Enabling University Extension Through Digital Innovation

University extension plays a critical role in higher education by fostering meaningful interactions between academic institutions and society, enriching student learning through experiential and socially engaged practices. However, higher education institutions are increasingly challenged by operational inefficiencies, low student participation, and limited community integration. Brazil’s Resolution No. 7/2018 (also known as curricularization of extension), requires undergraduate programs to dedicate at least 10% of their total curricular workload to extension activities. The MaisAção ("More Action") platform presents an innovative, technology-enhanced approach to extension management by incorporating automation, gamification, and social interaction features. Designed to reduce administrative complexity, promote student engagement, and enable institutional compliance, the platform also enhances the visibility, traceability, and scalability of social impact initiatives. An initial usage of the platform was to support a hackathon at Santa Maria Federal University in Brazil and promote approximately 48 curricularized undergraduate extension hours of different courses across the university. This session will also explore the platform's other use cases to support scalability of extension, reinforcing the university’s role as an active agent of social transformation.