Running Head: IMPACT OF MOBILE DEVICES ON UNIVERSITIES

Impact of Mobile Devices on Universities By Brian A. Rellinger

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Introduction Mobile technologies have developed at an alarming pace over the past few years. As more users purchase smartphones with internet capabilities, universities have been pushed to think about mobile devices when developing solutions for their constituents. Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) has decided to be on the leading edge of this trend and has implemented a number of mobile solutions to extend our reach and deliver content to mobile devices. This paper will provide universities with background on a number of mobile solutions, the explosion of internet capable smartphones, explain OWU’s mobile solutions, and discuss some of the emerging mobile trends that will impact universities over the next few years.

The Case for Mobile Smartphone and tablets have changed the landscape for content developers. As more consumers purchase these portable, instant-on devices, universities must be able to respond by making their content mobile friendly using multiple technical solutions. A 2010 study by Ball State found that 99.8% of college students have a cell phone, and 49% of those are smartphones as opposed to feature phones (Truong, 2010). Additionally, RBC predicts that in 2011, smartphone sales will surpass traditional computer sales (Frommer, 2009). See Figure 1. Finally, Gartner expects an increase in sales of smartphones by 56.6%, totaling 468 million units in 2011 (Enzer, 2011). Since college students are using smartphones at such as high rate, it only follows that universities must incorporate mobile devices in their IT strategy.

Figure 1. Smartphone Sales to Beat PC Sales By 2011.

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The two ways to deliver content to mobile devices are through a mobile web browser and a custom application that resides on the device. While there is debate about which is the best method going forward, applications have been tremendously successful. Gartner projects $15 billion in mobile application store revenue in 2011, which is an increase of 190% over last year (Gartner, 2011). Apple, Google, and Blackberry have all launched custom application stores aimed at mobile devices. The growth in smartphone devices combined with the success of mobile applications has created new opportunities for universities to reach out to constituents. A common function at most universities is guided campus tours. A mobile application allows prospective students and parents to use their smartphone while walking around the campus. As a user walks near buildings or landmarks, they can listen to an audio recording of what the tour guide would be

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saying if they were present. Universities are then able to offer unguided tours that still provide valuable information to the prospective students. Mobile map applications can allow freshmen to receive custom walking directions to their classes from their residence hall. Course catalogs allow current students to browse section offerings, class locations, times, and professor contact information. Alumni and friends of the university can make donations right from their smartphone. Some universities have even enabled authenticated services to their mobile offering so that students can actually register for classes and pay bills any time. This additional functionality is certain to become more prevalent over time as student information systems continue to incorporate mobile technologies into their software packages.

Mobile Pioneers A number of universities have launched mobile solutions over the past couple of years. Perhaps the most notable is Stanford University, which launched their mobile application in October of 2008 and was the first university to have such a complete mobile offering. In just one month the free application had been downloaded to over 11,000 mobile devices. Stanford has approximately 18,000 students, and the last published number for downloads was in excess of 100,000. Stanford students initially developed the application as part of a class project after discussing the opportunity with Tom Black, the Vice President and Registrar at Stanford. Aaron Wasserman, one of the lead students working on the project stated: “Essentially, our intention was to make iStanford the one stop shop for all things Stanford on your iPhone” (personal communication, April 11, 2011). Wasserman identified security as one of the first obstacles: “when we began developing ways for students to authenticate and enroll in their courses,

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security was a huge question” (personal communication, April 11, 2011). The team worked through the security issues and famously ran an ad during a football game, and from there, iStanford took on a life of its own. In fact, Time magazine claimed the app was a competitor to Facebook in terms of mobile capabilities (Quittner, 2009). Soon after the launch at Stanford, numerous other universities, including Yale, started investigating the application (Furtak, 2009). TerriblyClever Design took over the development of the suite of applications (Wasserman was a co-founder) and the company was subsequently purchased by Blackboard in 2009 for $3.5 million (Echols, 2009). A number of firms now work with universities in providing mobile software, such as Blackboard Mobile Central, College Mobile, and Straxis. MIT has released an open source solution called MIT Mobile that universities can use to develop a web-based mobile solution. Today, a growing number of universities are launching mobile applications, including Duke, Northwestern, Texas, Michigan, Purdue, Auburn, Texas Tech and now Ohio Wesleyan University. See Appendix B for a short, incomplete list of universities that have launched mobile applications to date.

OWU Mobile Initiatives OWU has undertaken a number of initiatives to deliver information to mobile devices. Blackboard Learn is an application that was launched at OWU in January. This application runs on most smartphones and tablets and connects to the University’s Blackboard Course Management system. Students can view the course syllabus, grades, assignments, and read documents posted by the instructor or classmates. Some faculty are including reading materials as PDF’s in their Blackboard course so students can read them on smartphones and tablets.

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Minor changes were made to our website to allow viewing content on smartphones. This included removing some flash content and using HTML 5 in order to allow iOS devices to browse the website more effectively. This summer, OWU is planning on developing customized campus maps with walking directions for a pilot group of incoming freshmen. This will allow the student to view the location of their residence hall on a campus map and provide walking directions to each of their classes. If this project is successful, the solution could be implemented for all freshmen. This is a nice touch and may help new freshmen get oriented with campus in their first semester. In November of 2010, OWU officers unanimously approved a project that would deliver a custom mobile application for the University. Provost David Robbins stated: With this OWU mobile app we will become one of the first small colleges with this type of application. We hope it will provide our community, alumni, and prospective students with easier and greater access to our ongoing events and programs. (personal communication, April 10, 2011) Additionally, President Rock Jones communicated his support, stating: Our students, prospective students, and families of students rely on hand held devices for a large amount of information. The mobile application allows us to provide a much larger amount of information in ways that are much more easily accessible to these constituents. Particularly with prospective students, the absence of easily accessible information via a hand held device could lead the student to dismiss consideration of Ohio Wesleyan and turn attention to other institutions. This is an important service to our students and an important factor in our ability to remain competitive. (personal communication, April 10, 2011)

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This solution, provided by Blackboard, consists of modules within an application that runs on all Android, iOS, and Blackberry devices. The modules include news, course catalog, library, events, directory, maps, athletics, videos, images, giving and alumni, emergency, and places. Each of these modules is listed and explained in Table 1. See Appendix A for screenshots of some of the modules. OWU will continue to work on adding new features to our mobile offering. Video tours, live sports scores, custom alumni and admissions modules, and authentication-based information are just some of the items we hope to implement. Table 1. OWU Mobile Application Modules and Functionality Module News

Functionality Delivers university news with a variety of topics, including admissions, athletics, campus announcements, etc.

Courses

Contains a searchable OWU course catalog with instructor information, room and building, and times.

Library

Searchable library catalog with availability information for holdings.

Events

A searchable campus map with each building labeled and current GPS location.

Directory

Listing of all faculty, staff, and students, displays office location and phone number for faculty and email address for students. Users can call or email directly from the module.

Places

Displays hours and locations for common places around the OWU campus. All dining locations and most offices are listed.

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Athletics

Contains schedules and news feeds for all 23 OWU varsity sports.

Videos

Connects to the official OWU Youtube feed. Users can view videos from within the module.

Images

Connects to the official OWU Flickr account to display images related to the university.

Giving and Alumni

Displays information on how to give to OWU and events for alumni.

Emergency

Contains contact information for local police and campus safety.

Future Mobile Trends As mobile technologies continue to develop, new services will available to users. One technology that shows promise is called augmented reality (AR). This means that you can use your smartphone to add a “layer” over the physical world. For example, if you hold your phone in front of you, it can use the camera and gps to have an idea of where you are pointing the phone. In turn, the software application can give you information about buildings and landmarks. Two more popular AR applications are Layar and Wikitude. Time identified AR as one of the top 10 tech trends for 2010 (Fletcher, 2010). Location based services will also be important, and many applications are already using this technology. Facebook, Twitter, and Google Latitude allow users to “check in” to places and can broadcast location information to friends. Juniper Research predicts that location based services will bring revenues of $12.7 billion by 2014 (Perez, 2010). These services can also be used at universities to reach out to constituents: “Geolocation can have a real effect on education

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at the University level by building relationships with prospective students and families, engaging students with their course materials, and strengthening alumni bonds” (Klamm, 2010). A final trend that needs mentioning is mobile payments using near field communication (NFC). This allows users to pay for products using their phone instead of a credit card or cash. Juniper Research expects $75 billion in payments will be made with mobile devices using NFC by 2013 (Lomas, 2008). This functionality would be valuable in many university dining halls, vending locations and bursar offices.

Conclusion Industry data proves that mobile technologies are here to stay. Since students are using these devices to consume information, universities must respond and develop strategies that include mobile devices. Websites that are optimized for mobile devices, customized mobile applications, and location-based services can be developed into a strategic advantage for universities. Consequently, IT departments should evaluate their services and include mobile technologies in their short term planning. "Mobile is the future for content delivery. Colleges and universities need to establish a strategy now and make the decisions necessary to take advantage of this communication opportunity” (Evans, 2011, para. 1). Chief information officers and university administrators should pay attention to these mobile trends; our constituents already are.

Running Head: IMPACT OF MOBILE DEVICES ON UNIVERSITIES Appendix A

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Running Head: IMPACT OF MOBILE DEVICES ON UNIVERSITIES Appendix B Auburn Bucknell Duke University Michigan Northwestern Ohio Wesleyan University Purdue Stanford Texas Texas Tech Medical College of Georgia Angelo State Florida State University of Washington Seton Hall Delft University of Technology Loyola University Chicago Virginia Commonwealth University

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References Echols, T. (2009, July 15). Blackboard buys Terriblyclever. Washington Business Journal. Retrieved from http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/07/13/daily42.html Enzer, G. (2011, April 7). Smartphone sales set to soar in 2011. ITP.net. Retrieved from http://www.itp.net/584441-smartphone-sales-set-to-soar-in-2011 Evans, S. T. (2011). Mobile matters: Communication trumps technology. Educause Review (46)2. http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume4 6/iMobilePerspectivesOnwebsitesi/226167 Fletcher, D. (2010, March 22). 10 tech trends for 2010. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1973759_1973760_197379 7,00.html Frommer, D. (2009, August 21). Smartphone sales to beat PC sales by 2011. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-smartphone-sales-tobeat-pc-sales-by-2011-2009-8 Furtak, S. (2009, January 29). Stanford embraces iPhone; will iYale be next? Yale Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/jan/29/stanford-embracesiphone-will-an-iyale-be-next/ Gartner (2011, January 26). Gartner says worldwide mobile application store revenue forecast to surpass $15 billion in 2011. Gartner.com. Retrieved from http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1529214 Klamm, D. (2010, September 22). How universities can win big with location-based apps. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2010/09/22/universities-geo-location/

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Lomas, N. (2008, July 21). NFC payments to reach tipping point in three years? Silicon.com. Retrieved from http://www.zdnetasia.com/nfc-payments-to-reach-tipping-point-in-threeyears-62043951.htm Perez, S. (2010, February 26). Location-Based services: Hype or hit? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/location-based_services_hype_or_hit.php Truong, K. (2010, June 17). Student smartphone use doubles; Instant messaging loses favor. The Chronical of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/student-smartphone-use-doubles-instantmessaging-loses-favor/24876 Quittner, J. (2009, January 1). Can iStanford take on facebook mobile? Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1869169,00.html