implementing and maintaining your university's mobile presence
DESCRIPTION
Our first Playbook, Improving Recruitment in the Mobile World, discussed how to build your mobile strategy by identifying your audiences, gaining internal support, and creating new content to keep your users engaged. To complete the process, this supplementary Playbook focuses on taking a deeper dive into some specific challenges and decisions that you will likely face throughout the development of your app.TRANSCRIPT
Playbook for Higher Education
Playbook:Implementing and Maintaining
Your University’s Mobile Strategy
1Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
So you’re ready to make the mobile move. Now it’s time to figure out how to effectively prepare for, launch, and
maintain that presence.
Our first Playbook, Improving Recruitment in the Mobile World, discussed how to build your mobile strategy by
identifying your audiences, gaining internal support, and creating new content to keep your users engaged.
To complete the process, this supplementary Playbook focuses on taking a deeper dive into some specific chal-
lenges and decisions that you will likely face throughout the development of your app.
INTRODUCTION
Some questions that will be answered:XX Should I build and manage our app internally, or
outsource it?
XX Who should project manage the implementation of
our app?
PREPARE
TO BUILD OR BUY? THAT IS THE QUESTION.Establishing the goals for your mobile strategy is important,
but so is figuring out how to present your content in the simple,
intuitive, speedy and bug-free interface that your users expect.
Developing and maintaining a high-performance mobile pres-
ence can be deceptively complex, so your team should assess
the available resources and decide whether to build your own
app in-house or partner with a third-party vendor.
Using internal resources gives you 100% control over the devel-
opment process and the finished product, but app some provid-
ers offer an out-of-the-box set of features and can make the
ongoing maintenance of your app much easier.
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XX What implications will the app have on the WiFi
bandwidth on our campus?
XX What is the best way to influence the adoption of
the app on and around campus?
XX How do I track the impact of our app?
By answering these questions, among others, this Playbook offers some practical guidelines for delivering an
engaging mobile experience that your constituents will appreciate.
2Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
Here are some questions for your team to consider:
1. How quickly do you want to launch?The traditional higher educa-
tion development process can
be lengthy. If you have a short
time frame or user demand is
particularly high, third-party providers can offer turnkey
solutions that are completed within a few months.
2. How big is your budget?If you need to hire an employee to manage your app,
salaries for software designers, OS developers and soft-
ware engineers can range between $100,000-$150,000.
Most providers’ annual licensing fees amount to much
less than that salary.
3. Do you have the expertise and resources to create a mobile app?Mobile apps require multiple platforms, each with their
own operating system and functional requirements.
Assess whether your internal specialists can build an
app on multiple platforms in addition to their “usual”
responsibilities.
4. Can you handle ongoing service & maintenance?Even the most well-designed app
requires regular service, upgrades
and continuous performance and security monitoring.
As operating systems are updated, your app will require
modifications as well.
CHOOSE A PROJECT MANAGER As we mentioned earlier, maintaining a meaningful mobile presence does re-
quire regular attention. Choosing to build the app internally or to partner with
a vendor will dictate the amount of work, and level of skill, that is required from
your team. Either way, a project manager that embodies some of the following
skills will make the implementation of your app much easier.
An ideal project manager is:
XX An efficient interdepartment communicator. Pulling together the data
that you will need for your app requires a person who knows and under-
stands the university departments and can navigate through the politics.
XX Familiar with mobile technology, in general. For the purposes of test-
ing, your project manager should be familiar with mobile technology (and
have used apps before) in order to catch and report and bugs that need
to be addressed.
XX Comfortable with data. Sometimes changes need to be made to a particu-
lar data set, many times those changes can be made directly to the CSV file
or XML data. If your project manager is capable of making these changes, it
will expedite the process.
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3Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
LAUNCH
MARKETING YOUR APPAs your launch date approaches, be sure to build a Marketing plan to
drive the adoption of your app within the local community and beyond.
Finally A Chance To Use Those Guerilla TacticsGet creative with your on-campus advertising! High-profile
advertisements such as bus wraps, billboards, and elaborate
walkway art with QR codes will definitely get the attention of
your community, and easily convert to downloads. You could
also consider using student and faculty ambassadors to wear
your branded bags and t-shirts around town to spread the
word about your awesome new app.
ENSURE ADEQUATE BANDWIDTH AND SECURITY Existing students and faculty make up the majority of your user base. Special at-
tention is required to ensure easy and secure access to your network, as well as a
reliable user experience.
Students typically engage in bandwidth-intensive activities such as social network-
ing, video streaming, and multimedia for personal and academic needs. As a result,
IT leader CDW-G recommends:
XX Provide adequate wireless coverage. Mobile access
has become so commonplace that coverage of tradi-
tional hot spots like classrooms, libraries, dorms, cafete-
rias and student unions is no longer considered suffi-
cient. Wall-to-wall, campus-wide coverage is expected.
XX Coverage does not equal capacity. Even if you have
campus-wide coverage, bandwidth gets consumed
quickly; your network must be able to accommodate
high traffic volume. Additionally, there will be substantial
differences in user density between areas - for example,
a walkway through the quad and a dorm or a lecture
hall. If you are managing the network in-house, consoles
that provide real-time monitoring of devices and access
points lets you proactively balance loads during peak
use periods by labeling and prioritizing traffic.
XX Security. This is a big concern
for most IT departments. In light of
the increasing frequency of mobile-
related security threats (20% of mo-
bile users have experienced some
type of security threat, according to a Cloudmark
survey reported in USA today), CDW-G suggests dis-
cussing these precautions with your IT support team:
- Employ additional firewalls or use separate net-
works for confidential, mission-critical data
- Educate all users about security practices/network
policies
- Use virtualization and internal clouds for addition-
al protection
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4Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
Reach Prospective StudentsUniversities worldwide have
extended their brand reach
into multiple countries with
their mobile apps. How, you
ask? By leveraging modern
marketing channels, you
can spread the word about
your app far and wide.
Here are some tactics that
will get the attention of
users, no matter where they
are:
XX App Store Optimization (ASO). Similar to Search
Engine Optimization, ASO increases your ranking
and makes your app more discoverable in the App
Store. Choosing the right app name, keywords,
and description are crucial to making your way to
the top of their App Store searches.
XX Social Media Campaigns. We live in a digital world.
When students research potential universities,
they go to the sources that they know: Google,
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. By promoting
your app through all of these channels, you not
only increase app downloads, your brand remains
permanently in their pocket, and top of mind.
XX A good PR strategy. We all know that PR is crucial
to any institution, but in an age where your “value”
is ranked and published by third parties like US News and World Reports, it becomes even more
important to tout the innovation that’s taking place
on your campus. Publishing press releases and in-
terviews that highlight everything you’re doing with
your app on a regular basis will get the attention of
students and analysts worldwide.
Sustain the Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!After your initial launch, there are several ways to main-
tain interest and excitement about your app – both for
development stakeholders and users:
XX Run “teaser campaigns”. Teasers help to promote
future upgrades, improvements and added features
and functionality.
XX Be responsive. Incorporating user feedback and
promoting the implementation of suggested im-
provements keeps users coming back.
XX Run contests. For anything from new feature ideas
to design elements or slogans for the app, a little
competition gets people excited and involved with
the app.
MOBI LE M EDICAL MODULES ATTR ACT STUDENTS AND NATIONAL ATTENTION FOR GEORGIA SCHOOL
Georgia Regents University (GRU) created a suite of highly specialized medical modules within their app. With everything from a medical abbreviation dictionary to a complex medical calculator, GRU is making their students’ everyday lives much easier and more effecient. In addition to making life easier for students, the customized modules have become a valuable recruiting tool. And through a variety of high profile marketing efforts, GRU Mobile brought national recognition to the University as an academic health innovator.
5Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
1. Focusing on a smaller feature set allows you to bring
your app “to market” faster.
2. A narrower scope during development allows you to
pay attention to the details of your initial feature set,
resulting in better quality and higher user satisfaction.
3. By publicizing your future plans, users have more to
look forward to. As long as additional features and
functions are made available within a reasonable
time frame, they can be part of a successful ongoing
marketing campaign.
Metrics — What Gets Measured Gets ImprovedSetting up metrics to monitor app use and performance
is an essential part of maintaining a dynamic and pro-
ductive mobile presence. There are certain generic key
performance indicators (KPIs) that apply to any mobile
app, such as:
XX Number of downloads
XX Number of active users
XX Geographic location of users
XX Features of highest use
XX Seasonal changes in feature usage
Through qualitative research with
user groups and surveys, you can
also determine how your app im-
pacts the perception of your uni-
versity, acceptance rates to the
university, student satisfaction, and
even graduation rates.
These items only scratch the surface of what you can
discover with the appropriate analytics. The more you
can track, the more opportunities you have to uncover
trends, user needs, and which components are working
(or not). All of these data points enable you to make
improvements to your app and ultimately raise user sat-
isfaction and engagement over time.
TRACK, LEARN, TWEAKOne of the most important concepts to grasp when it comes to mobile develop-
ment is that the space is constantly evolving and, as a result, requires an intention-
ally flexible strategy. By regularly tracking usage and making decisions based on
that data, you can continuously optimize and improve your users’ experience.
Phased Deployment: One Step At a TimeIn most cases it’s not realistic to launch all of the desired functionality at once.
Many schools will roll out the first phase of their app with the features to satisfy
the immediate needs of their users and build from that point. There are several
advantages to this approach:
MAINTAIN
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6Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
“Mix things up” to keep users interestedBy rotating contributors, fresh content keeps users
coming back to see what’s new:
XX Seasonal content for back to
school, parents weekend,
graduation, and holidays
means that there is always
something new and useful
for your users to find
XX Are athletics important at
your school? Mix up your design elements during
different sports seasons to help promote support
for your team.
XX Create dynamic YouTube channels that feature new
videos every week. They could address important
issues on campus and in the community, or even
showcase interviews of various teachers, students
and athletes..
XX Have a big anniversary coming up? Dedicate a mod-
ule to your history to foster school spirit and recon-
nect with alumni.
Do You Need Additional “App-centric” Assets?Keep in mind that while it
is perfectly acceptable to
repurpose existing mate-
rials, some content was developed for the desktop and
therefore does not always make sense in mobile envi-
ronment where you have significantly less screen real
estate. This new paradigm gives you the opportunity to
introduce new ways to capture users’ interest, leverag-
ing mobile-specific features like the camera, compass,
and accelerometer of the device.
Loyola Marymount University’s mobile app incorporates
LMU Live, which streams comments and images upload-
ed by students and faculty onto large screen monitors
in the on-campus Welcome Center. This interactive feed
is curated and moderated by students and has created
a dynamic, interactive community for LMU supporters.
LMU Live has proven to be a unique channel to reach
prospective students and, as part of an integrated out-
reach campaign, has helped boost application rates by
10%.
Remember, students are used to having everything right
at their fingertips, so the more useful (i.e., indispensible)
you can make your app for navigating their day-to-day
lives on campus, the better.
KEEP USERS COMING BACKSome streaming elements, like news feeds and transportation schedules, will automatically update. However, it’s
just as important to keep all other services and postings as timely as possible. The Pew Research Center’s Internet
& American Life Project found that 68% of Smartphone owners use only five or fewer apps on a regular basis. By
keeping your information fresh and relevant, your app is more likely to be among that exclusive “most used” group.
7Implementing and Maintaining Your University’s Mobile StrategyBlackboard Mobiletm
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BLACKBOARD CAN HELP
Taking the first steps toward developing and launching your mobile app can seem daunting. Mobile technology
continues to evolve with breathtaking speed, and there are seemingly limitless variations and options when it comes
to choosing features and capabilities.
No matter which approach and details are most appropriate for your school, we can offer the expertise and insight
that has been developed from helping hundreds of institutions launch their mobile initiatives. If you have additional
questions that have not been addressed in this Mobile Playbook Series, please contact us at bit.ly/bbmobile-contact.
About Blackboard MobileBlackboard Mobile, a division of Blackboard Inc., is dedicated to providing innovative mobile solutions to educational
institutions around the world. Blackboard Mobile has partnered with hundreds of institutions to enrich teaching, learn-
ing, and life outside the classroom. Based in San Francisco, the Blackboard Mobile team currently delivers two mobile
solutions: Blackboard Mobile Learn, bringing interactive teaching and learning to mobile devices, and Blackboard Mobile
Central, providing on-demand access to essential campus information.