Now in its eighth year, the Modo Labs Appademy Awards celebrate institutions that are redefining the digital campus experience through innovative higher education mobile apps, student portals, and unified campus experience platforms.
This year’s winners demonstrate how colleges and universities are using Modo to create more personalized, connected, and engaging experiences for students, faculty, staff, families, and visitors. From admissions onboarding to campus-wide communications to mobile-first event experiences, the 2026 winners highlight what a modern campus app and digital campus platform can achieve.
This year’s awards recognized innovation across 10 categories:
- Best Personalized Student Experience
- Best Admissions / Prospective Student Experience
- Best Role/User-Based Experience
- Best Desktop Portal Experience
- Best Mobile-First Experience
- Best Redesign
- Best Student Engagement or Community Experience
- Best Use of Communications
- Most Creative Marketing Campaign
- Best Traditional Event
And finally, all category winners were eligible to win:
- Best Overall Digital Campus Experience
Let’s meet this year’s winners!
Best Personalized Student Experience
This category recognizes digital campus platforms that create truly individualized experiences for each user. The strongest submissions go beyond surface-level customization, using integrations, real-time data, and identity-aware logic to shape dashboards, communications, and content based on who the user is and what they need in the moment.
Winner: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Hello Heels
UNC Chapel Hill’s Hello Heels stood out by creating a highly personalized digital campus experience built around each student’s identity, needs, and daily routine. Using SSO data, preferred-name greetings, deep Canvas integration, and geofenced messaging, the app helps students quickly find the information most relevant to them.
Highlights include:
- Identity-aware home screen content based on student attributes
- Canvas announcements, grades, inbox, and to-do items in one place
- Preferred-name and time-of-day greetings
- Geofenced messaging during major campus events
The impact was significant, with strong year-over-year growth in visitors, screen views, downloads, and bookmark usage. Hello Heels shows how personalization can turn a digital campus app into a true daily companion.
Best Admissions / Prospective Student Experience
Designed to highlight how institutions engage students before they arrive on campus, this category focuses on digital campus experiences that guide prospective and admitted students through key milestones. Strong winners simplify onboarding, reduce friction in early processes, and use personalized content to build early connections and momentum toward enrollment.
Winner: Roosevelt University — Roosevelt University Mobile
Roosevelt University replaced a static admitted student site with a personalized, mobile-first campus experience that helps students move through key enrollment steps with more clarity and confidence.
The app includes:
- A personalized checklist based on student type and attributes
- Support for NetID activation
- “Ready, Set, Roosevelt!” video and live onboarding content
- A more engaging and accessible admitted student journey
Results included more than 12,000 visitors during the key admitted student period, 5,560 authenticated users, and strong checklist engagement. The new experience also contributed to improvements in yield and helped support Roosevelt’s largest incoming first-year class in history.
Best Role/User-Based Experience
A successful digital campus experience must serve multiple audiences, not just students. This category highlights campus experience platforms that deliver tailored experiences for different user types—such as faculty, staff, visitors, and families—ensuring each group can easily view and use relevant tools, resources, and information.
Winner: Illinois State University — Illinois State
Illinois State University created a visitor experience that acts as a mobile guide for parents, prospective students, and guests. From the moment users open the app, they can quickly explore campus information without needing a student login.
Key features include:
- Campus maps, bus tracking, and parking support
- A self-guided campus tour with images, video, and AR
- Dining information, menus, hours, and traffic
- Safety, wellness, housing, athletics, and campus life resources
The app also showed strong momentum, with unique visitors and screen views rising sharply and downloads increasing by 165% from May to June 2025. Illinois State’s submission shows how a flexible campus engagement app can improve all user experiences, from visitors to future students.
Best Desktop Portal Experience
This category focuses on the role of the campus desktop portal as a central starting point for daily activity. The most effective submissions bring together academic tools, campus services, and communications into a unified experience that transforms scattered links to a true digital front door for the institution.
Winner: Penn State — Penn State Go
Penn State earned this award for creating a unified campus desktop portal that serves as a true digital front door for students across 23 campuses.
Penn State Go Web includes:
- A personalized desktop experience driven by PeopleSoft data
- A custom Canvas dashboard with academic information in one view
- Starfish, academic calendar, countdown, and housing tools
- Quick Links, campus communications, and event feeds
The portal was built around student research and designed to reduce “bookmark fatigue” by replacing scattered links with one central starting point. Within the first few months, about 9,000 students had adopted the desktop experience, with a 91% retention rate and 90% positive student feedback.
Best Mobile-First Experience
The student experience is increasingly defined by digital moments, and in the digital age, those moments often happen on mobile. While campus desktop portals have a key role for deeper, more complex tasks, institutions with the strongest student engagement take a mobile-first approach, aligning their digital experience with how students actually navigate their day.
This category highlights institutions that intentionally prioritize mobile as the front door to campus life. The strongest submissions deliver real-time, in-the-moment access to academics, services, and communications. This approach makes it easier for students to take action, stay informed, and remain engaged throughout their day.
Winner: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Hello Heels
Hello Heels exemplifies a strong mobile-first campus experience by bringing academics, wellness, dining, maps, transit, events, and communications into one higher education mobile app.
What makes it stand out:
- Deep Canvas integration and SSO-driven personalization
- Real-time campus services and communications in one place
- Geofenced notifications during major events
- Quick links and content that adapt to student behavior
The results were especially strong during Orientation and major campus events, with dramatic growth in usage, screen views, and downloads. UNC also reported more than $40K in annual savings by consolidating multiple tools into one campus app.
Best Redesign
Best Redesign recognizes institutions that have reimagined their app, portal, or broader digital campus platform to better meet their users’ needs. Winning submissions demonstrate clear improvements in accessibility, visual user experience, and engagement opportunities, and are often supported by measurable increases in adoption, usage, or efficiency.
Winner: University of Texas at Arlington — MyUTA
The University of Texas at Arlington transformed a fragmented digital experience into a unified campus app and student portal built around simpler access, stronger integrations, and better usability.
The redesign focused on:
- Streamlined authentication and SSO
- Better integration across campus systems
- Modern design using Modo 4.1 Screen Builder
- A clearer, more consistent digital experience
The results were substantial. Screen views increased by 108%, student adoption reached 92%, and the average student logged in 26 times during the semester. MyUTA also showed a positive correlation with retention, highlighting the value of a visually appealing and unified digital campus platform.
Best Student Engagement or Community Experience
Creating opportunities for students to connect with campus life is a key part of the digital experience. This category highlights the campus experience platforms that make it easier for users to discover events, participate in activities, and track involvement. By prioritizing student engagement and involvement, the winning schools ultimately strengthen their on-campus community, leading to better retention and persistence.
Winner: Utah Tech University — myUT
Utah Tech elevated student engagement by integrating Suitable and Digital ID directly into the app, making it easier for students to track involvement and participate in campus events.
Highlights include:
- A Suitable widget showing points, progress, and medallion eligibility
- Digital ID moved to the home screen for easier access
- Faster, mobile-first event check-in for students and staff
- Better event attendance tracking and fewer long lines
The impact was immediate. Digital ID views rose from 69,516 to 115,761, event check-in wait times dropped from over 30 minutes to under two minutes, and the university completed 7,387 check-ins in Fall 2025. Utah Tech’s work is a strong example of effective student engagement software in action.
Best Use of Communications
Effective communication is essential to a successful digital campus experience. This category recognizes platforms that deliver timely, relevant, and targeted messaging. Institutions that succeed in this category move beyond one-size-fits-all announcements to create communication strategies that are personalized, actionable, and meaningful.
Winner: University of Texas at Austin — MyUT Austin
UT Austin won this category for UT Free Food, an opt-in communications channel that helps event hosts share leftover food with students, reducing waste while supporting student well-being.
The initiative includes:
- An opt-in messaging channel in MyUT
- A simple posting workflow for approved hosts
- Automatic message expiration after 30 minutes
- Governance and training to support long-term success
The response was strong, with more than 1,400 student subscribers in two months, 70 event hosts, and a 5,200% increase in searches for “Free Food” in the portal. This is a great example of how a campus engagement app and student portal can support meaningful, timely campus communication.
Most Creative Marketing Campaign
Driving awareness and adoption is just as important as building the platform itself. This category highlights institutions that took a creative, multi-channel approach to promoting their campus app or campus desktop portal with strong branding, student involvement, and engaging tactics to make their digital experience visible and memorable.
Winner: University of North Dakota — My UND
The University of North Dakota won with App Quest, a gamified campaign that made My UND a visible and exciting part of campus life.
The campaign combined:
- QR codes, digital signage, posters, flyers, and giveaways
- Tabling, student outreach, and peer promotion
- A strong visual identity built around the Scoops mascot
- Incentives and challenges that encouraged app exploration
The results included a 41.37% increase in daily active users, strong orientation week growth, and 829 total submissions across App Quest rounds. UND’s submission shows how creative marketing can turn a campus app into a recognized campus destination.
Best Traditional Event
Major campus events are often complex and high-impact moments. This category recognizes institutions that use their digital campus app and desktop portal to simplify and enhance those high-impact moments, bringing together schedules, navigation, updates, and communications into one centralized, easy-to-use platform.
Winner: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Orientation
UNC Chapel Hill transformed Orientation and FallFest into more engaging, mobile-first experiences through Hello Heels. Instead of relying on printed materials and disconnected tools, students and families could access schedules, maps, checklists, updates, and guidance all in one place.
Key elements included:
- Personalized schedules and event pathways
- Family-specific content
- Maps, alerts, and real-time updates
- Geofenced messaging during FallFest
The results were dramatic, with major gains in visitors, logged-in users, and screen views during Orientation 2025. UNC also reported more than $40K in savings by replacing a legacy Orientation app and reducing print needs.
Best Overall Digital Campus Experience
This award recognizes the institution that delivers the most complete and impactful digital campus platform. The strongest submissions successfully unify campus apps and desktop portals, combining personalization, integrations, communications, and student engagement into a seamless experience that supports users throughout their entire campus journey.
Runner-Up: University of North Dakota — My UND
The University of North Dakota earned runner-up recognition for creating a highly connected campus experience that combines strong communications, role-based personalization, and creative engagement strategies, giving better access to resources and information on its campus. As a winner of Most Creative Marketing Campaign and a finalist across multiple categories, My UND stood out as a daily-use student engagement platform that connects all users to campus life.
Runner-Up: Utah Tech University — myUT
Utah Tech also earned runner-up honors for delivering a seamless digital campus experience that brings academics, engagement tracking, Digital ID, and targeted communications into one platform. Beyond winning Best Student Engagement Experience, Utah Tech University’s campus app and desktop portal experience was a Finalist for multiple other Appademy Awards categories. myUT demonstrates how a unified digital campus platform can strengthen both convenience and campus participation.
Winner: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Hello Heels
UNC Chapel Hill earned the top honor of Best Overall Digital Campus Experience for delivering a truly comprehensive digital campus app. Hello Heels is a well-developed and intentional campus experience platform that brings together academics, campus services, events, and communications into a seamless experience. With personalization, deep integrations, mobile-first design, event support, and targeted communications, UNC Chapel Hill can support users throughout their day and across the entire student lifecycle.
What sets Hello Heels apart is how all of its digital experience elements work together. The platform combines identity-aware personalization powered by SSO, a deep Canvas integration, and real-time, location-based messaging to ensure students always have access to the most relevant information. Students can not only see important information but also take action: from checking academic status and navigating events like Orientation to Fall Fest to receiving timely updates and important campus updates.
This approach drove strong campus engagement. Hello Heels saw significant year-over-year growth in users, screen views, and engagement, while also supporting major campus moments with personalized schedules, geofenced communications, and centralized resources. The platform also created operational efficiencies, including more than $40K in annual savings by consolidating tools and reducing reliance on print and legacy systems.
Hello Heels also stood out during the 2026 Appademy Awards, winning:
- Best Personalized Student Experience
- Best Mobile-First Experience
- Best Traditional Event
- Best Overall Digital Campus Experience
UNC Chapel Hill’s success shows what a modern campus experience platform can look like when it is integrated, intuitive, and deeply embedded in campus life.
Final Thoughts
Congratulations to all of the 2026 Appademy Awards winners and finalists. This year’s submissions showed how institutions are using higher education mobile apps, student portals, and digital campus experience platforms to create a more connected, personalized, and engaging campus.
From admissions onboarding and event visibility to real-time communications and engagement opportunities, these institutions are proving that a modern campus app and campus desktop portal can do much more than organize links. It can become a central part of student life.
Want to see what a unified digital campus platform could look like for your institution? Request a demo to learn more about Modo Campus.
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