To participate in the class Noonsong arrived at the classroom and checked the attendance using the Heyoung Campus app. Noonsong thought the app was convenient because she could check her attendance rate clearly. However, her friend forgot to check attendance. She tried to check her attendance in the 10 minutes of spare time after the class started, but due to the slow loading speed of the app, she couldn't check it. In the end she had to ask the professor to revise her attendance to make her present. Compared to Noonsong' thought that the app is convenient, some of her friends said it has problems. Through these situations, Noonsong has come to think about the essential problems of the Heyoung Campus app.

 

How the Heyoung Campus app came to SMWU

The Heyoung Campus app has recently been introduced to SMWU. Shinhan Bank launched 'Heyoung Campus,' an integrated application for university life on February 21. Heyoung Campus integrates functions such as electronic attendance, library use and mobile student ID. By adding major academic functions that were previously only provided on PC, services such as 'Academic Management,' where you can inquire about grades, are also supported. Behind the introduction of this app, there were some problems with the previous app. Before the Heyoung Campus, an app called 'Smart Sookmyung' was used only for the electronic attendance check. Unlike Heyoung Campus, Smart Sookmyung did not offer services such as integrated login, mobile ID, or mobile bachelor's degree support. According to these discontents, there were also efforts to integrate the services, but the Smart Sookmyoung app failed to provide the aforementioned integrated systems due to aging technologies. Based on this situation, the Office of Data Strategy has solved the problems using the new app with Shinhan bank. The 'Heyoung Campus' was introduced as a solution to the problem of having too many apps for Sookmyungians.
About this, the Office of Data Strategy said in an interview what they had changed from the old app to a new one to a new one including acknowledging these problems of Smart Sookmyung. They said, "There were problems with the previous app. It was proposed to integrate the app on mobile, but it couldn't. Compared to this app, the Heyoung Campus has the technology that was lacking in the previous app, and based on this, Heyoung Campus is an app that can be said to be a 'truly integrated app.'" Despite the previous app which had a goal to be 'smart,' like the name of the app, they failed to make it an integrated app because of some of the problems. By introducing the Heyoung Campus, the problems can be solved in the way they want to supplement. In addition, SMT had an interview with Sookmyungian about the new app. Kim Sanghee, 3rd grade in the Department of Art & Crafts, said, "The new app has more functions than the previous app. It can allow reducing the work to access other community apps. Also, the icon in the app is organized more than before." The integrated new app is seen to be better compared to the previous app. It means that the new app has functioned in the way the Office of Data Strategy wants. Therefore, Heyoung Campus integrated the services and solved the problem of some errors that Smart Sookmyung couldn't do with an advanced system.

 

The ambivalence of this app

Based on the Heyoung Campus, this SMT carried out a survey of satisfaction about usage, in which multiple responses are possible. On a survey of the main purpose of students using the app, 139 out of 145 (95.9%) said 'attendance check.' ¹⁾ Along with this, 97 out of 145 (66.9%) checked 'student ID card substitute,' followed by 'library seat reservation,' 81 out of 145 (55.9%). It shows that they mainly use this app for attendance checks. Also, the amount of satisfaction with this app was 138 out of 145 (95.2%), including 'strongly agree' 55 out of 145 (37.9%), 'agree' 61 out of 145 (42.1%) and 'neutral' 22 out of 145 (15.2%). This percentage is over the majority of the survey, and it shows that a lot of the students feel positive about Heyoung Campus. Plus, the highest percentage of satisfaction shows that the most convenient part is the 'student ID card substitute,' 95 out of 134 (70.9%). Subsequently, 98 out of 134 (73.1%) said they were satisfied with the 'convenience of attendance check,' and then 'library seat reservation,' 75 out of 134 (56%). On the other hand, there were students who felt discontent about using this app. The students who checked 'neutral' (15.2%), 22 out of 145 or 'disagree,' 7 out of 145 (4.8%), totaled 29 out of 145 (20%), and they pointed out the various problems with the Heyoung Campus app. Most of them, 31 out of 40 (77.5%), that include duplicate responses, selected 'the slow loading speed of this app,' as the most serious problem. Some checked 'hassle to check attendance,' 21 out of 40 (52.5%), and 'frequent error of attendance check,' 14 out of 40 (35%). On the other hand, 3 out of 40 (7.5%) mentioned the impractical design. As for the number of inconveniences felt in a week, 31 out of 40 (77.5) answered '0 to 4times,' and 6 out of 40 answered '5 to 9 times.' Some felt discomfort over 10 times a week, which shows the problems with this app.
SMT did a further survey with the part of attendance, the most related point of discomfort, including loading speed. As did with loading speed which caused the highest discontent based on the previous survey, students chose the 'attendance check,' 32 out of 66 (48.5%) when they felt discomfort about the loading speed. It is distinctly more than the following percentages: 12 out of 66 (18.2%), moving to other sites and 5 out of 66 (7.6%), library seat reservation. Like before, 'hassle to check attendance' and 'error about attendance' are also main problems. In the further survey with it, 11 out of 14 (78.6%) experienced error of attendance, indirectly or in a roundabout way, and some of them 8 out of 14 (57.1%) said that it occurred 1 to 5 times during the last semester, 2022-1. Despite the fact that 'attendance check' is the most used function on the app among the students, it has the most errors and causes discontent among students. Using the result, SMT interviewed some students at SMWU. One freshman student, Lee Jiheun, in the Department of Political Science & International Relations said, "I think the attendance check in this app is convenient. However, because it often has errors that I experienced, I hope these problems will be solved." It shows that although most students think the app is convenient, there is discontent. Plus, the aforementioned student said that the time of attendance check for students should be extended to more than 10 minutes after the class starts for when they forget to check. There are quite a lot of situations where students forget to check it, even though they have entered the lecture room because the attendance is done manually. It seems there is a need to improve the app in this way for more efficiency.

 

Effort to make the Heyoung Campus to be young

Using these opinions, SMT interviewed the Office of Data Strategy in charge of this app. Regarding the inconveniences such as loading speed and design, Choi Junho, belongs to the Office of Date Strategy, said, "Despite the Heyoung Campus has been improved in many parts including the attendance, there are still problems with the app especially in the part related to attendance. We have tried to solve these problems. The automatic attendance check might be hard, but the alert about attendance can be considered." It means the app is in the process of examination, and some of the suggestions made by the students can be considered. Also, regarding the attendance check error, he said, "The problem might come from the Heyoung app itself, but it also could occur because of data communication errors such as Bluetooth use. When students simultaneously access the app and check attendance, there may be a loading delay problem due to slow data communication because of many users on the same Wi-Fi." It shows that the problem with loading is not due to one issue. Plus, he said, it can be solved by changing the connection route between mobile phone data communication and the Wi-Fi network. In these problems, students' suggestions were that the automatic attendance check system may have difficulties due to current technical limitations. Therefore, in his opinion, some of the problems can't be solved by their efforts alone, apart from what they can do.
In addition to SMWU, Hanyang University is also using the Heyoung Campus app and experiencing the problems. Hanyang University's Information and Communication Ministry's Information Development Team has made additional announcements on the functions and it's similar to what the Office of Data Strategy said they were doing to solve Sookmyungians' problems. Regarding design-related inconveniences as well as the loading problems, they are currently contemplating the improvement direction together. In part of design related discomfort, they are expanding personal profile settings such as photos and backgrounds, black and pink theme settings, and 'Shortcut' icons. It shows that these are not only problems related to SMWU. Along with this, as Shinhan Bank announced that it plans to introduce the app at various other schools such as Hongik University next year, there is a need to solve the problems that will affect other schools. Lee Jeongeun, a freshman in the Department of Arts & Crafts at SMWU, said, "I think the most urgent thing needed to improve the Heyoung Campus app is to make it more flexible with smooth loading." As in the previous survey, she said that the most inconvenient parts should be fixed first because of problems such as attendance checks and library reservations due to slow loading. The need to solve the previous problems and develop the functions must be done as soon as possible.
 

 

To make a comfortable campus life

The Heyoung Campus app gives students an integrated life at university. Students can use this integrated app instead of a student ID card, relying on called attendance, etc. However, if the loading speed is slow when using it, it is difficult for students to be perfectly satisfied with the convenience of the app. In response, the students detailed their inconveniences and the Office of Data Strategy said they would work on improving the app. It is expected that the Heyoung Campus app, which will be improved in the future, will make school life more convenient for students.

 

1) The total number of students enrolled is 11,994, with a survey participation rate of about 1.2%

 

Jung Nam Chaehee 
smt_nch@sookmyung.ac.kr
Kim Jang Yunsun
smt_jys@sookmyung.ac.kr