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Mobile Applications in Educational Institutions

Article · April 2015

DOI: 10.1109/CICT.2015.148

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 2015 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence & Communication Technology

Mobile Applications in Educational Institutions

Shilpi Taneja Anita Goel
Dyal Singh College,Department of Computer Dyal Singh College,Department of Computer
Science,University of Delhi, India, Science,University of Delhi,India,
shilpi.asija@gmail.com goel.anita@gmail.com

Abstract—The proliferation of mobile devices in our daily

life has resulted in a technological and cultural shift in the • According to Avendus Report 2013 [1], there are
society. Availability of information via this medium is
over 2.4 billion Internet users in the world, of which

profoundly altering the way we perform our activities, like,

1.5 billion access the Internet via their mobile

searching, shopping, government interaction, education

devices. An astounding growth can be witnessed in

etc. Educational institutions across the globe have started

the use of mobile devices across various continents,

providing mobile applications (apps) to become easily

in academics as well as industry.

accessible to their stakeholders – students, teachers, etc. In

Universities have started accepting ‘Mobile devices’ as a

this paper, we discuss the mobile apps provided by the

medium of engagement with their stakeholders.

different education institutions. We have performed a

Information that was earlier provided to students,

study of top universities based on Times Higher Education

teachers, parents, government bodies and other people

World University Rankings Report 2013-14. The paper

via websites is now also delivered through mobile.

focuses on penetration of the mobile apps, the kind of

In this paper, we study the evolution of mobile

mobile apps supported by the institutions (native

technology in top universities of world, the mobile

apps/mobile web), and the functionality provided by them.

technology adopted by the universities and features

Keywords—Mobile App; Educational Institutes;

present in their mobile apps. The rest of the paper is

Universities; Native Apps; Mobile Web

organized as follows: Section 2 describes need for the
universities to have mobile presence. The options

I. INTRODUCTION available to universities to establish themselves in

mobile era are discussed in Section 3.Section 4 presents
Mobile technology along with internet access has
different forms in which mobile technology has
overcome barriers to information and has made
penetrated the top universities of world. Key features
enormous information available at fingertips. Mobile
provided by university apps are discussed in Section 5.
technology is altering the ways in which individuals
Section 6 states the conclusion. Section 7 confers the
work. Activities like, buying and selling, accessing
acknowledgement.
social networking sites, watching videos, reading
newspapers, etc. can be performed from anywhere and at
II. NEED FOR UNIVERSITIES TO HAVE A ‘MOBILE
any time using the mobile devices. In fact, the usage of
ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY’
mobile is accelerating day by day which is evident from
Designing an effective mobile website has become a
various reports.
necessity for universities. With the increasing percentage
• The Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) Mobility Report [3]
of students using smart phones, many university
states that mobile subscriptions are expected to
websites worldwide are moving towards addressing
reach 9.3 billion by 2019, and more than 60 percent
mobile needs [4].A number of renowned universities
of these,5.6 billion, will be for smartphone.
have already entered the mobile realm; those who have
• According to the U.S. Digital Consumer Report [7],
not shifted to mobile so far have also started thinking
Americans now own four digital devices on
about it. With mobile becoming so pervasive, every
average, and the average U.S. consumer spends 60
major educational institute is altering their ‘stakeholder
hours a week consuming content across devices.
engagement strategy’ keeping “mobile” on its mind.
Students have got so accustomed to mobile devices that

978-1-4799-6023-1/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE 789

DOI 10.1109/CICT.2015.148
universities need to address the issue of
o providing “m.domain.com”. Mobile web appps are not real apps;
information access via mobile devices. A reesearch study rather they are mobile websites thaat when opened via a
‘2013 E-Expectations Report’[8], stated that: mobile device browser gives look and feel of a mobile
• 78% students have regular access to mobbile device; app. They are hyperlinked collectioon of web pages that
• 43% students use mobile device for web
b browsing; can be installed on any web-enablled mobile device by
• 68% students have viewed college website on creating bookmark to the respectiive webpage. Screen
mobile device; can be horizontally swiped to lookk at other sections of
• 73% students expressed interest in downloading
d web page. The browser tabs, buttoons and bars are not
campus-specific applications for schoolss visible to give a more native app likke experience to user.
The above data illustrates that the alumnus,, current and B. Native Apps
future student communities are likely to rely heavily on Native Apps are applications writteen in native language
mobile devices for information needs, liike, campus of a particular platform like Objecctive-C for iOS, Java
maps, attendance, results, calendar, etc. for Android, and C #for Window
ws Phone. They are
The mobile applications (apps) by educationnal institution downloaded from app store and installed on the mobile
provide personalized information to the useers. The apps device. They can take full advantaage of features of the
uses features, like, push notification (sending message device for which they are developeed. They use camera,
from college server to app users) to send messages to accelerometer, GPS, contact-list etcc. Native apps live on
students, like, change in exam dates, due date
d for form the device itself and not on the weeb server, so they can
submission etc. Apps use in-built featurees of smart operate offline also. Fig.1. shows thhe interaction of user
phones, like, GPS or sensor to provide inform
mation about device with mobile web and native app.
location of a building in university and the ro
oute to reach
them. It can also be used to track movemennt of students
in certain areas of campus for service usagee, safety and
other purposes. Students can interact with ap
pp to provide
feedback, submit assignment, participate in discussion
d or
simply review lectures.

III. MOBILE WEB VERSUS NATIVE

APPS
The mobile applications can be developed for
f a specific
platform, like, android, iOS, windows etcc. or can be
generic. Native apps are platform-specific whereas
generic apps are termed as mobile web. Wee discuss the
two kinds of apps in the following subsection
ns.
A. Mobile Web
ML and CSS
The mobile web are developed using HTM
and operate on various platforms. They are further
Fig. 1. Interaction of Devices with Mobille Web and Native Apps
classified as Responsive web, Mobile websites
w and
Mobile web apps.Responsive Web is websittes that have In addition to mobile web and naative apps, there is a
only one site which is shared and fits alll devices by third category, Hybrid Apps, whichh is an amalgamation
rendering itself differently on each devicee. These are of both. Hybrid apps are installed from
f a web store and
adaptive websites that apply a different stylle depending can access device capabilities thatt are inaccessible by
on size and features of the device. Mobile websites are mobile web applications. They are developed
d using open
websites specially designed to optimize pagees for mobile standard based web technologiess, such as, HTML5,
devices. They have their own URL. Many
y companies CSS, and JavaScript.Fig.2 high
hlights features of
differentiate their mobile site from website by mobile web and native app.

790

Fig. 2. Comparison: Responsive web, Mobile Web, Mobile
M App
For educational institutions, to opt for mo
obile web or
TABLE I
native app is a tough decision. A suurvey of students may
be conducted at university to understand student
inclination for mobile web or nativve apps. For example,
EDUCAUSE mobile app survey ffor Purdue University
students [5] showed strong preferennce for native apps.
IV. MOBILE PENETRATIO
ON ACROSS
UNIVERSITIIES
To understand presence of mobile
m apps in the
universities, we use the Times Higgher Education World
University ranking for 2013-2014. W
We performed a study
of top Universities from every conntinent to understand
the type of mobile presence of thhese universities. We
visited the websites/mobile websites of these universities
[9]...[41] and searched Google andd Apple App Stores to
identify mobile options that these uuniversities provide to
their stakeholders. Table 1 showss the kind of mobile
presence the universities have. Wee found that some of
the top universities, like, University of Tokyo do not
have mobile presence.
MOBILE PRESENCE IN GLOBAL UNIVERSITIES

Continent Country Name Mobile Nativve Native iOS

Web Andrroid
Asia Singapore National universiity of Singapore 9 9
9 9
Hong Kong The University off Hong Kong 9 9
9 9
China Tsinghua Universsity — 9
9 9
Japan Kyoto University
y 9 9
9 9
Hong Kong Hong Kong Univ
versity of Science And technology 9 9 9
Africa South Africa University of Cap
pe Town — 9
9 9
North United States California Instituute of Technology — 9 9
America United States Harvard Universiity 9 9
9 9
United States Stanford University 9 9
9 9
United States MIT 9 9
9 9
United States Princeton Univerrsity 9 9
9 9
United States University of Callifornia, Berkeley 9 — 9
United States University of Chiicago 9 9
9 9
United States Yale University 9 9
9 9
United States University of Callifornia, Los Angeles 9 9
9 9
United States Columbia universsity 9 9
9 9
Colombia University of the Andes — 9
9 9
Brazil State University of
o Campinas — 9
9 9
Europe UK University of Oxfford 9 9
9 9
UK University of Cam
mbridge — 9
9 9
UK Imperial College of London 9 9
9 9
Switzerland ETH Zurich-Swisss federal Institute of technology Zurich — 9
9 9
UK University Collegge London 9 9
9 9

791
 UK Of Economics and Political Science
London School O 9 9
9 9
Sweden ute
Karolinska Institu — 9
9 9
Switzerland nique Federale de Laussane
Ecole Poly Techn 9 9
9 9
UK London
King’s College L 9 9
9 9
Australia Australia University of Meelbourne 9 — 9
Australia nal university
Australian Nation 9 9
9 9
Australia University of Queeensland Australia — 9
9 9
Australia dney
University of Syd 9 9
9 9
Australia Monash Universiity 9 9
9 9
Australia w South whales
University of New 9 9
9 9
Australia University of Adeelaide 9 9
9 9
Australia wcastle
University of New 9 9
9 9
Number of Universities (Total =35) 26 333 35

well as impressive’. Besides pproviding useful

v that all the
Based on data in the above table, we observe
features such as library cataloguees, campus maps,
universities in our data set have mobile presence in one
apps should be able to engage stakkeholders through
form or the other (mobile web/native app).Thirty three
visuals and videos. Findings of a survey conducted
out of Thirty five universities in our datasetss have native
on 363 undergraduate and gradduate students of
apps for android platform and all the univeersities have
National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan,
mobile presence on iOS platform. Some universities
clearly state that ‘the potenttial for mobile
have native apps for other platforms, likke, Windows
applications in university librariees is quite great’
Phone OS or Blackberry but we have nnot included
[2].Other features like transport information and
platforms other than android and iOS in ourr study. Fig.3
campus news are also considerred important in
shows a graphical view of data listed in Table I.
university apps.
Mobile Presence of Universities
Since websites were the first user interface of
universities for many years (ttill mobile became
40 mainstream), we studied websites oof popular universities
round the globe like Harvard uniiversity[42] ,Stanford
20 Number
N of
Universities
U
university[43] etc., and identifiied most important
0
Mobile Site / Native Native iOS
features/utilities that were presentt on these websites.
Responsive Android App
Web App With the ongoing paradigm shifft from websites to
mobile, now, these features must bbe provided via their

Fig. 3. Mobile Presence of Universities

mobile counterparts. These featuress include:
• Interactive campus maps
Some of the key observations are as follows- • Searchable Library/Coursee catalogues
• More universities were found to have native apps • Admission process
than mobile web. • Videos for campus tours
• Universities providing native apps weere for more • Results
than one platform - android, iOS. • Timetable
• Universities having mobile web also had
h a native • mances, lectures
Upcoming events, perform
n be seen, a
app for at least one platform. As can • Transportation and contactt information
common practice followed by most of uuniversities is • Directory/Campus Contactts
to have native apps for one or two popullar platforms We have visited Google and Appple app stores to jot
and a mobile web for all other mobile deevices. down the features provided by univversity apps/sites. For
the data set considered in the previ ous section, we show
V. FEATURESOF UNIVERSITY MOBILLEAPPS in Table II, the absence or preseence of above listed
mative as
Students expect mature apps that are ‘inform features in the respective mobile sites/apps.

792
 TABLE II FEATURES OF UNIVERSITY MOBILE APPS

Information
Admission

Directory/
Catalogue

Timetable

Transport
Calendar

Contacts
Library/
Campus

Campus

Events/
process

Results
Course

News/
Tour
Map
University Name

National University of Singapore 9 9 9 — — 9 9 9 9

The University of Hong Kong 9 9 — — — 9 9 9 9
Tsinghua University 9 9 — — — — 9 — —
Kyoto Univerity — 9 — — — — — — —
Hong Kong University of Science And technology 9 9 — 9 — — 9 — 9
University of Cape Town 9 9 — — 9 9 9 9 —
California institute Of Technology 9 — — — — — — — 9
Harvard University 9 9 9 9 — — 9 9 9
Stanford University 9 9 — — — — 9 — 9
MIT 9 9 — 9 — — 9 9 9
Princeton University 9 9 — 9 — — 9 9 9
University of California, Berkeley 9 9 — 9 — — 9 — 9
University of Chicago 9 9 9 9 — — 9 9 9
Yale University 9 — — — — — 9 9 9
University of California, Los Angeles 9 9 — — — — 9 9 9
Columbia university 9 9 — — — — 9 9 9
University of the Andes 9 9 — — — — 9 — 9
State University of Campinas — 9 — — — — 9 — —
University of Oxford 9 9 — — — — 9 9 9
University of Cambridge 9 9 — — — — 9 9 —
Imperial College of London 9 9 — — — 9 9 9 9
ETH Zurich-Swiss federal Institute of technology ,Zurich — — — — — — 9 — 9
University College London 9 9 — — — 9 9 — 9
London School Of Economics and Political Science 9 9 — — — 9 — 9
9
Karolinska Institute 9 9 — — — — 9 9 9
Ecole Poly Technique Federale de Laussane — 9 — — — — 9 9 9
King’s College London 9 9 — — — — 9 — 9
University of Melbourne 9 — — — — — 9 — 9
Australian National university 9 9 — 9 — — 9 9 9
University of Queensland Australia 9 — — — — 9 9 — —
University of Sydney 9 9 — — — — 9 — 9
Monash University 9 — — — — — 9 9 9
University of New South whales 9 9 — — — — 9 9 9
University of Adelaide 9 9 — — — — 9 9 9
University of Newcastle 9 9 — — — 9 9 — 9
Number of universities apps/mobile sites providing
particular feature
31 29 3 7 1 8 33 19 29

Based on the data given in Table 3, the key observations

• Transport information is provided by 54%
are as follows -
• Less common features are results, admission
• Campus news/events are most commonly provided
provided by less than 10% universities.
feature provided by about 94% universities.
• Campus Maps is next common feature provided by
Fig.4. is a graphical representation of the
about 89% universities.
observations.
• Directory (key phone numbers) and library
catalogues are next most popular features, available
in 82% of our data set.

793
 America are catching up. In n future, mobile
Features Available in Apps oof engagement is expected to becom me a key criterion
Univerisites for measuring any university’s po
opularity.
40 VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
30
20 This research is supported by the Innovation
10 Project Research grant by Univ versity of Delhi,
0 Number of…
2013-14. The work is done as paart of innovation
Library/ Course…

Timetable

Transport
Campus Maps

Results

Directory/Contacts
Campus Tour
Admission process

Campus Events
project DSC-204. We are grateful to Dr. I.S.
Bakshi, Principal, Dyal Singh College,
C Dr. Arun
Pal, Department of Mathematiics, and student
investigators of this project forr their help and
support.
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[2] Chiao-Chen Chang, "Library mobile m applications in
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[9] http://m.nus.edu.sg/index.html
[10] http://m.lib.hku.hk/
[11] http://www.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp
[12] http://mobileguide.ust.hk/
[13] http://www.icts.uct.ac.za/
[14] http://m.harvard.edu/info/
[15] http://www.harvard.edu/all-harvard--mobile
[16] http://m.stanford.edu/
[17] http://m.mit.edu/about/
[18] https://m.princeton.edu/home/
[19] http://m.berkeley.edu/index.php?ovrrcls=full
[20] https://mobile.uchicago.edu/catalog
[21] http://www.youvisit.com/mobile.php p?college=80314&inst=y
ale
[22] http://m.ucla.edu/about/index.php
[23] http://m.columbia.edu/
[24] www.ox.ac.uk/
Fig. 5.Feature Screens of University App
ps [25] www3.imperial.ac.uk/myimperial
[26] www.ucl.ac.uk/
VI. CONCLUSION [27] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/students/mobile/ucl-go
The growth of mobile phones (and innternet) has [28] http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSESeervices/
made it another medium througgh which [29] http://m.epfl.ch/
[30] http://www.kcl.ac.uk/mobile/kingsm mobile/index.asp
universities can engage with their staakeholders. [31] https://my.unimelb.edu.au/studentpo ortal/
Top universities now provide mobile access for [32] http://m.studentit.unimelb.edu.au/
students using mobile web or native aapps. These [33] http://students.anu.edu.au/ianu/
have features which help students maanage their [34] http://m.sydney.edu.au/
[35] http://sydney.edu.au/mobile/
academic activities and provide information about [36] http://universe.unsw.edu.au/
happenings around the university. Thhe ability to [37] http://www.monash.edu.au/
deliver personalized information too students [38] http://m.adelaide.edu.au/
makes these Apps a powerful tool for [39] http://m.ncl.ac.uk/itservice/
[40] https://play.google.com/store/apps/
Universities. Universities in the develooped world [41] https://itunes.apple.com/app/
and in parts of Asia have already establlished their [42] http://www.harvard.edu/
mobile presence while those in Africa and South [43] http://www.stanford.edu

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