College develops iPhone app to connect with potential students

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
The College of Charleston has launched the nation's first app designed as a supplement for students looking to tour the university.



Calling it "the very first interactive and self-guided university campus tour app," the College of Charleston has released an app intended for potential students looking for more information on the campus and its history.



The app features over twenty locations in and around the Charleston campus with accompanying text, pictures, and video for each. The "College of Charleston Tour" app also uses GPS assistance to show the distance to and location of each of the places of interest around the university.



The videos are narrated by College of Charleston students and provide a brief tour of each location along with facts and information about each.



"We are excited to be the first university to offer a campus tour through an iPhone application," says College of Charleston President George Benson. "This innovative application will allow us to connect with prospective students around the globe and to showcase our historic campus using the latest in digital media and mobile technology."







Florida college pledges Macs for every student-athlete



The University of South Florida has announced that it will provide Apple laptops to each of its NCAA athletes in a first-of-its-kind program. According to Tampa Bay Online, the goal is to create an environment where learning can be anywhere, anytime; allowing students to complete assignments and view lectures from wherever they happen to be.



Michael Hageloh, spokesman for Apple's Higher Education group reportedly called the deal "a national game-changing moment led by USF." Every athlete will receive a laptop and the computers are expected to be distributed soon. It is unclear what type of Macs will be available to the students as of this time.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    With the number of campuses giving out Macs and iPods, requiring Macs or requesting them, as well the overwhelming success of the iPhone for that age group this all make sense. Frankly I?m surprised this sort of thing wasn?t more common.



    PS: The iPhone OS SDK has an education option for something like 100 students at a time using a teacher?s app. Has this seen any success? Has anyone here created distributed or used one?
  • Reply 2 of 15
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by montypython View Post


    Interesting...



    I pitched this idea to my boss when I worked in admissions, but they didn't see the point. Now that the iPhone apps market has taken off I think you will see a lot more of these coming through the pipeline.



    If anyone is looking for work this might be a good thing to do. Make an app and podcast for a college tour. This will allow you to have a template that you just fit a new client into whenever you get one. Would be pretty easy to do and you could be constantly updating your interface for all of your clients (for a price of course).



    Museums are also beginning to use this tour app process. I look forward to the day when the museums in New York and Washington have apps to accompany one's visit.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    oc4theooc4theo Posts: 294member
    The iPhone is not a phone. It is a SUPER computer in your pocket. No wonder Apple is building a server-farm. One day in a not-too-distance future, iPhone will be the THING to have to get things done.



    The only Apps Apple counts are the ones in the Apps Store. However, there are already thousands of Apps developed and being used by companies in-house. In the next 2-3 years, it will be a necessity to own an iPhone.



    Apple has not even scratched the surface yet. Better days are yet to come!
  • Reply 4 of 15
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by teckstud View Post


    Museums are also beginning to use this tour app process. I look forward to the day when the museums in New York and Washington have apps to accompany one's visit.



    Nothing new.

    Museums have been using iPods for years for tours.

    http://www.apple.com/ipod/tours/
  • Reply 5 of 15
    And what about the Art students who go to that school... do they receive a Mac laptop too? Or the Bio-Chem majors, or the Law majors, or the MIS majors? Business? Anyone that is not an athlete? (Having been a starving artist student in college, I never liked the perks the athletes get when the art students barely even had classrooms to meet in let alone equipment when the sports team got a whole new stadium!)
  • Reply 6 of 15
    29922992 Posts: 202member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OC4Theo View Post


    The iPhone is not a phone. It is a SUPER computer in your pocket. No wonder Apple is building a server-farm. One day in a not-too-distance future, iPhone will be the THING to have to get things done.



    The only Apps Apple counts are the ones in the Apps Store. However, there are already thousands of Apps developed and being used by companies in-house. In the next 2-3 years, it will be a necessity to own an iPhone.



    Apple has not even scratched the surface yet. Better days are yet to come!



    ... now that's how an overexcited Apple/iPhone fan sounds.



    Accordingly, I'm only waiting for an app for my iPhone 3G to prepare my morning coffee, and I'm 100% sold.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    29922992 Posts: 202member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post


    And what about the Art students who go to that school... do they receive a Mac laptop too? Or the Bio-Chem majors, or the Law majors, or the MIS majors? Business? Anyone that is not an athlete? (Having been a starving artist student in college, I never liked the perks the athletes get when the art students barely even had classrooms to meet in let alone equipment when the sports team got a whole new stadium!)



    how about the cheerleaders?
  • Reply 8 of 15
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post


    And what about the Art students who go to that school... do they receive a Mac laptop too? Or the Bio-Chem majors, or the Law majors, or the MIS majors? Business? Anyone that is not an athlete? (Having been a starving artist student in college, I never liked the perks the athletes get when the art students barely even had classrooms to meet in let alone equipment when the sports team got a whole new stadium!)



    Many of these athletic students will fall into the art, chem, law, MIS and other degree categories. I do understand your point but note that schools can make a lot of additional revenue from sports, but little to no revenue from other arguably more important activities at schools.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by camroidv27 View Post


    And what about the Art students who go to that school... do they receive a Mac laptop too? Or the Bio-Chem majors, or the Law majors, or the MIS majors? Business? Anyone that is not an athlete? (Having been a starving artist student in college, I never liked the perks the athletes get when the art students barely even had classrooms to meet in let alone equipment when the sports team got a whole new stadium!)



    Exactly. Our university keep going after donators and their money to construct new stadiums and buildings for the athletes but when it comes to academics the departments are on their own. I've spend the last year and half trying to get our department dean to loan us a small piece of land for 6 months to perform my fully funded research experiments but he insisted that we pay rent (Actually he wanted us to pay rent on money our department already own!!). Ironically, the athletics department offered us the land for free
  • Reply 10 of 15
    ivan.rnn01ivan.rnn01 Posts: 1,822member
    Application-schmaplication.... Design and create good m.college.edu page. That's all that you may need.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    cubertcubert Posts: 728member
    USF Student-Athlete: "Hey, everytime I open my MacBook there's money inside of it!"
  • Reply 12 of 15
    University of North Carolina in Wilmington has been using such an app for a few months now now. Search the app store for UNCW. http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/industr...ils.php?id=845
  • Reply 13 of 15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by r3acer View Post


    University of North Carolina in Wilmington has been using such an app for a few months now now. Search the app store for UNCW. http://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/industr...ils.php?id=845



    While UNCW does have an app, it is NOT a campus tour like College of Charleston has created. The College of Charleston app is the campus tour experience everyone has when first visiting a school, ported to the iPhone. It is the first of this type of app. I encourage everyone to download both apps in question. They are both free, do different things, and certainly worth a look.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    While this technology is definitely growing in popularity and pervasiveness, this application is definitely not the first...



    BarZ Adventures, a company specializing in GPS video tour guide systems for over 4 years, has now ported their technology to the world of Smartphones as well. We offer a subscription-based service called GoExplore Guides that enable any college, attraction or venue to easily create a video tour app for the iPhone (other Smartphone platforms in development).



    Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA is already using the service to offer a variety of tailored campus tour experiences. They have 8 different tours on offer including a Housing Tour, Sports Tour and tours for different colleges such as Mathematics, Engineering and Business. The tours can be streamed through the GoExplore Travel & Tour Guide Player (downloaded free of charge from the iTunes App Store) and include student narrated video segments of campus locations and interactive GPS mapping.



    To learn more about the technology, visit us at www.barzadventures.com.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BarZ Adventures View Post


    While this technology is definitely growing in popularity and pervasiveness, this application is definitely not the first...



    BarZ Adventures, a company specializing in GPS video tour guide systems for over 4 years, has now ported their technology to the world of Smartphones as well. We offer a subscription-based service called GoExplore Guides that enable any college, attraction or venue to easily create a video tour app for the iPhone (other Smartphone platforms in development).



    Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA is already using the service to offer a variety of tailored campus tour experiences. They have 8 different tours on offer including a Housing Tour, Sports Tour and tours for different colleges such as Mathematics, Engineering and Business. The tours can be streamed through the GoExplore Travel & Tour Guide Player (downloaded free of charge from the iTunes App Store) and include student narrated video segments of campus locations and interactive GPS mapping.



    To learn more about the technology, visit us at www.barzadventures.com.



    Your first release was of this App was Dec 2nd, which means you are not first. Quality of CofC app is also superior IMHO
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