After successfully increasing retention rates and student GPAs its first year, the Ball State Achievements app will continue its trial run this year.
The app is designed to keep Pell Grant students academically and socially involved during their first couple years at Ball State.
Kay Bales, vice president for student affairs, said the app has had a successful year. It helped students be more engaged in events and activities around campus.
“They earned higher grade point averages, higher number of credit hours than students who did not use the app,” Bales said.
Results on return rates are also being evaluated, and while some of the results are preliminary, the app has assisted students with staying in school, Bales said. The university gets extra money from the state when students complete their degree on time, so it has an added incentive to keep this app going.
“At this point, it certainly looks like app users have a higher retention rate than students who are not app users,” she said.
When the app launched last fall, it was available only to freshmen receivingPell Grant. For now, the app is available for freshman and sophomore students on the grant.
Students who use the app can accumulate points by completing tasks and going to different events on campus. Students can then redeem their points for rewards such as concert tickets or coupons for textbooks.
Scott Reinke, coordinator for Ball State Achievements, said some new updates on the app will include an expansion on available rewards.
“We are going to have a lot more Career Center-based achievements, and also the achievements will be situated in a way that will guide students to completing larger tasks and programs such as the Intern-Ready program,” he said.
Student Voluntary Services will soon be integrated into the app, Reinke said. The app will keep track of how often students volunteer through SVS, and they will get rewarded for their efforts.
Reinke said currently more than 900 students have downloaded the app. About 5,500 Ball State students received Pell Grants in 2014, according to Rob Writ, associate director of scholarships and outreach.
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