A case study in mobile application development for student advisement in the W. P. Carey School of Business

Masters Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Computer Science - Internet, New Technologies, grade: sehr gut, Arizona State University, course: Graphic Information Technology, language: English, abstract: This research explored the current state of mobile application development with the purpose of creating an implementation for the W. P. Carey School of Business advising services online system (Advising S.O.S.) application. A functional overview of the desktop application was explored along with its usage and purpose, followed by a survey of current mobile application development strategies. The Advising S.O.S. application was a strong candidate for this research, as it is an application that students use every day for a variety of tasks. Data for this study was acquired from numerous sources including Google Analytics, input from the W. P. Carey Advisor Technical Committee, interviews, a student survey instrument, and development best practices. The outcome of this study indicates that mobile application development can be successful for institutes of higher education within the confines of budgets, timelines, and current knowledge and expertise. Both the advising staff and students were very satisfied with the new application. Valuable traffic data was captured and analyzed to inform future efforts in mobile application development for the school. Several key criteria were identified that can inform any mobile application development strategy. Additionally, an overview of the current state of mobile application development and strategies are contained herein.