While students were finishing the 2011-2012 school year and enjoying their summer vacations, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) was more than busy preparing for this school year.
During the last few months of the 2011-2012 school year, DoIT helped to redesign and build the Creighton website, as well as their own website. This summer, they were busy putting the finishing touches on the new mobile apps and helping the Creighton community in the transition from BlueLine to BlueLine 2.
In the process of creating the improved Creighton website that went live late last semester, DoIT worked with a local creative agency to create the new look, chose Drupal, the new content management system for the campus, and worked with representatives from Creighton marketing, public relations, admissions and the business administration to create the new content for the website, according to Mike Fecci, the senior director for innovative applications.
“The website was redesigned in order to enhance Creighton’s presence on the web and make it easier for students, faculty, staff, prospective students, alumni and visitors to access the information they need in a visually pleasing manner,” Fecci said.
DoIT also worked on redesigning and reorganizing their website in order to keep it up to date. Their newly improved website went live in March.
“[The new DoIT website] will help students by providing them with the answers to their technology questions, whether it be how to connect to CUWireless, how to set up CUmail on their smart phones, how to reset their passwords or any other question they might have regarding technology on campus,” Fecci said.
New changes this school year include BlueLine 2. This system will replace BlueLine, which professors use to post class information and other resources for students. Most professors have made the switch to BlueLine 2, but not all.
DoIT has played a part in this transition process.
“When Creighton found out that the vendor was terminating ANGEL (BlueLine Classic), DoIT coordinated the efforts to identify potential replacements. Input from faculty, students and instructional designers resulted in the selection of Instructure’s Canvas product which we labeled BlueLine 2,” Barb Stephens, the academic applications administrator from DoIT’s Center for Academic Technology and Enterprise Applications, said.
The Center for Academic Technology offers faculty training sessions and open office hours on Friday from noon to four in the lower level of the Reinert-Alumni Library behind the student service desk, according to Fecci.
Much of the Creighton community has taken an interest in the four free new mobile apps now offered—Campus app (Guidebook), iCreighton, Go Creighton Athletics app and the Dining app. According to Megan Carroll, the mobile apps and web specialist, Creighton President Fr.Timothy Lannon, has downloaded these apps on his phone.
The Campus app (Guidebook) includes features commonly found on Creighton’s website, such as the Creighton calendar (students can even make their own calendar
hrough this feature), student news (including access to the Creightonian), BlueLine, BlueLine 2, the NEST, sports news and schedules, shuttle schedules, maps of campus, the hours of the different campus recreation facilities and contact information for services on campus such as Public Safety and DoIT.
“If a student needs to find a professor’s office or send an email to a professor, [he or she] can just fire up the Campus app and search for the professor’s name in the Faculty and Staff Directory,” Carroll said.
The iCreighton app includes many similar features, but students also have access their grades, schedules, and the BlueJayLife accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
The Go Creighton Athletics app features the latest sports news, stats, updates, team schedules and results, photos, videos and audio. Video and audio are premium features only.
According to Carroll, the Dining app was “custom-built for the Creighton community through a partnership with DoIT, Sodexo, Information Analytics in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Cory and Toby Flint of Springfield, Nebraska.”
It is also the newest of the apps; it was available at the Apple App Store on Aug. 23 and on Google Play on Droid phones since Aug. 18.
This app allows students to view dining hall hours, specials, menus, nutritional information and their dining dollars and Jaybuck$ accounts. It includes a webcam to see how long the lines are at each dining hall. Students can also add menu items to their calendar so they know when their favorite meals will be served.
Carroll said she would like to encourage students to fill out the feedback forms in the appropriate apps. If students have ideas for other apps DoIT can create, she encourages them to talk to the Creighton Student’s Union (CSU).
“The more DoIT knows about student technology needs and desires, the better we can work to meet those needs.” Carroll said.
Carroll graduated from Creighton in December 2011 with a degree in graphic design and english.
“I’ve tried to approach my work on these apps with the mindset of a student, always thinking, ‘when I was a student, what would I have wanted to see in this app?’ As a recent alumna, I know I would have appreciated these apps when I was a student.” Carroll said.