The Oswego State app for smartphones has recently been updated to include features that allow students to access their MyDegree Works, Labstats and an updated emergency information tab.
Before the update, a few things students could access with the app was the dining menu, weather, campus directory, athletics and emergency information.
Oswego State first launched a mobile website in the summer of 2011. The college redoubled its mobile efforts in the fall of 2012 and launched native iOS and Android apps along with a more feature-rich mobile website, according to Sean Moriarty, Oswego State’s chief technology officer.
“One of the new features, Labstats, will give students real time information on the usage of computers in labs across the campus,” Moriarty said. “If the lab you are at is full, by looking at the app you can see where there are labs with computers open. We think this will be quite popular during mid-terms and exams.”
The campus has also rolled out a safety app called Oswego Guardian. There will now be a link to Oswego Guardian on the Oswego app.
“We have almost 400 registered users since the rollout for the fall semester,” Moriarty said. “This app is used as a safety monitor for students on their smartphones. They can activate timers, or use it as a panic device that will notify University Police of their GPS-based location, on or off campus.”
Students are excited about the new features of the app and feel they will benefit from the update. Samantha Schou, a junior transfer at Oswego State, downloaded the app before transferring in order to learn more about the school.
“I actually did not know you could access MyDegree Works or availability in the computer labs with the update, but that’s very useful and I will most likely use it,” Schou said. “I haven’t used the app for much besides the dining hall menu. I would like ingredients posted about a dish, if I didn’t know what it is made of.”
According to Moriarty, Oswego State was looking to improve students’ access to information.
“Our goal is to help improve the student experience and student success with the roll-out of the new features of the app,” Moriarty said. “Putting information in the hands of students when they need to contact and gain assistance from their advisers and take care of the details around registration.”
More people have been using the app, and there has been an increase of usage over the last year. There are currently over 5,700 downloads of the app.
According to Moriarty, since the release of MyDegree in June 2014, total Android installs jumped 85 percent to 1,185 and iOS installs increased 47 percent to 4,520. Daily usage of both apps has also increased. The Android app has consistently registered 250 percent more page views when compared with the same time period from the previous year and iOS increases have fluctuated between 50 percent and 230 percent from day to day.
“I use the app at least once a day, it has easy resources for the school, like the directory,” Schou said. “I would recommend it to other students.”
