Course Evaluation . . . There’ll Soon Be An App For That!

September 20, 2011 :: Shirley Ross, Information Systems and Computing

M.upenn.edu will soon have a new application: Course Evaluation, which will become the latest addition to Mobile PennInTouch. It’s one of the latest ways ISC is meeting the needs of Penn students.

Mobile Course Evaluation, Penn’s newest addition to its mobile service (m.upenn.edu), is currently in testing and is expected to roll out sometime in October. Mobile Course Eval will be part of Mobile PennInTouch, an application designed for handheld devices that allows students to access most of the services available on the regular PennInTouch website from any handheld device.

Those services include the ability to view their class schedule by day, week, or term; get instant access to their grades by course and term; search for courses, including open sections and courses that might fit into their current schedule; view, drop, and add course enrollments, or search for open sections; view details of their current academic program and tap their advisor’s name to send email; check the status of their financial aid application and view any aid they have been awarded, including work-study job awards and associated earnings; identify contacts to be used for UPennAlert or various University offices in case of emergency; update their address information; and share their academic and financial information with parents, guardian, or sponsor. It also provides alerts that might require immediate attention (ex. registration holds), announcements, and important dates and deadlines.

PennInTouch was added to Penn’s mobile network early last spring, joining a number of University resources already available on m.upenn.edu. For example: Penn News (headlines and summaries of articles about Penn); Penn Directory (allows search either by University department or by person); and Penn Libraries (connects to catalog search, reference works, Blackboards Mobile learning, new books available, library events, and the ability to ask questions of a librarian). Other icons link to information about University athletic events (when, where, opponents, scores, etc.) and to cultural and academic events on campus (performing arts events, nationally-known guest speakers, book signings, etc.) By accessing geolocation information, m.upenn.edu’s maps application can provide directions to any building on campus simply by clicking on the name of the building.