Overview
Push Notifications allow you to deliver real-time updates, task reminders, and important information directly to students’ devices through StudentHub. This ensures students stay informed and engaged with critical campus information and personal academic updates.
How Push Notifications Work
Push notifications in StudentHub keep students informed with real-time updates, reminders, and important announcements directly on their devices.
Push notifications, sent through the Campaigns module, appear:
As an alert on the student’s device, and
Within the Notifications section of StudentHub
With support for campaign tokens, you can personalize each message, and when combined with workflows, push notifications become even more powerful—triggering timely alerts that keep students engaged.
Push Notifications Campaigns
The Campaigns module includes a Push Notification communication channel allowing you to send one-time or ongoing campaigns to students. With Campaigns, you can use a workflow or rule to automate push notifications, easily keeping students up-to-date.
Multi-Channel: Push notifications can be used alongside email and SMS channels to create robust multi-channel campaigns.
Personalization: Audience segments, tokens, and personalization versions are fully compatible, letting you tailor messages to each student.
Push Notification Structure
Title: The title is bolded at the top of the push notification.
Content (Body): Provides the main message of the notification.
Parameters (Link): Each notification includes a button for additional info.
Push notifications also support emojis and tokens within the title and content, making creating engaging and relevant messages easy.
Ready to Create a Campaign?
For detailed instructions on sending push notifications, review these guides in order:
How Students Enable Push Notifications
To receive push notifications from StudentHub, students must first add the app to their device’s home screen. After completing this step, they must enable notifications through their device’s settings. Here’s how the process works:
Add App to Home Screen: Students should follow the steps outlined in our Accessing StudentHub to "install" the app by adding it to their home screen.
Opt-In Required: When students first download and log into StudentHub, they’ll be prompted to allow notifications. This is their initial opportunity to opt in.
Enable in Device Settings: If students don’t enable notifications initially or wish to change their settings later, they can do so by navigating to their device’s notification settings.
Real-Time Alerts: Once push notifications are enabled, students will receive real-time alerts directly on their devices, keeping them up to date with important information.
Notifications Hub: All push notifications also appear within the Notifications section of StudentHub, where students can access both read and unread notifications anytime.
Use Cases for Push Notifications
Push notifications are a powerful tool for engaging students on the devices they use every day. Adding an extra communication channel beyond email and SMS can ensure important information reaches students where they are most likely to see it. Common use cases include:
Deadline Reminders: Remind students of critical deadlines like class registration, financial aid applications, or graduation forms.
Event Announcements: Send notifications for major campus events, such as career fairs or guest speakers.
Personal Academic Updates: Keep students informed about changes to their academic status, course schedules, or important assignments.
While push notifications can be part of your communication strategy, they should not be the sole tool for urgent alerts where time is critical. Element451's communication channels are designed for engagement and bulk sends, so messages enter a queue and may not be delivered immediately.
Best Practices for Sending Push Notifications
To ensure your push notifications are effective and engaging, follow these best practices:
Keep it Short: Push notifications should be concise and to the point. Students are more likely to engage with short, actionable messages.
Timing Matters: Send notifications at optimal times when students are likely to be engaged with their devices—like midday or early evening.
Use the User Preferred Open Time when sending push notifications using a Workflow/Rule.
Personalize: Use audience segmentation and tokens to address students by name and reference their specific needs or status.
Avoid Overloading: Be mindful of how often you send notifications. Too many messages can lead to students opting out of or ignoring notifications.
StudentHub is available exclusively to Partners on the Engage plan.