Department(s) / colleagues involved

Student Personalised Information Programme
ITS Web Development Team
MyWarwick App Steering Group

Our aim was to …

To develop a mobile app which could pull together information from a variety of sources, which would be useful to students. Students needed to access various systems to get all the information they need during their time at Warwick, the aim of the app was to try and provide as much of this information in one place as possible, and to also make it mobile viewing friendly.

What we did …

It was decided to develop the app in-house, and this was done by the Web Development team in IT Services. A pilot was then conducted with a select group of students to ensure that the features which had been developed were useful and that it provided a good user experience. The app was launched in September 2017.

The outcome has been …

The App has proved to be a huge success, and has reached students and staff across the University.
24,000 downloads
16,000 regular users
90% of year 1 undergraduates (figure not confirmed)

The benefit/impact has been …

The App was advertised to second year undergraduates only, so the organic uptake of the App with first year undergraduates helps to highlight the expectations of students when it comes to technology. The App was not promoted directly to these students and therefore a lot of them will have discovered it because they expected that there would be an app, and then simply searched in the app store. The App is proving to be a useful tool for students, who can quickly access different aspects of their life at Warwick from a single place.

This supports the Education Strategy by …

The MyWarwick App supports the following strands of the Education Strategy:

Partnership - Reciprocal Engagement: Communicating the principles of reciprocal engagement and model reciprocal engagement throughout governance efforts

The App is being developed in response to student feedback, through focus groups, and through student interns. This is a key principle in the development of the App and ensures that it continues to deliver what students need. There are plans to deliver communications about the App and this development principle.

Disciplinary Excellence - Strong Disciplinary Identities and Excellence in Pedagogy: Attaining consistency in the organisation, administration and infrastructure for teaching and learning, whilst championing diversity derived from discipline-specific and sector-leading pedagogies

By providing access for students to the key content they need for their academic study, the App is helping to simplify the infrastructure for teaching. An additional benefit of the App is that it can highlight to students where their department may not be using central systems, as information is not available through the app. Through SSLCs they can then ask for change and encourage the department to adopt more consistent practices.

Disciplinary Excellence - Student Learning Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries: Supporting greater harmonisation of practice, timetable construction, and administration

As above.

The response of students / staff has been …

The response to the App has been extremely positive and it has received excellent ratings in the app store. There has been positive engagement with users, with students participating in focus groups and providing suggestions for features through various channels.

Our next steps will be …

The My Warwick App Steering Group is responsible for governing any student related developments within the app, and for guiding the strategic direction.

A robust approach to development of the App is being taken, which aims to get students directly involved to ensure that the App does what they need. Suggestions for new features or functionality can come from a variety of sources; through in-app feedback, via reviews in the App Store, through the My Warwick Forum, through student focus groups, or from specific departments within the University. The My Warwick App Steering Group reviews these suggestions, considering factors such as student experience and feasibility to implement, and then makes a decision on whether they should be progressed.

To find out more, you can contact …

Roland Ingram, Process Owner, Student Personalised Information Programme, R dot Ingram dot 2 at warwick dot ac dot uk
John Dale, Deputy Director, IT Services, J dot Dale at warwick dot ac dot uk