The Pros and Cons to Using Apps and Mobile Devices in Your College

GSU implemented an app store in order to provide apps for students, faculty and staff, and to package those apps in one place.

Ron Stalnaker, Associate CIO and Director of Enterprise Technology Solutions at GSU says the app store enabled the school to create and publish its own apps, and also publish apps provided by partnering vendors.

Stalnaker says the app store sparked conversations between IT members and GSU end users, and helped him target specific problems and needs.

He also says the appstore enables the school to tighten its relationships with vendors, and their overall implementation success.

“Our mobile strategy has been to leverage our strategic partnerships with these partners, have conversations with them about apps, and publishing the right ones to our user base that’s going to make them successful,” he says. “So our mobile strategy has been leveraging the benefits of our vendors and build apps that solve a specific need…At GSU, that’s basically going to be filling in the gaps that our vendors haven’t provided, but have a way to publish those and communicate those to our customers was vital to the strategy; that’s why we decided that an enterprise app store was essential.”

Stalnaker says that even though apps are servicing end user needs, such as living improvements for students on campus, they still play a role in education.

He says apps enable colleges to graduate from traditional teaching methods to more mobile ones.

“Having mobile apps allows us to not only integrate teaching and learning wherever the teacher is, it also creates that connection and opportunity to teach and learn outside the classroom,” Stalnaker says. “One of the other things we’ve seen is a lot of the apps for teaching and learning are trying to solve a specific problem.”

Wasgatt says apps and mobile devices help colleges set themselves apart from competitors, and attract prospective students.

He says colleges are at an even higher advantage if they publish solid, successful apps, and toss out the bad ones.

“When you’re a freshman walking onto campus and have a mobile resource on your phone, it becomes a resource packet to say hey, here are all the apps [that can help you],” Wasgatt says. “It makes them more comfortable than by hearing things through word of mouth. It allows a student to have another level of engagement.”