Drexel University's rollout of its next-generation mobile portal, DrexelOne Mobile, which provides secure access to time-sensitive information for students, faculty, and staff, encompasses six native apps available in all of the major app stores; a richer GPS-enabled native mobile application is due in the spring.
DrexelOne Mobile leads the higher education smartphone app world on several fronts. It's the only university portal that works on all current smartphone platforms, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm webOS, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7. Dr. John Bielec, Vice President and CIO at Drexel University says that "in today's fast-changing mobile technology landscape, students demand choice and flexibility in platform, vendor, and carrier selection. Mobile technology is consumer driven and no longer able to be dictated by an institution or a single vendor." Even more compelling than the multi-platform approach are DrexelOne Mobile's personalized capabilities, which will only get richer with the launch of the next version. The end user now has access to an incredibly detailed view of campus life, from real time updates on grades, to the next arriving shuttle bus. Drexel students can check course schedules, assignments and due dates, current DragonCard balances, and Dining Center menu. All have access to critical university alerts, a campus directory and map, athletic scores, school news, and the popular Candid Campus photo project.
Kenneth S. Blackney, Associate Vice President of Core Technology Infrastructure at Drexel University, explains that DrexelOne goes beyond what's currently out there for higher education, since typical mobile offerings target just one or two mobile platforms and provide a fixed set of campus facts geared toward the general public rather than individualized feeds to each account holder. Blackney also provided a sneak peak at the impressive, graphically rich version of DrexelOne Mobile to be launched in spring 2011, which includes upgrades for faculty like picture enhanced class lists and a clicker to allow real time classroom interaction between teachers and students; access to employee leave balances,and interview schedules for student co-op jobs.
Source: John Bielec, Ken Blackney, Drexel University
Writer: Sue Spolan