Ewha has recently unveiled a new mobile student support application using the Heyoung Campus platform. Even though the upgraded program contains new features including chatting and board services for students, opinions on whether the community service will be useful among undergraduates remain divided.
The new application offers a plethora of services ranging from convenient access to school announcements and meal schedules to the introduction of the “Heyoung Gather” feature which facilitates community engagement among enrolled students. While the enhanced communication feature allows students to interact with one another, it is difficult to regard this as an exclusive service of the renewed application.
Upon entering university, most students interact and share opinions on various aspects of university life through widely-known platforms like “Everytime.” However, such platforms often have no official affiliation with the respective universities. Consequently, a critical flaw exists as authenticated accounts can be bought and sold, allowing outsiders, including non-students or total strangers to access the community anonymously and potentially leak content externally. Due to such risks, many students have continuously raised their voices in favor of enhancing security systems, seeking a safer platform to freely share their thoughts without worrying about the exposure of sensitive information.
In comparison to other platforms, the new Heyoung Campus application, which exclusively authenticates enrolled students, significantly reduces the possibility of outsider infiltration to nearly zero. This highlights the provision of a secure community service exclusively tailored for undergraduates. However, despite this beneficial service, the widespread adoption of the Heyoung Campus application seems to be lagging.
In response to inquiries, Jung Yerin, a sophomore majoring in Chinese language and literature, expressed her thoughts. She noted the convenience of accessing major functionalities related to the university through Heyoung Campus but found the community and board features less prominent.
Jung confessed to not having utilized or explored the “Heyoung Gather” feature, speculating that her peers might also be unaware of its existence due to its inconspicuous placement within the app interface.
“You have to click several buttons and scroll down to the bottom of the screen to finally access the feature,” Jung explained. “I really appreciate the aspect of the application that restricts access to outsiders, but I feel that its accessibility is quite lacking compared to other applications, which may hinder its active use.”
As a result, Jung primarily utilizes Everytime, which offers more active community engagement.
For individuals who prefer simplicity, the existence of such a feature might go unnoticed, especially with Everytime already established as a thriving platform. Nevertheless, Jung expressed her willingness to embrace the community feature of Heyoung Campus if it becomes as universal as Everytime in the future.
Regarding the current status of the community service, Jin Yun-kyung, team leader of IT Infrastructure at the Office of Information and Communications, provided insights. Jin stated that while the application is relatively new and the consensus regarding the visibility of community services among students is not robust, the IT Infrastructure is committed to facilitating seamless and convenient university life for students.
“We are more than willing to improve the application based on the opinions of the majority regarding accessibility improvements on community services,” Jin explained. “If visible feedback is collected through students' active app usage then we can discuss them with the Office of Student Affairs.”
Jin elucidated how all the services that the IT Infrastructure provides are developed based on the sole purpose of supporting students’ university experience.
“We hope Ewha students use the community feature for good purposes and foster a healthy community,” Jin said.
Ultimately, the refinement of the new Heyoung Campus application to better serve the needs of students depends on proactive communication between students and university-affiliated institutions. With increased student interest in mobile service improvement, Ewha will gain the capability to continue creating infrastructure for a more convenient university experience.