The pair of leading university/college mobile platforms for student engagement are charging forward together.

OOHLALA Mobile says there’s a growing demand for mobile-friendly student engagement tools in higher education, and because of this the company has chosen to merge with Dublabs, a Virginia-based startup company.

The combined company brings together two “industry leaders” currently serving hundreds of colleges and universities in North America and the world. They say they’ll create the most comprehensive platform for improving the student experience, allowing for better communication between students, faculty, and staff. The company’s management team is comprised of leaders from both DubLabs and OOHLALA Mobile, led by CEO Danial Jameel, and chief strategy officer Chris Hopkinson, the cofounder of DubLabs.

OOHLALA campus apps use targeted alerts and personalization to help students navigate campus life, manage their academic responsibilities, and communicate with peers and faculty. Faculty and staff have access to data dashboards that provide insight into event participation and help institutional leaders improve student services.

DubLabs-built apps integrate with learning management systems and student information systems in order to help students more easily track course assignments, class discussions, and grades, as well as important student account management like tuition payments and account holds.

Today, said the pair of companies, colleges and universities are increasingly turning to smartphones. It’s no secret that most students rely on smartphones as their primary. They said this means of communication will support campus-wide efforts to increase engagement and improve outcomes.

In 2017, nearly 9 out of 10 first-year students at OOHLALA partner schools used the app to engage with their campus. DubLabs’ partner schools have seen “up to 95%” of their students engage with the platform on a monthly basis.

“Mobile technology allows universities to reach students where they are, and benefit from rich analytics that help institutional leaders deliver better student support,” said Jameel, CEO of the combined company. “DubLabs’ unmatched integrations with academic systems like the SIS and LMS, coupled with our work to connect students to important non-academic resources, create a unique institution-wide solution to support students both within and outside the classroom.”

The combined solution will “offer schools more system integrations, better student communication tools, and smart data analytics to help improve student engagement, communication and success.”

“Schools sometimes simply check the box when it comes to building a campus app. Students don’t need another app on their phone; this is an opportunity to meet students where they are with the information they need,” said Tony Orlando of DubLabs. “We collectively see an opportunity to provide schools with a mobile solution that’s purposely built to engage and help students.”

For more information, visit the Dublabs website and the OOHLALA blog.