HCC combines innovation and technology to support student success
Sep 2, 2015
If you want to learn everything about Houston Community College, there is an App for that. HCC is taking innovation to new platforms to make it more convenient for current and prospective students to find about programs and courses offered across the district. Ravi Brahmbhatt, a former HCC student and now faculty member, along with two students recently launched HCC Mobile, an app that takes the HCC website, program catalog, the learning web, and the HCC Egalitarian newspaper and puts them into one place.
“The HCC app is one dashboard that points to the different platforms,” said Brahmbhatt. “It is about convenience.”
Brahmbhatt worked with Ayo Shofoluwe and Jacques Massa to get the app online. The three have donated their time and talents in developing HCC Mobile as a gift to HCC, providing easy information access for future students.
“I wanted HCC to be more connected within itself,” said Shofoluwe, a mechanical engineering student. “This way everyone could know about things like scholarships and events that are happening with HCC and within the communities.”
“People give up when they have to go through many steps to get somewhere, so I thought if there was an app that could go straight to what they need, people would like it,” said Massa, who is studying computer programming.
Maya Durnovo, Ed.D., chief entrepreneurial initiatives officer at HCC, has good reason to be proud of this project. She said, “We are delighted that Ravi Brahmbhatt, a member of the Entrepreneurship/Innovation Division, took the lead and created the first HCC mobile app. Within days, over a thousand students found the app and started using it successfully.”
One tab on HCC Mobile is PS Mobile, a mobile version of the PeopleSoft site that allows students to access class schedules, update personal information, view and accept Financial Aid awards, register via a shopping experience and pay, view grades and program progress and apply for graduation. Faculty can view their roster and input attendance and grades. William Carter, vice chancellor of Information Technology explains that this is a big step forward to providing an easy to use interface for faculty and students.
“Prior to the first day of the fall semester, the PS Mobile site had 280,160 visits, 100,547 unique users access it, and 1,960,600 page views,” said Carter. “It has become the main portal for students and faculty conducting their daily business. It is very successful and we continue to build on it.”
HCC Mobile can be downloaded through Google Play and Itunes. In the few weeks since its release, the app has more than 3,000 downloads. Students, staff and faculty interested in checking out PS Mobile, can visit psmobile.hccs.edu. Second start classes begin September 21. Register today.