Archive for 2013

A native campus mobile app is coming!

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We're pleased to announce that we've recently engaged Blackboard to help us deliver a native mobile app for the campus using the Mosaic platform. The platform was selected for its ease of use and flexibility for delivering commonly-used information to the campus community.

A small team of Technology & Communication staff met today to discuss next steps in development of the application, and to examine which standard modules might be developed and deployed for the initial app release.

The initial release of the campus app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and other formats is expected to occur during spring 2013. Check back here for additional updates.


Mobile printing now available for students and employees

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In case you missed the announcement in the August 22 issue of Wavelength, Technology & Communication is very pleased to announce a new service to enable students and employees to print documents from their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop.

Printing from any of these devices is a simple, 3-step process:

  1. Attach any documents you want to print to an email from your official CI email address and send the email & attachments to:
    PrintBW@csuci.edu for black-and-white printing; OR
    PrintCOLOR@csuci.edu for color printing

  2. You'll receive an automated email reply from "Pharos Mobile Printing" confirming that your document is ready to be released.
  3. Finally, go to any MobilePrint-compatible printer on campus and release your print job using your DolphinOne Card. 
MobilePrint-compatible printers are located throughout Broome Library and many other spaces on campus.
You must complete the release of your print job at a MobilePrint printer within 2 hours, otherwise you'll need to re-send via email again (as described in Step #1 above).

Need more information? Visit the T&C Mobile Printing web page. 

Native mobile app for CI

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A mobile app that has been designed for a specific operating system (such as iOS or Android) and that is  downloaded from an app store (like the Apple App Store or the Android Market) are considered native mobile apps.

Why does CI need a native mobile app?

One reason it that campus-specific mobile apps appeal to prospective students, according to Noel-Levitz 2013 E-Expectations report. Of the 2,000 high school juniors and seniors surveyed, 73% expressed interest in campus-specific mobile apps. We have also heard anecdotal feedback that prospective students often visit the app store associated with their mobile device even before they visit the campus web site.  

Surveys of CI's prospective and current students have shown that the campus' mobile presence is very important to students' perception of the University.


In addition, our research shows access to core services (such as map, directory and event calendar information) are critical to our campus community, so we must facilitate access to these services in a mobile-friendly way.

Over the summer, a team of Technology & Communication staff have been evaluating several mobile app development frameworks with the intent of selecting one to begin development and deployment of a campus native mobile app. Selection is expected to complete in the next several weeks, and we look forward to announcing the result of the selection process soon.

In the meanwhile, feel free to contact me at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu with any questions.


Watch "The Mobile Campus" Episode 2: Mobile Users

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About 2 weeks ago, we introduced a new video series about mobile technology at CI.

In this episode, we discuss mobile users, as well as some of the challenges they face, and how to keep them happy.



What other challenges face mobile users at CI? Share your thoughts here, and stay tuned to for more episodes!

What is Mobile?

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This week, we're introducing a new video series about making CI more mobile-friendly. This series is also meant to introducing members of the CI community to core concepts, strategies and and terminology related to mobile technology. 

What does "mobile" mean anyway?  In short, it's about a lot more than just mobile devices. Watch our first video (about 2 minutes) to learn about what "mobile" means: 

Neat mobile-related infographics

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Several interesting infographics related to mobile technology:

Mobile Future's App Infographic

Texas A&M's "Why Go Mobile" web site: one of the best summary examples of a mobile strategy for an campus organization that I've found

ECAR 2012 Survey Infographic (in PDF format) or visit the ECAR 2012 Survey web site

Delivering content and services to mobile devices

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Andrew Yu, founder of Modo Labs, provided a nice write up about different ways universities are providing content and functionality to their visitors who use mobile devices.

The article helps illustrate the challenges that universities face in selecting and implementing the best approach. For example, native apps for iOS and Android devices are sleek, speedy and can leverage native phone functions (like GPS, camera, calendar and SMS) more effectively, but they are more costly and time-consuming to maintain. A well-designed responsive web site provides an improved mobile experience for all platforms (smartphone, tablet, and desktop/laptop) and benefits from a single, unified code base and centralized content. Its dependence on the web for data retrieval can slow things down somewhat. Standalone mobile apps are somewhere in the middle, but may or may not be a worthwhile compromise. In any case, it’s a place to start the conversation about how we combine responsive web site design, standalone mobile web sites and mobile apps into a unified campus strategy for mobile. 




Mobile Strategy forum follow-up

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On Thursday March 14, 27 students, faculty and staff met for the CI Open Forum on Mobile Strategy, and engaged in lively and thoughtful discussion of the challenges and opportunities CI faces in building a mobile campus and the future of mobile technology at CI.


You can view notes from the mobile strategy forum and “unconference” proceedings.

As requested by forum participants, we’ll be sharing some narrated videos about mobile terminology, concepts and considerations on this same web site in the near future.

In the meanwhile, if you have any further thoughts, questions or comments about making CI more mobile-friendly, please feel free to contact Peter Mosinskis at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu.