University Affairs

Utah State Sees Great Success in First Year of MyUSU 2.0

By Marcus Jensen |

LOGAN, Utah — Utah State University recently completed the first annual report for the MyUSU 2.0 engagement portal, which was launched Aug. 16, 2021. The report shows that MyUSU users have begun to adopt and take advantage of the service’s capabilities and outlines how the portal’s implementation is progressing and where it can be improved going forward.

The report will be used to provide information on the engagement portal’s implementation progress, invite additional feedback and raise support for continued MyUSU growth and adoption among users and USU leaders.

“Student engagement is a priority for USU and the adoption of the MyUSU new engagement portal has been a success in connecting students with important resources, helping them connect with groups and events, and providing mobile access,” said Robert Wagner, USU executive vice president.

The report outlined several insights from MyUSU’s first year of usage. First, USU audiences, which include students, faculty and staff, are increasingly using the platform. In its first year, MyUSU saw over 60% usage from USU community members, recording nearly 1 million logins, more than 3.5 million sessions and more than 7.5 million actions. Pathify, the builder of the application, announced that USU’s usage count and activity rate were the highest the vendor had seen among all institutions using the technology in its first year.

Another insight was the fact that MyUSU still has room to expand its functions to meet user needs and there remain capabilities for increased innovation. From focus groups, participants showed that users of MyUSU see the potential for the engagement portal to become a true one-stop location for all their needs and that to accomplish this, MyUSU needs more features. Focus groups also showed that although MyUSU was very successful in fulfilling many needs and providing communication, it was not the only place that students rely on for information.

The majority of use on the platform by students was aimed at key academic tasks. When using the engagement portal, students were purposeful and task-oriented in searching and utilizing tools for class, registration, finances and degree progress. According to focus groups, moving forward students would like to see increased communication on MyUSU of important topics, prominent displays of key tasks, and to ensure calls-to-action are linked with actionable resources.

The report concluded with a strategic plan for the platform moving forward, with several areas of growth in phase 2 of the platform. The MyUSU platform will continue to grow based on user needs, feedback and features made available by Pathify. Some of the features that will be implemented in phase 2 include new features such as automated tasks, frequently asked questions, improvement of the global search bar functionality and added ability for branding. A widget library will also be made available, allowing users to better customize their dashboards and allowing for more personalization.

A complete overview of the report is available online. Potential users can learn more about MyUSU 2.0 by visiting www.usu.edu/myusu-info/getting-started. This webpage includes an overview of the platform and a video on how to get started. All USU community members can explore the MyUSU engagement portal by logging in and setting up their profile and account settings at my.usu.edu.

WRITER

Marcus Jensen
News Coordinator
University Marketing and Communications
marcus.jensen@usu.edu

CONTACT

Tessa Evans
Marketing and Communications Director
Student Affairs & Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
(435) 797-5527
tessa.evans@usu.edu



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