S.A.M.—A System for Academic Management

Abstract

The Millennial generation was born and grew up in the digital era, so they are natives in using technology, including mobile devices and a whole set of associated applications. The Management Information Systems of Higher Education Institutions must be adapted to the needs of the new technological users. The institutions should integrate in their business processes mechanisms to simplify the exchange of academic data between students and teachers. For instance, grades, schedules, assessments or attendances to classes. Mobile devices can make the difference since students may have access to personalized academic data. In this work, it is proposed a system called System for Academic Management (SAM). It has a desktop application for teachers and a mobile application for students. This system aims to enhance the exchange of personalized academic data between teachers and students, plus accomplishing this generation needs in terms of quick access to information through mobile devices. SAM was developed using two main methodologies. A User-Centered Design methodology for interface development and an Agile Development methodology for software development. In this process low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes were developed and tested until acceptance by end-users. The results obtained until now shows that the user specially the teachers appreciate the application and highlighting its usefulness.