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A smartphone application served as a paper alternative during orientation for some Fisher College of Business students.
Fisher staff and the college’s information technology services worked with students in the College of Engineering to develop a mobile app for students in Fisher’s master’s of business administration program.
The app aimed to assist students during their two-week orientation and it’s saved about $1,000, said Holly Danzig, director of graduate student leadership and engagement at the college.
She said the department spent “thousands of dollars” during each MBA orientation to produce paper programs.
The app included features like lunch locations, the appropriate dress code, and guest speakers each day. It also allowed users to sync events to the calendars on their smart phones.
Keeping the college innovative and “technologically savvy,” Danzig said, was one of the reasons for creating the app.
“We wanted to showcase that we are creating a great student experience for them from the start,” she said.
This is the first semester the MBA program — which adds about 120 students per term — has offered the app, which is compatible with all smartphones.
Danzig said she believes this is the first department app to be created outside of the OSU mobile app, which offers access to maps, BuckID information and class schedules.
In the program’s effort to develop the app, Danzig said it was able to stay within the graduate student leadership and engagement’s human resources budget.
“I don’t believe there were any fees accrued in the development of the app,” she said. “We did not have to get any external vendors to support us.”
Danzig said couldn’t provide The Lantern with a budget for the project itself, because she would have had to factor in employee salaries and hours spent on the project.
Some students said they found the app to very helpful.
“I used (the app) for the entire pre-term, which I think was two weeks long,” said Nivedita Raghavan, a student in the MBA program, “it’s extremely user-friendly.”
“Anything and everything having to do with the schedule was available on that app,” said Raghavan. She said she found the calendar sync ability most helpful.
While Raghavan said it helped her avoid conflicts in her schedule, she wishes they had something for day to day classes.
Raghavan isn’t the only student who feels she may benefit from this. Second year pre-finance major, Richa Agarwal said, “it’s a good way to keep track of (events).”
“There’s so many events going on all at once,” said Agarwal. “For undergrads, it would be a helpful way to organize different events.”
