Technology Advisory Group

Updated 2012-11-26: Meeting minutes are available.

The University-wide Mobile Apps Group (chaired by Connie Wisdo from IR, with Ben Bishop and me as faculty participants) met yesterday. A few updates:

Blackboard Learn Mobile App for Angel

• Now available for students and faculty.
• Available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry devices in their respective app stores.
• Once you install the app, search for University of Scranton and log in with your my.scranton credentials.

Student Services Mobile Page

• A mobile web page for student services (m.scranton.edu/studentservices) went up in September.
• Feedback from students seems to be positive, although we did not have any analytics to review.
• One of the student representatives in the work group mentioned that the tools currently available on the web page (grades, schedule, channel guide, Library, Aquinas) aren’t compelling at this time of the semester. Grades will be more important as the semester ends.

University App (Straxis)

• Straxis has scaled back/slowed down their plans to include a Dining Services module in the University app.
• The next modules Straxis plans to release are Faith & Service module, Enhanced Twitter, and GPA Calculator.
• Straxis will soon be sending out an update with iPhone 5 graphics and iOS6 enhancements.

Luminis Upgrade

• We will be upgrading to Luminis 5 over spring break 2013, which will be a major update to the my.scranton portal.
• Mobile access to my.scranton will likely be improved – testing will begin in January.

Next Steps for Mobile

• We reviewed the results of last spring’s mobile survey to consider what other mobile functionality should be developed.
• Ben suggested that mobile access to a list of faculty office hours or faculty schedules would be useful — it doesn’t seem like this data is available via an API, though.
• Student suggestions (via CTLE) included a GPA calculator and easy access to financial aid information.
• Students also asked if campus event feeds on mobile web pages could be iCal feeds (i.e., so you could easily add an event to your calendar on your phone.
• Students were interested in mobile access to course registration, but this is not supported at this time.
• Computer lab availability is a possibility due to the switch to thin clients in the Library and in Brennan.
• When the Royal Card system is upgraded, students will be able to use a free (to them) app from Blackboard Transact to add funds and check their balance. There is a university subscription fee, so ITDA has requested funding to support that feature. Transact would interact with Royal Card funds, not Flex or meals.
• No progress has been made on a LaundryView app.
• A graduate student in Computing Sciences is doing a project to track usage of the Pilarz Hall gym — so that students could check their phone to see approximately how crowded the gym would be.
• ITDA staff members met with Aramark to discuss mobile access to dining hall menus. Information from CampusDish (the web service Aramark uses) is not accessible to us via API. Aramark may be working on their own mobile app.
• The Library is experimenting with a mobile study room reservation system. There will likely be a pilot in January and February using two group study rooms on the 2nd floor. The Student Services mobile page could simply link to this system.

I’ll post full meeting minutes when they come out. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!