You can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Similarly, you can give a student everything they need to succeed but cannot force them to seek out help when they need it. In an effort to help students find what they need to succeed, Iowa State University has begun using a new app to keep students connected with on-campus resources. 

The app, Navigate Student, is replacing what used to be ISU appointments and includes a variety of new features to keep students on track. The app offers students a hub through which they can do a variety of tasks. 

Students can schedule appointments with staff and faculty through the appointments tab. They can look into important resources like academic advising and career services. Navigate Student includes additional features such as the Study Buddies tab which allows students to opt in to create study groups with peers and a ‘To-Do’ list which keeps track of important dates and deadlines. Finally, the app includes features like allowing students to check their schedule or major at any time.

One of Iowa State’s Student Success and Retention Specialists, Peter Cruz, explained the functions on the administrative side of the app. 

“The idea is that we are behind the scenes trying to network and connect students with resources so they can be successful, basically an internal referral system,” Cruz said.

The system picks up on issues a student may be having and can help to direct them find the support they need. The app is built to keep students connected with not just staff but rather a network of staff members and campus resources.

“We do have a lot of staff turnover, especially now in the age of COVID,” Cruz said. “Maybe a staff member doesn’t have a direct connection to a certain support office, whereas in the past that would prevent someone from connecting a student with that office, doing it in this system allows for better communication.”

Another feature of Navigate Student won’t be around this fall but is intended to be added early next year. The academic planner is a digital four-year plan that is accessible both by students and their advisers. This planner would allow students to toy with and modify potential plans for their college careers, as well as have them reviewed by their academic adviser. 

“It’s dynamic, if there’s changes on your end you can log in and see it, you’ll get a notification and vice versa,” Cruz points out. “It’s a really collaborative, dynamic tool that we think will help a lot of students.”

Cruz explained that the platform can be used as a retention tool to help keep students from failing in their studies. Predictive modeling sees where students thrive and where they struggle to predict whether they are likely to succeed in their studies. If things look grim for the student, the app is there to connect students with the support they need.

“It’s not just like doomsday—these kids are all gonna fail let’s hope for the best— we’re really trying to be interventional,” he said. “Just because we refer students to the Academic Success Center doesn’t mean they’re going to go in, it could be intimidating or there could be a stigma discouraging them.”

Cruz and his team are really trying to make it more comfortable for the hypothetical horses to drink the water, they want it to be easy and non-confrontational for students to reach out to all of the support offered to them.

To motivate students to use Navigate Student, Iowa State is holding a raffle with a variety of prizes ranging from AirPods to ISU apparel. All students have to do to be entered into the raffle is log into Navigate Student before Labor Day. Students can also tag any Instagram post with #CyclonesNavigate for an additional entry into the raffle.

With all these resources at their fingertips, students should have plenty of support in their academic studies. Students will always struggle as college is difficult, but Iowa State has made perseverance a real option for people who are just willing to reach out for support.

“We are confident that the mobile app will transform the student experience, even just little things like not having such a frustrating experience trying to go in and find your advisor and when they’re available for an appointment,” he said.