Robert Hughes (Mt. SAC) and Brad Rippe (NOCCCD) discuss the strategies, development, and deployment of mobile applications at Mt. SAC, Cypress, Fullerton, and the School of Continuing Ed using Sungard's Mobile Connection.

1. Mobile Applications: Meeting Students
and Staff Where They Are
Robert Hughes and Brad Rippe
March 18-20, 2012 Page 1

2. Agenda
• Why provide mobile applications?
• What mobile applications to provide?
• Development environment
• Lessons Learned & Best Practices
• Marketing Strategies
• Future Plans
March 18-20, 2012 Page 2

3. About Us
Brad Rippe Robert Hughes
IT Project Leader Director, Enterprise Applications
North Orange Community Systems
College District Mount San Antonio College
March 18-20, 2012 Page 3

4. If we don’t, someone else will…
March 18-20, 2012 4

5. Our Customers Demand it…
• 2012 survey of 2,300 college-bound high school
students
– 94% use a mobile device at least once a week
– 52% viewed a college’s web site on a mobile device
– Source: https://www.noellevitz.com/papers-research-higher-
education/2012/2012-mobile-expectations-report
March 18-20, 2012 5

6. It’s the way that people do computing
today…
• June 2011 – the number of mobile subscribers in the
US exceeded the US population
• Between 2010 and 2011 the amount of wireless
network traffic increased 111%
– Source: http://www.ctia.org/media/press/body.cfm/prid/2133
March 18-20, 2012 6

7. It’s what your competitors are
doing…
• In 2011, 55% of public universities have activated, or
plan to activate, mobile applications this year
• Between 2010 and 2011, the number of community
colleges with mobile app offerings or plans more
than tripled (12% to 41%)
– Source: 2011 Campus Computing Survey
http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/report-mobile-app-
use-exploding-on-campus
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8. It’s what your students are
learning…
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9. It’s a skill set that you need to
develop…
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10. How to get started?
• With your next vacancy, hire someone to own your
mobile applications project
– Java programmer, expert web/portal developer
• SunGard Mobile Connection – approx. 6 month
project
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11. Incorporate it into a wider web/portal
project
• North Orange County CCD: Included as part of a
project to upgrade the Luminis portal (myGateway)
from v 4.x (uPortal) to v. 5.x (LifeRay)
• Mt. San Antonio College: Included as part of a
project to improve and overhaul the campus website
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12. It’s the next evolution in your web
environment!
Campus Website – 1990’s
Portal – 2000’s
Mobile Apps – 2010’s
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13. How can you leverage this new
platform?
• Geolocation – more than a static map
• Phone – click to call
• Email – click to email
• Text messaging
• Camera – augmented reality; QR code reader; video
chat
March 18-20, 2012 13

14. What Mobile Devices?
Types of Smartphones
iPhone 40%
Blackberry 36%
Android 22%
Other 2% Source: Google Analytics
Source: University of Colorado Boulder
http://bit.ly/cE79pB
March 18-20, 2012 Page 14

15. What to Use to Write Applications?
March 18-20, 2012 Page 15

16. Solution: Sungard Mobile Connection
• Mobile Connection 1.0
• Support multiple mobile platforms
• Built on Open Source Software
• Integrates with LDAP and Banner Data
• Quick Start
• m-Apps (Feeds, Grades, Schedule, Restaurant)
March 18-20, 2012 Page 16

17. What Applications to Provide?
• 22 College/University iPhone apps
— News - 21
— Directory - 18
— Maps - 18
— Events - 13
— Videos -9
— Courses -6
— Sports -6
— Photos -5
— Library -5
— Twitter -4
• 8 vendor solutions
• University Texas at Austin; Stanford; Harvard; Boston College; Saddleback; Irvine Valley College; Mt. Hood College;
Rice University; more
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18. What Applications to Include in NOCCCD
Release 1.0?
• m-Apps
• Student’s Daily Schedule
• Grades
• Restaurants
• News Feed
• Staff Directory
• Class Schedule
• Campus Map
March 18-20, 2012 Page 18

19. Technical Environment
• Mobile Connection 1.0.1
• Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.6.21+
• Grails 1.3.6 - http://www.grails.org
• Spring
• Hibernate
• Groovy
• Rhodes Framework 2.2.5 - http://rhomobile.com/projects/rhodes
• Ruby/Rails
• Android SDK and NDK
• Blackberry JDE
• iOS SDK/Xcode
March 18-20, 2012 Page 19

20. Mobile Computing Architecture
Mobile Server
request
response
API
Banner
NOCCCD Basic Configuration
Luminis IV LDAP
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21. Development Plan
3 institutions
3 platforms
~ 4 months
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22. Development Team
Cypress
District/SCE
Fullerton
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23. Development: Collaborating across the
District
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24. Development Strategy: Code Repository
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25. Lessons Learned
• Don’t bite off more than you can chew
• Use a syntax aware editor (STS or RhoStudio)
• Develop a realistic timeline
• Plan for App Store membership
(Blackberry, Apple, Android)
• Get the community involved
• Contribute to Community Source Initiative
– https://csicode.sungardhe.com/
• Read Mobile Connection Community in the
Commons
• Monitor comments and downloads
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26. Best Practices
• Monitor the Mobile Application Server
• Apache Tomcat 6.0.32
• Run Non-Root User
• Apache JMeter
• JVM Options
• JMX Tools
• VisualVM
http://visualvm.java.net/
• PSI Probe
http://code.google.com/p/psi-probe/
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27. Marketing Strategy
• Promote yourself
– Facebook
– Twitter
– App Stores
– Campus Web Sites
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28. Downloads to Date
• App Store = 4820 5000
App Store
• Android Market = 3315 4500
• Blackberry = 62 4000
3500
Android
Total = 8197
Downloads
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
Blackberry
0
*Statistics from 09/01/2011 - 03/14/2012 Ver 1.0
March 18-20, 2012 Page 28

29. Future Plans
• Move framework from 1.1.1 to 1.2
• JQtouch to JQuery Mobile 1.0
• Searchable News Feeds
• Schedule adds calendar/week view
• Better tablet support
• Statistics via Google Analytics
• Add search feature and filtering to
Class Schedule
• Add Analytics to server
• Improve User Interface design
• Develop new applications including:
– Financial Aid Status
– Student Holds
– Account Balance
March 18-20, 2012 Page 29

30. Mt San Antonio College Implementation
Week 1 2/27/2012 Identify participants for Mobile App Workgroup
Week 2 3/5/2012 OmniUpdate Conference March 4 - 8
Week 3 3/12/2012 Initial Kickoff meeting for Mobile Apps
Week 4 3/19/2012 Identify strategic content providers; schedule RSS training
Week 5 3/26/2012 RSS Training
Week 6 4/2/2012 RSS Training
Week 7 4/9/2012 Finalize m-apps, feeds for initial Mobile App launch
Week 8 4/16/2012 Enterprise Application Systems Retreat; Marketing Plan Finalized
Week 9 4/23/2012 www.mtsac.mobi page deployed; Board Presentation
Week 10 4/30/2012 Submission to iTunes, Android Marketplace
Week 11 5/7/2012 Testing by internal users
Week 12 5/14/2012 Submission to iTunes, Android Marketplace
Week 13 5/21/2012 Communication Plan Activated
Week 14 5/28/2012 App store approval
Week 15 6/4/2012 Live!
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31. Summary
• Mobile Solution
• Mobile Connection
• Campus Community Involvement
• Team Commitment
• Developer Environment
• Set a plan
• Plan for the Future
More technical information - http://slidesha.re/pjdbYK
NOCCCD Sungard Case Study - http://bit.ly/wJKGnK
NOCCCD Mobile – http://www.nocccd.edu/mobile
March 18-20, 2012 Page 31

32. Questions & Answers
March 18-20, 2012 Page 32