Students, alumni and faculty members will now be able to communicate more easily through a new ASU application on Facebook.
The ASU application, which first appeared on Facebook on April 30 is continuing to be updated, according to Emily Dalton Smith, director of communications for the Office of the Executive Vice President of the Provost of the University.
“We’re working on developing the application further,” Dalton Smith said.
Currently, the application features a class schedule option with the student’s ability to his or her status in the class, communication among people in the same or similar classes and majors, a name game and a hometown map to discover if anyone is from the same city.
Further developments include creating an alumni communication aspect, residence hall communication, an ASU news and announcements section, games and a clubs and organizations section, she said.
“We’re going to add clubs and organizations this summer,” Dalton Smith said.
The application was built by Inigral, Inc. with feedback from ASU. ASU is one of the company’s earliest customers, Dalton Smith said.
“We think that this is going to be useful for students to connect to one another,” she said.
Dalton Smith said the application was built to create social connections that might improve students’ academic abilities and retention rate, as well as a tool for alumni.
“It’s a student retention initiative,” she said. “We’re really focusing on how to get students what they need to graduate.”
Dalton-Smith said it’s been proven that social connection leads to student retention.
She said Facebook and the application are not required for students and faculty members to use — they are just a tool.
“They’re not required to add it. It’s totally optional,” she said.
Privacy is also included.
“A user’s profile is not public in the application,” she said.
Only the user’s photo is seen, unless people are Facebook friends already. Students can e-mail other students and professors without seeing private information, Dalton Smith said.
Michael Staton, the CEO and co-founder of Inigral, Inc., said he got involved in making applications on the Facebook platform because one of his best friends was one of the first employees for Facebook.
The company creates applications for universities through the Facebook platform.
“I wanted to do something in the education space,” Staton said.
He said it wasn’t Facebook’s first priority to work with universities so that is what he’s trying to do.
“We’re trying to make Facebook work for universities,” Staton said. “That involves getting to know the customer and the user really well.”
The company works close with ASU in order to make the project a success.
“The people from the technology office and the provost office are being very good about keeping in contact with us,” Staton said.
He said the application is better than just adding ASU-related pages, since pages just “push information out to you from the news stream.”
“[The ASU application] makes it a much more rich experience. It can be more targeted toward [individuals],” Stanton said.
Saied Zeinali, a first year master’s student in finance, has not used the ASU application but thinks it’s a good idea.
“[The application] will be helpful for students to communicate,” Zeinali said.
He said he uses Facebook to improve his social connections and for school.
“Definitely, [Facebook has] helped me a lot,” Zeinali said.
Brandi Brown, an environmental technology management senior, said she has not used the new ASU application, but she has “Grist-ASU: The Sustainable Sun Devil” and “College of Technology and Innovation” under her “pages.”
“I check on [them] on a regular basis,” Brown said. “I like to keep up-to-date with things that deal with my major.”
She said she uses Facebook to keep in touch with some people from her old schools but not to keep in contact with those at ASU as much.
“I’m a lot older than most people at ASU. I’m not really friends with anyone I go to ASU with,” Brown said.
Brown said she agrees keeping in contact with some people could help her in the future.
“Keeping in contact with people like that, they may be able to network and help you find a job,” she said.
Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu
