University of Illinois Chicago
Three classes, one new smart feature: students get matched and meet in person at a designated spot, with no chat needed.
The problem in the room
Walk into most classrooms before the lecture starts and you will see the same thing: students sitting on their phones, saying nothing to the people right next to them. They come to class and they go back to their dorm, and the classmates who could have become friends, study partners, or collaborators stay strangers all semester. The hardest conversation is the first one, and it is the one that never happens.
The new smart feature
Dr. Alvin Chin put Knod's new smart meet-spot feature to work across three of his IDS classes. Instead of endless chatting through a screen, Knod matches two students by what they have in common and sends them to a designated spot in the room to actually meet in person. No back-and-forth texting, just a clear nudge: go here, meet this person, you will get along.
What happened
Across three sections, students got off their phones and met classmates they had never spoken to. The feature took the guesswork and the fear out of the first hello, and left the part that matters: the conversation. The match rate held near 59% across all three classes.
How the feature worked
Students scanned in with Knod and answered a few quick prompts. Knod paired them with someone they had something in common with, then pointed both people to a designated meeting spot in the room. No chat thread to manage, no awkward opener to write.
Prompts attendees answered
- What are you interested in?
- What are you hoping to get from this class?
The result
"Knod made me realize that despite being an introvert I do enjoy talking to people. Thank you for developing this!"
This is what the feature is for: turning a room of people looking down at their phones into a room of people meeting each other. Three classes in one morning, and the phones went in pockets.
Want a room like this?
See what Knod would do at your next event, class, or gathering.