Community & Connections: MCCC Strengthens Campus Experiences with Groups
Community & Connections: MCCC Strengthens Campus Experiences with Groups
Quick Summary:
Unified Digital Hub: Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) successfully adopted Pathify’s Communities (Groups) and Events modules within “Montco Connect” to replace multiple fragmented platforms, creating a secure, one-stop hub for students, faculty, and staff.
Enhanced Engagement and Governance: The platform drove significant student engagement—evidenced by rapid responses to job postings—and ensured a safe environment through role-based permissions and keyword monitoring, with issues being rare and managed by a designated Dean.
Fostering Community Across Campus: While initially focused on addressing the commuter student challenge of building belonging, MCCC is now actively expanding the use of Groups to create community and engagement for its faculty and staff as well, emphasizing the importance of all members of the college community.
Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) leverages Pathify’s Communities (Groups) module to enhance engagement, strengthen campus community and optimize its digital experience.
As a commuter college where students primarily attend classes, creating a strong sense of community can be difficult. Montco Connect, the college’s hub, ensures students, faculty and staff easily access vital information — including Groups, Clubs and Organizations — empowering them to stay connected and informed, no matter where they are.
Pathify’s Engagement Hub
For a sprawling college system with a diverse student population, facilitating meaningful digital engagement drives success. But faced with information overload across multiple modalities, MCCC students struggled to stay informed and connected. Navigating multiple portals created a confusing and fragmented experience, and social media groups like Facebook and Reddit lacked the security and moderation needed to ensure a safe and supportive environment. The College addressed these challenges by consolidating platforms — including an outdated student portal and a separate Clubs & Activities app — into a unified hub called Montco Connect.
Group Organization & Governance
MCCC collaborated with IT and Student Life departments to organize and launch Groups within Montco Connect. The transition from legacy systems to Montco Connect solidified the platform as the College’s central, one-stop hub, giving students seamless access to clubs, organizations and groups. The platform’s Role-based permissions also ensured controlled access to Group features like commenting, Group creation and post management.
Keyword Monitoring
Montco Connect’s Groups balance fostering open dialogue and maintaining a respectful environment. Features like keyword monitoring and post reporting allow for quick responses to inappropriate content, with a designated Dean managing any escalations. “We’ve had Pathify for nearly five years and only a handful of issues with students using flagged keywords,” Angela Cavaliere, MCCC Assistant Director of Digital Experience explained. She emphasized students generally act respectfully and responsibly, understanding that the platform is tied to their university accounts. “We trust students to self-govern, as long as it aligns with the College’s code of conduct,” she added.
BOOSTING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Groups delivered strong results at MCCC, driving engagement and connecting students with valuable opportunities. Job postings shared exclusively on Montco Connect garnered swift responses — one of Cavaliere’s positions, for example, received 17 applications within 24 hours — signaling that students actively see and engage with content.
Cohort-based programs in particular benefit from Advisor Groups, which enable academic advisors to stay connected with students. The Events module also streamlines event check-ins with QR code scans, “a feature our Student Life department loves,” Cavaliere shared.
Fostering Community for Employees
MCCC continues expanding Groups to foster faculty and staff engagement, recognizing the importance of both student and employee experiences. Cavaliere emphasized, “While we’ve primarily focused on fostering student belonging, it’s also crucial to engage faculty and staff. We’re actively working on building out this aspect — creating a sense of community for all the people who support students is just as important.”
With Montco Connect’s Groups, MCCC not only streamlined and simplified the student experience — they fostered an inclusive platform that drives success and engagement across the entire college community.
How MCCC Uses Pathify Groups:
- Employee Groups
- Cohort-specific Groups (i.e. Nursing students, Health Sciences students)
- Student-generated Study Groups
- Career & Alumni Engagement Group
- Commencement Group
- Fashion Club
- Support for Students with Children Group
- Montco Radio Group
- Exploring Nursing as a Major Group
- Sustainability Club
- Sexuality and Gender Alliance Group
- Musical Theater Club
- Dental Hygiene Program Group
- Muslim Student Association
About Montgomery County Community College:
Founded in 1964, Montgomery County Community College has grown with the community to meet the lifelong learning needs of Montgomery County residents, visitors and businesses. Known for academic excellence based on the successes of more than 90,000 alumni, MCCC has been recognized multiple times for having the nation’s top faculty and for being the most technologically advanced community college in the country. The MCCC mission is to offer a high-quality, affordable, accessible education that leads to relevant, rewarding transfer and career opportunities.
Learn more at mc3.edu/.
