Students will be able to download the Navigate App to their cell phones by next Fall (Photo Editor/Kate Rodgers).
The Office of Academic Planning and Advising intends to reintroduce an application called Navigate during new student orientation. It is a student success management system available for students in the app store as well as online.
An article published by The Lamron in February 2020 first discussed the Office of Academic Planning and Advising’s initiative that planned to launch Navigate.
As part of the 2021 strategic plan, the application designed by EAB—a technology company that assists schools—to be a student success management would be used as an “early warning system to track student progress,” according to Dean of Academic Planning and Professor of English, Celia Easton.
Easton said that due to COVID-19, progress on the app was not prioritized for much of last year. She said the office plans to be back on track for a soft rollout release of the application this upcoming fall and is hopeful that soon the app will be widely used on campus.
“We will be definitely rolling out the app again during new student orientation,” Easton said.
According to the EAB website, Navigate is a student success collaborative program for four-year institutions, partnered with more than 550 colleges and universities. Their model aims to address intelligence via administrators, strategic care via faculty and staff and smart guidance via students.
“We chose Navigate because of the data analytics that they have to offer,” Easton said. “It is all about connecting students to resources.”
The Navigate system was purchased through the SUNY Investment and Performance Fund with a four-year timeline. The SUNY Investment and Performance Fund was developed to help SUNY schools expand about 40,000 credentials to reach a goal of 150,000 by 2020, according to an article published by The Lamron in January 2016.
The app does not aim to replace myGeneseo or any online portals but to rather supplement and make certain things easier for students, according to the Office of Academic Planning and Advising.
“One of the largest goals of the app is to make scheduling appointments more convenient,” Easton said. “Students can actually go into the app and … find the faculty member and actually schedule an appointment.”
The rollout has not begun yet, due to technical reasons, but is one of the Office’s main goals for fall 2021, according to Easton.
The new prevalence of virtual meetings will also be integrated into the app, and Easton believes many departments will continue to hold meetings in this manner and the option will be available.
By increasing scheduling, the app will increase communication between students and the campus’ representatives, according to Easton. Navigate will also include a system to warn students if they are falling behind with their requirements before it becomes too much of an issue.
“Right now, there is nothing that searches for the students … as long as they are kind of keeping their head just above water, which is a 2.0—or minimum competency—nobody is paying attention. Nobody is going to initiate a conversation,” Easton said.
Other than scheduling meetings, the app can be used to find “Study Buddies” in the same class, list activities happening on campus and your residence hall during the day, provide maps and routes to buildings on campus as well as provide information about your major. For undeclared students, there is a quiz you can take where the program analyzes your interests based on a questionnaire and provide a major that would best match you, according to the February 2020 article published by The Lamron.
Easton said that she hopes that there will soon be a tile on myGeneseo for Navigate, although there is no direct timeline. She said that she is working hard to get the app up and running and is hopeful that it will soon be available for all students and faculty to provide an easier communication system between everyone.