Emporia State launched the Navigate app for students and faculty on Jan. 30th as part of a broader effort by the Kansas Board of Regents to use data to adjust objectives which public universities may not be reaching. 

The current launch of the app is intended as a pilot launch for students. 

“For spring, we’re piloting it to learn where the gaps are, what we need to emphasize more, emphasize less. The focus for spring is to get faculty on board and for fall to get students to use it,” said Cass Coughlin, Dean of Students and Executive Director of Engagement & Auxiliaries.

Currently, the app’s functionality is limited. Students can schedule appointments with their advisor, view their class schedule, and view a directory. Each of these features are either available through other means, such as scheduling advisor appointments and viewing class schedules on Hornet 365, or are more limited than their alternatives. The current directory does not allow students to view faculty which are not an advisor or one which they have a current class with. 

Other minor features include a to-do list, the ability to ask classmates for a study group, and indicating holds the student may have. 

Beyond these features the driving force behind the app is to collect data on students’ success at ESU.

“If there’s a course that many students are enrolling in and then getting a D, F, or W, we’ll be able to get that info,” Coughlin said.

When asked why that information couldn’t be pulled from Canvas, Coughlin clarified that that the app’s strength is that it’s “nimble” to extract useful data from.

“D, F, and W could be pulled easily from Banner. One of the facets where Navigate is better equipped is more live data depending on what information faculty are entering in. Some faculty take attendance: Banner doesn’t really allow for that and Canvas you have to make it able to,” he said. “Navigate, faculty could use to easily report. It’s more nimble. Navigate can be navigated without someone mining particular data sets.”

In the email sent to undergraduate students on Jan. 30, Navigate is explained as “a data-driven platform that interoperates with Canvas for metrics and analytics. The more data available in Canvas, the more capable Navigate will be at empowering students to track their success.”

It is unclear at the moment how the data Navigate obtains from Canvas will aid students and in what way that information will be made available to them.

Navigate currently averages reviews of 2.4 on the Apple App Store and 3.3 on the Google Play Store. 

ESU Mobile is the current companion app for students which contains a full directory, course search, Hornet Announcements, and course view functionality. 

“I believe the current plan is to phase out ESU Mobile,” Coughlin said.