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UW-Eau Claire launches mobile app

RELEASED: Sept. 26, 2011

mobile app

EAU CLAIRE — The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has launched a new mobile application for users of smartphones, tablet computers and other Web-enabled devices.

"We realize that the millennial generation, to which the majority of our students belong, has grown up using mobile technologies as older generations used pen and paper," said Chip Eckardt, UW-Eau Claire's chief information officer. "This generation uses the smartphone as a major communication, entertainment and research tool. We needed to provide software tools that work on these types of devices."

UW-Eau Claire Mobile is available as a free download on the university's mobile app Web page. The app enables users of Android, Apple and other devices to do the following:

  • Check grades and browse UW-Eau Claire's course catalog.
  • Access important campus emergency and safety contacts.
  • Look up contact information for students, faculty and staff, and call or email them directly from within the app.
  • View in real time which computers are open in the university's various labs, as well as the software available on those computers.
  • Search the entire McIntyre Library collection — from articles to books to media — and find out where the materials are located and whether they are available for checkout.
  • Ask questions of a McIntyre librarian and receive responses.
  • Access maps and directions to university buildings and parking lots.
  • Access Blugold Dining menus and specials.

"The app was developed over the summer and has a student and academics focus," Eckardt said. "Students tested various beta versions, and their input was critical as the app was developed."

UW-Eau Claire developers worked with a vendor, Boopsie Inc., on the mobile app project.

Future enhancements to the app will be supported by an allocation of Blugold Commitment dollars for a project to advance the use of emerging technologies on campus, Eckardt said. The Blugold Commitment, approved in early 2010 by UW-Eau Claire students and the UW System Board of Regents, is a differential tuition increase of $1,200, phased in over four years, to preserve and enhance the distinctive UW-Eau Claire educational experience.

Eckardt said ideas are in the works for new UW-Eau Claire Mobile channels, including curricular-specific learning tools, D2L support, university events, athletics and admissions, among others.

"Our top priority is providing tools that help our students succeed in their chosen academic careers at UW-Eau Claire," Eckardt said.

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JP/DW

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