Nearly 80% of the colleges and
universities responding to the 2013 Campus Computing Survey reported they
either have mobile platforms for their students or are in the process of
developing one. These platforms allow students to use their smartphones to keep
tabs on nearly every aspect of college life.
“The challenge is it’s a very
rapidly evolving field, so you want something that is flexible to do
applications you don’t even know about today,” Michael Barrett, associate vice
president and chief information officer at Florida State University, told University Business.
Students are using mobile learning
apps to check grades, submit assignments, and post comments on discussion
boards. They are even taking the lead in app development. In fact, one grad
student at the University of Albany helped create an app that lets students know
when their laundry is done.
“Make sure you understand what the
users want and what they would use; those are not always the same,” said Steve
Fischer, director of web and mobile at The Ohio State University. “Putting
something out there with three of the right features is better than putting out
something with a lot of features and only one of them gets used.”
