Mobile Applications at a Mega University: Anadolu University Campus App

This paper explores the use of mobile applications to aid on-campus and off-campus students at a mega university. Anadolu University — with over 1,900,000 students enrolled from over 30 countries — is the world's second largest university by enrolment(List of largest universities by enrolment, 2014). From its early days, the Universityhas used various means to access its students. During the last decade,with the introduction of mobile technologies and smartphones that are connected everywhere, the expectations of students have changed. Students now expect to be in contact with their educational institutions without any barriers. Anadolu University released its first mobile campus app onaniOS platform in May 2012. Students adopted the App quickly and the mobile app user community requested new functionalities. Since then,the University has released three major and over 25 minor releases of the app on both iOS and Android smartphones. This paper describes the lifecycle of Anadolu Campus App and its evolution over the years. It has been widely acceptedby our students both on campus and off campus, andthe increasing number of users gives an insight into the high rate of adoption of smartphones.