Goodbye rogue parent Facebook Groups – CampusESP’s Discussion Boards are here!
College administrators, we know you’re burnt out by parent Facebook Groups. Even families are tired of misinformation on Facebook, ranking it near the bottom of their communication preferences in CampusESP’s 2025 Family Survey… Yet, the need for parent-to-parent communication is stronger than ever, as only 30% of families report satisfaction with their opportunities to connect with other families.
CampusESP’s solution? Discussion Boards for families. We piloted our new feature with five universities and 7,500 families this summer, testing a range of use cases including tailored Discussion Boards for First-Generation Families, Incoming Families, Out-of-State Families, and more.
Now, we’ve launched Discussion Boards to all customers, completely free of charge! These are the results from our first five pilot schools.
What are Discussion Boards?
Discussion Boards provide a positive space for families to connect, ask questions, and get support, with built-in AI moderation to help your team monitor the conversation. With Discussion Boards, you can:
Build personalized Discussion Boards based on class year, location, and more
Avoid the headache of parent Facebook groups with AI moderation, vetted human moderators, and other tools that keep the conversation positive and accurate
See what info families want and need to improve your communication strategy
Build trust with families and foster institutional affinity
Discussion Boards include a suite of moderation tools, including email notifications for new posts, options to “pin” important posts, ability to shadow-ban disruptive users, badging for administrators, and more – helping your team guide the conversation.
Real-world use cases from our five pilot schools
The University of Kansas, Louisiana State University, Webster University, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and University of Minnesota Twin Cities created tailored Discussion Boards for:
First-generation families
Out-of-state families
All incoming and/or admitted families for fall 2025
Family Association members
First-year families
All current parents
All prospective parents
Throughout the summer, families built real, authentic community in CampusESP Discussion Boards. We saw families exchange Q&A about move-in, financial aid, housing, and other topics relevant to the summer months. Families fostered genuine connections with each other, introducing themselves and their students and planning meetups with other families. Seasoned families of current students and Family Council members also proactively chimed in to answer questions from prospective families waiting to send their students off to college for the first time.
Examples of real-world conversations from current and prospective parents using Discussion Boards this summer
As Chris Brundridge, the Associate Director of Admissions & Communication at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee put it: “Discussion Boards have been a powerful tool to create community and transparency, without the toxicity of Facebook. It gives families a space to articulate their experiences, and helps us understand how families are feeling, with virtually no drama”.
The results: High utilization by parents, minimal effort to manage
Within three months of launching Discussion Boards our five pilot schools saw BIG results:
Parents loved it: Over 7,500 parents visited Discussion Boards, adding more than 1,400 posts and comments throughout the summer
CampusESP usage grew: On average, portal visitors jumped by 40% year-over-year after enabling Discussion Boards
More engagement opportunities for families: Nearly 85% of the conversation was generated by families, with little admin support needed to keep content flowing
It’s easy to manage: Administrators spent less than 30 minutes a month moderating the conversation
Surprised that Discussion Boards are so easy to manage? We found that as an official source of information for the college, CampusESP Discussion Boards naturally trend towards positivity and support, rather than complaints and misinformation.
In fact, of the 1,400 parent posts and comments, none were flagged by AI as inappropriate or insensitive. As Billy Ratz, the Director of First-Year Experience & Family Programs at Webster University described, Discussion Boards takes popular online forum functionality but places it in a platform that families already trust, meaning “the conversation stays more positive, as families take the university-branded boards more seriously and intentionally than platforms like Facebook”.
To sum up the experience, Gavin Grivna, the Director of Parent & Family Programs at University of Minnesota Twin Cities put it this way: "We started this process by imagining the 'doomsday scenario' with negative parent commentary. And lo and behold that did not happen. At all. This is a great solution for families, for staff that work with families, and for CampusESP. It's a win/win/win in my eyes."
Interested in learning more?
CampusESP customers – View our Discussion Boards user guide to learn how to set this up or get more information!
Non-customers – Book a personalized demo to see what Discussion Boards might look like at your institution!