Abstract:

Social networking is a phenomenon spread to all layers of society. The university community should be noted for its dynamism and modernity and, therefore, it is logical to think that is an appropriate setting for the emergence of different groups of people interacting who can make use of social networks for their intercommunication and collaboration.

An added value that can be obtained from a Student Information System is an existing structure and predefined relationships for their own activity. Students and teachers are grouped around a backbone formed by the university, the different campuses, schools and faculties, syllabus, courses and class groups.

Relationships between teachers and students are established that are often supported by eLearning platforms. In a class group you can find peers who share not only a physical or virtual location, but the need to solve common questions for their learning plan. Basically the students must be able to communicate with their peers and with the teacher, must be able to access the resources of the courses, share a calendar of events and finally see their grades. The same applies to the teacher.

As dealing with separate systems, some mechanisms have to be provided to integrate information from Student Information Systems (oriented to academic management) and eLearning platforms (oriented to teaching). This integration, often carried out in a homemade way, gives a powerful set of people, information and resources to put them together and provide services to the community.

SIGMA provides to his community a fully integration between VEGA Student Information System and the university Moodle/Sakai eLearning platform. In 2012 SIGMA has developed and setup a native application for the most popular used mobile systems, Android and iOS, called Pizarra.

Pizarra is a native App for mobile devices that has been called the University of Valladolid’s WhatsApp. See press release
http://www.abc.es/local-castilla-leon/20121203/abci-pizarra-whatssap-201212031435.Html

This mobile App, Pizarra, aims to make the most of the university community through the existing information structures and platforms to provide a communication channel for community members that split from teaching and learning but can extend its use to personal relationships between students and teachers.

Keywords:

Social Networking, University Community, Student Information System, e-learning, Mobile App, Personal Relationships.