Students at Furman are constantly running technological errands, making course adjustments or checking on their meal plan points by accessing information scattered across multiple university resources.
But students Weston Catron and Nick Holt are making plans to change the chaos with a new mobile device app that aims to improve student access to course syllabi, academic calendars, Outlook email, and other university resources, consolidating data and resources into a single tool.
Catron and Holt are collaborating with a team of other students to create what they are calling the Furman Student Mobile App, and Holt says the team envisions the app as a project “designed by students for students” that unifies data from multiple resources.
Students currently access the course syllabus on Moodle, ARMS on MyFurman, the academic calendar for the add/drop deadline on Furman’s website, email on Outlook, and OrgSync to message club members , but the new mobile device app aims to create easier navigation.
Many other universities have student apps, but Catron said that many of the large university apps contain features “not designed for the students,” which is why the project to create Furman’s app is student-driven and focused.
The app development team decided to crowdsource potential features over winter break through an online survey accessible on Facebook. The survey is quick and includes an optional free response section for additional suggestions, and the development team has already received more than 140 responses.
The survey has indicated that students are most interested in a CLP calendar, a sporting events calendar, dining hours and campus facility hours, a dining hall menu, a way to track remaining dining hall meals and PalaPoints, and a combination of features from OrgSync and Moodle.
“We want to make [the app] accessible to everyone,” Catron said.
The project is in the initial stages of development, but the group hopes to launch the app next year, with a beta test later this semester. Presently, they are directing much of their energy toward determining the scope of the project and obtaining the data they need from various groups at Furman.
The team has already communicated with representatives from the Student Government Association and the Division of Student Life to discuss how the project will affect students. They have also met with representatives from Information Technology Services and Marketing and Public Relations to assess “the extent of student data that the app will be able to unify,” Holt said.
The team is trying to gain additional support from the student body during the initial phase of development. Many students seem to find the current setup inefficient, and Holt agreed, stressing that the team’s goal is “not [to] duplicate but unify” data.
Catron said he believes that the app will increase the efficiency of existing technology. He described the technology as “a tool for human interaction, and if we’re constantly having to interact with technology, [we] lose out on the human interaction.”
Both Holt and Catron emphasized that student input is welcome.
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The student survey can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T58L2DR
The Facebook page for the group can found at www.facebook.com/FUStudentApp
Team members include:
Weston Catron - Programming Leader
Nick Holt - Manager
Zach Hall - Programmer
Ryan Maas - Programmer
McKenzie Martin - Graphic Designer
Ahmed Mustafa - Programmer