We talk about the importance of two key words in the Student Life department at Kirkwood Community College: connection and experience. Our endeavors are centered on providing opportunities for connections between students, between students and campus resources, and between departments in order to improve the college experience. While we have often discussed the belief that our efforts are contributing to meaningful connections and positive experiences, our efforts to track the engagement of students have proven it. The Platform for Engagement & Activities at Kirkwood (PEAK) provides us with the ability to track student engagement through attendance at events and involvement in clubs and organizations. Based on spring 2025 platform data, we now know that degree-seeking students who attend just one college-sponsored event or activity on campus are 18 percent more likely to persist (88.8 vs. 75.3 percent) and 28.4 percent more likely to be retained (66.5 vs. 51.8 percent) than their peers who did not attend an event or activity on campus. The results of those involved in clubs and organizations were equally impressive, with more than a 90 percent persistence rate as well as a jump in GPA from 2.84 for non-participants to 3.15 for participants.

History

In 2020, each Kirkwood department was challenged to create a key performance indicator (KPI). We knew that we put on great events and offered clubs and organizations for students, but we quickly realized that we could not measure our success beyond rough estimates of event attendance or numbers of clubs on campus. Our first KPI was to develop a mechanism to track participation and identify individual participants engaged in student activities. Our journey over the past few years has resulted in a complete reinvention of how we operate, with a data-first approach that has guided our decision making.

Blueprint and Implementation

Because we were unable to identify an ideal third-party application, we decided that if our Student Life staff could design the blueprint for a system to meet our needs, our IT department could build the software in-house. Knowing we required more than just a clicker to track attendance, we built a platform that could work from any device and track a variety of metrics. We needed the ability to scan students into an event in our student center or in a parking lot across town. We wanted to be able to verify a student’s enrollment as they entered an event and needed historical data on exactly who attended any event, at any given time. PEAK provides this information, including such details as event host, location, time, and event type (e.g., civic engagement, health and wellness). In addition, we built in fields to track costs both for the event as a whole and per student in attendance. For clubs and organizations, we wanted to know who was in each group, any leadership positions they held, and the ability to track which student learning outcomes aligned with each group.

After building and testing the system in the spring and summer of 2022, we began using PEAK in fall 2022. Students open the Kirkwood MyHub app on their phones to show their unique digital ID or QR code upon entering an event and are scanned in by event staff. Knowing that not every student has a smartphone, the system also includes the option for event staff to confirm enrollment via college ID number or name. For clubs and organizations, we require each advisor to upload a roster of their membership twice a year and answer questions related to student learning outcomes and leadership positions within their group.

Data

The ability to welcome students by name as they check in for each event provides a personal touch, but it is the ability to pull the information after the events that has helped guide our work. Since fall 2022, Kirkwood has hosted over 600 events and tracked more than 30,000 check-ins with PEAK. Through 18 dashboards, the PEAK system allows us to pull a list of student attendees for a specific event or for a combination of events. After the college transfer fair in October 2024, for example, academic advisors followed up with each student in attendance to ask if there was a specific four-year institution in which they were interested. They also connected with the 57 percent of student attendees who were from our career and technical education programs to discuss pathway choices and talk about transfer options. The additional data has allowed us to track which students attend which types of events and where, and how much we are spending on each event or on each individual student attendee.

Reviewing student persistence and GPA statistics and the demographics for each event and event type has prompted important discussions: What programs are best represented at our events? What events are bringing in more male and/or female students? Which students could we be missing that we need to recruit for similar events? For instance, comparing the participation of first-year and returning students at one event or the number of nontraditional students at another has allowed us to better align resources for future activities. We can also pull data on the 26.6 percent of students on our main campus involved in at least one of 72 registered clubs and organizations on campus in spring 2025. The data has helped us understand the experience of our students and their connections to the college and one another.

How We’ve Used Data to Make Decisions

Data collection has guided our efforts to plan experiences outside the classroom that are more effective at engaging students. Historically, we believed that bigger crowds meant better events; however, the data challenged us to consider what different students were looking for in their college experience. When comparing different types of events using a variety of metrics, we discovered that those including contracted entertainers such as comedians or musicians are our most expensive events on a per student basis, while our in-house activities, like crafts and bingo, draw far more interest and satisfaction from students at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, through relationships developed at our lower-cost events, we have connected students to various campus resources, including Accommodation Services and Counseling Services. From a marketing standpoint, we can use the list of the students who attend, for example, an on-campus volleyball match during the season to promote how to watch Kirkwood at the national volleyball tournament, both in person and online. Furthermore, targeting students based on participation and engagement has resulted in better student feedback through surveys and focus groups, and we have been able to quickly respond to input by reshaping future programming. Both the quantitative data from PEAK and students’ qualitative feedback has allowed us to grow our offerings for the most well-rounded calendar of events the college has ever had. This calendar meets the needs of a broad group of students by offering a variety of high-quality small- and large-group opportunities in which to engage, learn, and have fun.

Collaboration Across Campus

PEAK started as a way to track attendance at Student Life and Recreation-hosted events and involvement in clubs and organizations. Two years later, multiple academic areas, athletics, performing arts, and several other committees and departments across campus have fully embraced the PEAK system to track engagement at college activities. In spring 2024, we utilized PEAK for the first time at commencement to gather data about the 600+ students who attended. The ability to obtain a real-time count of graduates helped us manage the logistics as the annual event unfolded. Sharing data with key stakeholders across campus facilitates department-to-department connections and helps us all to understand what opportunities we can provide for students that will ultimately lead to an improved college experience.

What’s Next?

The data collected through PEAK has improved connections and experiences outside the classroom and highlighted the areas where we have room to grow. Using the data to better understand student participation and experiences has led to improved programming and relationship building across campus. Expanding the use of PEAK will ultimately allow us to better understand our students and their needs and to provide resources before students even realize they need them. An individual student’s success in the classroom is the top priority, and aligning opportunities and resources outside the classroom will provide a cocurricular experience that will prepare each student for life beyond Kirkwood.

Lead image: Students enjoy an interactive music performance at Kirkwood Community College’s Student Center.

Seth Vander Tuig is Director, Student Life, at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Opinions expressed in Learning Abstracts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the League for Innovation in the Community College.