Colleges and Universities Use Mobile Apps and Sites to Connect with Students

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Colleges and
universities around the country are building mobile
websites and apps aimed at current and prospective students.  Mobile app and website content ranges from maps, calendars and transit information to allowing students to complete assignments.

At
least 90 colleges and universities around the United States and the world now
offer mobile websites, and many of them also have iPhone or Blackberry apps.

"Having
an app is a good way to reach students," said Patricia Zumwalt, Marketing and
Communication Manager at the University of Tulsa's Graduate School of Business,
who came up with the idea for the business school's app.  "Students are
comfortable with that technology, and since they're already on their phones all
the time, it's a pretty easy way to get them the information they need.  I'm sure
more and more colleges will be using mobile apps to reach students."The
University of Tulsa's Collins College of Business launched its iPhone
app
at the end of September.  Since the launch, 193 current and prospective
students have downloaded and used the app.

While
Collin College's app is relatively new, the trend toward colleges and universities having apps and mobile websites is not a new phenomenon.  West Virginia Univeristy (WVU) launched their app
and mobile website
in August 2009.  In the year since it launched, WVU's mobile
web has had 832,615 page views.

WVU mobile web developer Dave Olsen first came up with the idea for the mobile web when looking at MIT's mobile framework.  At the same time, Senior
Engineering major Jared Crawford independently designed the iPhone app.

"Having
mobile web or a mobile app is not an either or," Olsen said of the combination
between the WVU mobile web and app.  "It really should be a progressive
strategy.  Mobile web should be first because it has the broadest reach, but
it's not a bad idea to provide the unique environment of a mobile app."

Going Mobile

While more and more colleges have turned to mobile apps and websites, not all colleges see that devoting time and resources to creating a mobile app is practical.  Derek Schaible, a senior and member of the Information Technology Services at Pomona College, a small college in Southern California with an enrollment of roughly 1,500 students, said that a mobile app would be impractical for a school of Pomona's size.  Though Pomona Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum said that the school had considered creating a mobile app, there have been no formal proposals so far.
 
"I think it can be beneficial," Feldblum explained.  "It puts useful information more easily in the hands of students, visitors, and prospective students.  Of course, not everyone has access to a mobile app, so it only helps a certain segment of students and visitors.

Other small colleges have successfully created mobile apps.  Zumwalt initially did not think an
app would work for her small department.  Yet, while attending a conference on social media, she heard a presentation
from MacroSolve, a company that develops apps, and she recognized how easy creating
an app would be.  In Collin College's case, Zumwalt decided to hire MacroSolve
to create the app.

"I didn't have any way to build an
app," Zumwalt said.  "They provided an online interface and we just built into
that ourselves.  It was the best option for us."

In contrast, WVU's mobile web and
app were created in-house and did not come at any cost to the school.  According to
Olsen, WVU used MIT's open-source code to create a modified code for their
mobile web and app.  WVU's code is also an open-source code, which is freely
available for other schools to use.  So far, Olsen said a number of schools have
taken advantage of WVU's open-source code, including The University of Texas at
Austin, the University of Pittsburgh, and William and Mary College.

What Mobile Web and Apps can do for Colleges and
Universities

While Schaible said that college and university websites can be accessed through any phone with a browser, he thinks that it is unnecessary for colleges to devote time and energy to mobile sites and apps that would not be used by a large number of current or prospective students.  However, he did admit that apps and mobile sites have more accessible interfaces that can be used by students with smartphones.

WVU had been able to put a range of content on their
mobile web and app that has appealed primarily to current
students.  Olsen said that he has seen the most usage on the campus map, the
directory, the calendar, and the athletic site.  He hopes to adjust the mobile
web to convey relevant information depending on a student's location, and he plans
to update the calendar feature to utilize latitude and longitude to tell where
students are in order to provide them with the most relevant information.

With
WVU split into three campuses, the mobile site has also been crucial in
delivering students with information about the Personal Rapid Transit, which
transports students between campuses.

Olsen
said that WVU also plans to offer dining hall menus on the mobile web and app,
as well as a virtual campus tour, which will appeal to prospective students.

The WVU Mobile Web emergency features proved especially useful last February when
snowstorms caused the school to shut down.  WVU Mobile Web was updated with
emergency information on a consistent basis and saw a 400 percent increase of web
traffic to the site.

"I think this shows that there is a
need for an institution to deploy mobile products to help communicate
information during a crisis," wrote Olsen on his Mobile in Higher Ed Blog.

Academic Information

Though Olsen said that academic
information would fit very well with a mobile app or website, WVU is not at the
point where they can provide students with academic information through mobile.

Unlike
WVU and many other college and universities, the Collins College of Business
has focused primarily on providing academic information through its app.

"We
wanted to do something a little different than other colleges because we're so
focused as a business college," Zumwalt said.  "It's important that we have
relevant information."

Among its features, the Collins College app has a profile and contact information for
every faculty member, something that Zumwalt
feels can benefit both current and prospective students interested in the
graduate program.  The app also has the online learning interface used by students, called WebCT, which allows students to access their grades, take
quizzes, and check class information from their phones.  The app also
contains all course information and descriptions.

Students can even use the app to
complete assignments.  The undergraduate department of business put their
plagiarism tutorial on the app, a mandatory tutorial for students, and has
already found students completing the tutorial directly on the app.

The
Business Career Department is also on the app, with a section just for
employers and a section where students can look up which employers
will be on campus on a given day.  There are also employment surveys on the app
that allow students to answer questions about their employment goals.

"We have tried to make the most
amount of information available in the space we have," Zumwalt said.  "We don't
have any grand idea to add more content."

Making it Available

Currently, the Collins College app
is only available for iPhone, but Zumwalt said that they would be launching the
app for BlackBerry and Windows Phone in the next few months to be compatible with more of the students' smartphones.  Likewise, Olsen said that
WVU will eventually roll out its iPhone app as a universal app, though
currently their mobile website should run on any phone with a browser.

"I think more and more people will
start searching for apps in the areas they are interested in," Zumwalt said. 
"As more and more people become familiar with it they will realize that the
colleges they are interested in have apps.  We'll have a leg up because our app
is already here."

According
to Olsen, it won't be "make or break" if a college chooses not to have a mobile
app, but it is going to be important in the future for colleges to be connected
through mobile.

"I
think it's really important to deliver information where users want it and go
to get the most information," Olsen said.

Jamie Goldberg is a senior at Pomona College and intern for Wireless Mobile and News.  She is the Administrator of the Wireless and Mobile News Facebook experience and calendar.