Queen's Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science has a long history of building communities that collaborate to solve incredible problems and build lifelong friendships while doing it. The University wanted to take that culture built out of a passion for engineering that extends beyond the classroom into an equally impactful digital space.

This was only accelerated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they recognized the importance of rapidly replicating that community engagement experience, particularly for new students coming back this fall who may experience campus differently than their later-year peers.

Fortunately, the university was ahead of the game, since it had started evaluating various campus app technologies prior to the pandemic. The READY Education campus app was the clear choice for Queen’s Engineering’s vision of a convenient, collaborative and centralized communication platform.

“Students had long told us that they wanted more means of communication than the web and email, and more intuitive ways to find information about their classes.”

Stephen Hunt, Senior Director of Information Technology and Facilities, Queen’s University.

From the targeted push notifications designed to send students the right message at the right time, to the suite of peer-to-peer messaging tools, and the compelling event engagement system, Queen’s University tapped READY Education as its centerpiece in a digital transformation initiative. The app will give Queen’s engineering students an opportunity to replicate some of the memorable in-person experiences in online communities that cover every aspect of student life. Also, Hunt added that the READY Education platform, “allows students to get exposure to events and services that in the past they might have mostly found by walking around.”

The app will be launched this coming September on Android and iOS devices and rolled out to students who will be able to create and join groups, message their peers, get course information and engage with events.