Review 1 – Newcastle University Mobile App

About

The Newcastle University Mobile Application is an educational app created by the university to make it easier for their students to find out information quickly and straightforwardly, this will allow students to stay organised, making it easier for them to adapt to university life as this can be quite a bit change – especially for those who have had some time out from education.

How it works

This app is available for download on Apple, Android and WindowsPhone devices from the corresponding app store. Once you have downloaded the app and open it, the home screen will ask you for your university username and password to allow you to log in to your own personal account. There are many features in this app, including:

  • Viewing your timetable
  • Checking your Library Account – if you have any books due or to collect
  • Checking your print credits balance
  • Checking which Library areas have spaces to study

These features are shown below on this screenshot taken from the application:screen-shot-2016-11-17-at-13-37-09

Advantages

There are many advantages of being able to view your timetable whilst you’re on the go, for example, your timetable has the lecture, the lecturer and the room in which the lecture is due to take place, if you’re walking to a lecture and you can’t remember exactly which room you’re in, it’s easy to reach for your phone and check on the app, especially as the timetable is also linked to a map of the campus, making it very straightforward to see where you’re going – this will reduce lateness to lectures which result in less disruption to learning. It’s also possible to refresh your timetable, so if there are any room changes then they will appear on your timetable to avoid any confusion.

Another advantage of the app is that there is a ‘Directory’ section which allows you to type  the name of a member of staff that you wish to contact into the search bar and their contact details will come up. This is quick and easy way to find out information, making it simple when you have an problem and you urgently need to contact your lecturer for help.

The application also tells you which library study spaces are free as well as which areas have computers available, this is beneficial as it can be very time saving in addition to preventing areas from getting too busy which would result in them being impossible areas to study in due to all of the disruption from the sheer amount of people.

Disadvantages

I have found that the Newcastle University app has very few disadvantages, apart from the fact that you need internet connection for it to function, this can prove to be a big problem if the device you are using doesn’t have this feature, but can be overcome once connected to wifi – this isn’t useful when you’re out and about but the majority of the university campus has strong wifi that you’re able to connect to, so internet being a necessity for this app didn’t prove to be much of a problem for me personally. Another possible disadvantage is that this app needs frequent updates which requires time as well as storage on your device, if these are two things that you don’t have to spare at a specific  time, the app can perform quite slowly and will take a while to refresh which makes it slightly unreliable at times.

Conclusion

To conclude, I find the Newcastle University App very useful and i would recommend it to any of fellow students here at Newcastle University. It allows me to be much more relaxed about where my lectures are and how to get to them as well as having everything you would need to help you to get around the campus as well as who to contact.

References

  • MOBILE APPS; IT SERVICE;
    NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
    In-text: (Ncl.ac.uk, 2016)
    Your Bibliography: Ncl.ac.uk. (2016). Mobile Apps; IT Service; Newcastle University. [online] Available at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/itservice/mobile/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].
  • NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
    Newcastle University on the App Store
    In-text: (University and University, 2016)
    Your Bibliography: University, N. and University, N. (2016). Newcastle University on the App Store. [online] App Store. Available at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/newcastle-university/id558828800?mt=8 [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].