Mobile Computing | News

Datatel Publishes Mobile App to iTunes Store

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 07/06/10

Datatel has formally released Datatel Mobile Access (MOX), a mobile application for campuses, to the Apple iTunes Store for free download. Quinnipiac University and Ohio's Marietta College, participants in the MOX beta program, were the first schools to go live on the new platform. MOX includes technology from DubMeNow, which facilitates Smartphone information sharing.

MOX currently runs on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The company said that starting in the third quarter of 2010 the application will work on versions of BlackBerry and Google Android. It's also expected to work on Microsoft Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian, and Palm Pre devices by the end of the year.

The program provides access to courses, contacts, events, notifications, news, and maps. If the institution is running Datatel Portal, information is customized for the user. For example, the user would see a list of his or her courses. Clicking on a course would bring up a description, professor names, location and time, class roster, assignments, announcements, events, and documents. Notifications could include overdue book reminders. The contact feature provides for automatic updating as contacts change their profile information.

"Most students today receive their information from a mobile device, not just from e-mail, as was true just a few years ago," said Matthew Romeo, director of university applications at Quinnipiac. "Our administrators who tested MOX loved the student notification feature that can segment messages to specific people or groups over their Smartphones. They know that when they send out a message over MOX, there is a much better chance that constituents will see it and be advised of critical notices."

The Hamden, CT university has also found the app useful for marketing. "Prospective students and their parents can download MOX from the iTunes Store and have in their hands detailed maps to navigate the campus, real-time news and events to get a feeling for our culture, and important phone numbers, in case they need help," Romeo added.