The global COVID-19 pandemic left students across the country isolated and in sudden need of extra support for their physical and emotional health. Heartland Community College recognized this challenge and took proactive steps to stay connected with their campus community. With help from CampusWell, Heartland was able to strategically integrate digital tools and open new lines of communication to give students and instructors access to vital wellness resources spanning from self-care to suicide prevention.
Emailing students about resources and events was not very fruitful for Heartland
Ever since the start of the pandemic, promoting reliable health and wellness information has never been more urgent. Yet Heartland’s Student Counseling Services department was dealing with low engagement because the majority of students weren’t reading their weekly e-newsletter. The digitization of school—and life in general—led to flooded inboxes competing for students’ attention. Administrators were worried that students were missing out on crucial advice they needed to support their well-being. This led Heartland to seek out a health promotion program that would be more engaging for students, so they decided to go with a company they knew and trusted: CampusWell.
Analytics, research-backed content, and a customizable platform made all the difference
CampusWell is a comprehensive platform that provides colleges and universities with evidence-based information on a variety of topics aimed at helping students succeed—including physical, social, and emotional wellness. Heartland took advantage of the tools and content available through CampusWell to help their students stay up to date on the COVID-19 pandemic, manage the transition to online classes, and take care of themselves and each other during isolation.
Amy Jeck, a Counseling Facilitator at Heartland, says that one of the main benefits is that their customizable platform gives them a place to spread information. “Being able to put a well-researched article up has been really, really important to us.”
CampusWell also offers in-depth analytics to measure how well schools are meeting their usage and readership goals. One area that was particularly helpful for Heartland was knowing what topics their students were searching for so they could meet their most pressing needs. For example, when they noticed that students were searching for topics that hadn’t been recently covered, such as how to decrease caffeine intake or improve sleep schedules, they customized their landing page to increase the visibility and accessibility of those articles.
The impact on students
Students responded best to eye-catching SnapChat ads that CampusWell created to promote Heartland’s site, and these helped to increase overall engagement. “We’re getting more eyes on a lot of the resources and information than we were before,” says Jeck. “So that’s really good.”
Heartland uses CampusWell’s online platform both as a place to spread student-centered wellness information and as a central hub to promote all of the essential health and wellness resources and events their campus offers, which was an invaluable feature while physical offices were temporarily shut down. Heartland hopes to raise awareness across campus of how CampusWell’s tools and resources can benefit other departments within the school—from the Student Financial Aid Office and Writing Center, to Title IX and athletic programs.
As students prepare to return to class in September, Heartland’s Student Counseling Services department is working to spread the word about their customizable CampusWell site, the valuable information students and faculty can find there, and the many ways CampusWell can boost awareness of, and engagement with, essential campus resources.
Learn more about the CampusWell online platform here or request a demonstration to see how CampusWell can benefit your school.
CampusWell is a versatile platform that helps make a multi-departmental wellness initiative simple, sustainable, and engaging. Using technology, high quality, research-based content, and proven marketing strategies, together with your existing assets, we deliver a campus-wide wellness platform that will positively impact your students and institution.
Amy Jeck, Counseling Facilitator, Student Counseling Services, Heartland Community College, Normal, Illinois.
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