Advice To Baruch College

If I was hired by Baruch to make any sort of changes, the first thing I would do is offer some new applications. I would like the change up school's website and have either a mobile version of that website or a mobile application all on its own. The main purpose of the new website and phone app should be to make it more organized and connected. Theses new features to the school's website and the mobile app would of course need a high level of maintenance so it would need some skilled software specialists. It would required a lot of resources to be put in which most of them already exist but they are all over the place. According to my standards, I would like the website to have a login on the main page for faculty and staff both having access to features that specified to each category. Obviously there should be a big button for the guest visitors because there are always new people who would be curious to find out about the benefits for joining Baruch. The guest website would let all the site surfers to look at what Baruch has to offer. For students and professors, the most significant application that should be provided to them should be a criticize section. A place where people could leave endless amounts of comments, advices and suggestions which all should be taken under serious consideration. This way the developers of the website have unlimited amount of ideas that could keep their users happy. The second most important feature should be the questions features. A few experienced faculties read and go through all of the different questions that student and/or professors ask, then the faculty monitoring the questions directs the questions to the right department and that department answers the questions directly to that individual. For example, it could be as easy as a new/transfer student asking where the history department is or as complicated as a professor asking for a raise. If there are too many questions that are being reported, there could be helpful videos made to answer the questions, so if there were a lot of students asking where the history department is, instead of the department being bothered and answering the same questions over and over again, the question can be asked by a video that walks a student step by step all the way to the history department. The key to this application must be simplicity and I think that's what the current website fails at. Instead of having to sign in to eSims and checking your schedule and grades, and then going over to blackboard, to check announcements made in classes and in class grades, it should all be put together. The users should be given an mailbox where they could receive messages from professors, instead of having another email address. It should let you view all you grades, the ones you receive in class and the grades you received for the class. Like I said, simplicity is the key and the more web browsing is required, the more painful it becomes, the easier it is navigate through information, easier it is for everyone. When students sign up their classes, they should be browse through who is teaching the class and read their reviews. Meaning, it should be a rate my professor built specifically for Baruch professors. The professors could only be rated by students who have finished attending that professor's class and only the students would be allowed to view any comments left. If anything the professors should only be allowed to see how they were rated but none of the comments. Also when a student is signing up for a class, they should be shown the textbooks required by that professor who is teaching the class. These textbooks could be sold online as a online book store, both available in hard copy or digital version. Students have the option to buy the book whenever they prefer even in the middle of the semester, so they are not required to buy books as soon as they sign up for classes. Even though its easier to view a digital copy of a textbook on a mobile device and being able to carry it anywhere, the students would loose out on being able to resell the book. This would be another great feature, where when the students sign up for a class not only they are shown a new copy of the book but also the books being sold by other students. This would make things easier for a lot students, both are trying to sell the book get some money and those who are trying to buy books cheaper. Within this new website and phone application should videos and articles on all the events that take place at Baruch, just like a school newspaper would. There are great events happening at Baruch all the time but unfortunately there is not enough coverage and light shed upon them. Later on if the technology is advanced enough and if Baruch has enough funds, students should be able to stream lectures through their devices live. Now there could be a few ways this could be done where students can stream the professor as the lecture is being presented and only the students are able to view the professor. The professor would know who is attending the class as long as the students are logged into that web application. Even though this makes classes much easier, available on the go, it leaves room for those who slack. An alternative to this application could be the professor having a virtual audience and presenting the lecture to the students on a big screen where all the students are shown sitting in front of their monitor screens or now in front of their iPhone 4's with a front facing camera, this way the class could give professor a visual feedback. Also I think it could be made much easier for a professor to notice a student when they have a question, because usually in big classes, students sometimes get ignored. If the students have a question, or if they want to participate, they could press a button which should be called "raise hand." This button would make the screen more noticeable out of all the screens visible to the professor, by either blinking or having a highlighted outline. I think it would also give those shy students a voice, where they are sometime scared to speak up, like me. If a student for some reason happens to miss a class session, there should be a video available for the student to either stream live or download to view at leisure time. If this feature is too far fetched and too costly the least that could be done is an audio of the lecture. Most professors at Baruch are already provided with microphones, all that is needed is a recording device. The audio lecture should be available for download or to once again as podcast for mobile devices. It would be fantastic to be able review what the class was about right before a test or a exam. I think a lot of these features and applications have been thought of before but may not have been applied because they are too costly and may even be too far fetched. However, I think these features could be seen soon in the future.