New Blog

You can visit my new Blog site here. http://www.wou.edu/wp/rushingj/

Augmented Realty Applications

Here's how it works: turn on your smartphone video camera, then point it at your property. The augmented reality app will overlay data about the property in your viewfinder. This could include things like vacant units, or repairs that need to be finished. To get specific details, simply touch one of the onscreen captions.

This might give the possibility of interactive data during room tours. Further investigating of this technology would be needed but could have huge potential.

Online Work Order System

I added family housing on Knox to our Online Work Order system. This involved some initial studying of the code from the previous programmer. Finished up the update fairly quickly, but now the real work began. This update affected several other programs we use. I ended up having to update about 6 other programs that deal with buildings and the resident groups. An example is preventing Knox students from accessing the online meal point additions application. Another example is with gaming devices and limiting access to that as Knox students get their internet from an off campus provider. This process added a few days to the project. I knew I was going to have to do this during the initial evaluation of the update. Everything is now live and working.

Weekly menu

You can find the weekly dining menu for Valsetz dining hall online(http://www.wou.edu/student/residences/diningmenu/).  The menu list a breakdown of what is being server for each meal in each area of the food court.  Today I updated the menu to allow students to see what is being offered in the following week.  The menu used to update each week on Sunday allowing students to see what was on the menu for the week.  Unfortunately when the end of the week comes around they start to have a shorter and shorter view of upcoming meals.  So I created a link that will allow them to see what is being offered next week as well as this week.  This will provide students a better way to see and adjust their eating needs.   

Nutrition Information

As students are getting more and more cautious about what they eat and like to track their food intake we have a web page that allows them to calculate their food intake for the day (http://www.wou.edu/student/residences/nutrition/).  I made some adjustment to this application so students could track an entire days’ worth of meals rather than a single meal time.  The nutrition calculator now keeps track of foods throughout the day until you request to clear the calculator.

Online-Admissions

We had a meeting about our online admissions process for both the Admissions office and Housing.  This meeting was extremely beneficial.  Both department went through their process of admitting a student and we were able to better facilitate our process.  Communication is a great tool, this elaboration allowed us to belter customize the process and make it easier for each department to coordinate with each other.

Room Sign-up

We have a new tool designed to help students with the recontracting for next year.  Inside their Portal is an application that allows students to set a few preferences and R.S.V.P. for the upcoming Room Sign-up night.  We are encouraging residents to look at continuing their housing with us as upper class students.  Along with this newly developed app is an admin application that can trace who has signed up and who has not.  We are also able to track some useful data like gender and contract type so we can determine our housing needs for next year.