editing posts better aligned with where they are when viewing the published post iOS: Introduced a pending invitations section for admin of rafts, channels, and private messaging groups Admin of ProRafts now have more controls over content and membership Some fixes like preventing some crashes, removing "date" from people's names on some content, and reintroducing the option to…

Higher Ed, Orientation

Virtual or In-Person: How to Plan for an Unknown 2021 College Orientation

Sep 17, 2020

How do you plan for upcoming college orientation programs when there’s a lot of unknown? Similar to this current semester, college universities, specifically administrative staff, had to adapt to the obstacles around the pandemic and plan accordingly. Instead of planning a day of activities, a campus tour, or presentations for students and parents, there were a lot of restructuring in terms of how to transform an in-person orientation into an engaging virtual experience. As you plan for the 2021 school year, it’s essential to consider whether you’ll continue virtual methods or return to in-person campus orientation programs. But, why not…

Campus Engagement, Contact Tracing, Higher Ed

Campus Safety: Contact Tracing That Actually Works

Sep 15, 2020

As many colleges and universities prepared to bring students back to campus this fall, most prepared detail return to campus plans that include strategies like testing, isolation housing, virtual learning opportunities, and contact tracing. When followed as planned by students, these plans were designed to minimize community spread of COVID-19 in the otherwise socially driven culture of campus. What many institutions have found, though, is that students returning to campus are sporadically following, or in some cases, blatantly disregarding these well-laid plans. That's led to more than a few headline-capturing outbreaks as the start of the academic year kicks off.…