AUSU Update!

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IMPORTANT DATES
Dec 10: AUSU Council Meeting
Dec 10: Deadline to register for courses starting January 1
Dec 13: January degree requirements deadline
Dec 16: Edmonton Meet & Greet
Dec 25-Jan 4: AU Holiday Closure
Dec 30: January course extension deadline

Mobile App for Athabasca University Students
By Donette Kingyens, AUSU Communications and Member Services Coordinator

AUSU recently partnered with AUGSA to provide a new Mobile App for Athabasca University Students! We wanted to provide a modern, electronic interface for students to keep track of their studies, get access to services, and to connect with other students, all within one handy application. And the best part ? It’s FREE!
The Mobile App launched officially in September 2015, and has a lot of great features. Most importantly, the mobile app provides numerous ways to connect with other AU students, including:

Campus Feed ? Join the campus wide discussion.
Groups ? Join up with numerous chat groups such as the Study Buddy or Study Tips chat group.
Class Forums ? Add classes to your schedule (see below) and chat with other students in your class.
One-on-One Chat ? Add friends and chat one-on-one with them in the app.

The app has lots of other great features as well, including:

Courses ? Manage your courses, create to-dos & reminders, stay on top of assignments.
Study Tools ? Schedule study sessions & build habits with the study timer.
Campus Services ? Learn about services that are offered at AUSU and AU.
Academic Calendars ? View important dates, deadlines, and events at AU and AUSU.
Programs ? View the programs offered by Athabasca University.
Timetable Sharing ? See when your friends are free.
Student Lifeline ? Access the Student Lifeline Health & Wellness program.
Careers ? Check out some great resources for finding employment.
Deals ? Access exclusive discounts and deals offered by AU and AUSU.
Links ? Numerous quick links to AU and AUSU resources and commonly accessed pages.
AUSU ? Find out more about your AU Students’ Union, council, and staff!

AUSU does recognize that our members have distinct needs, and the mobile app was just one way to address them. We have notified the Mobile App developers, Oohlala that we would like to see a few changes to the app programming to address our unique needs, namely not having to enter in a semester, start date and start time when adding classes to your schedule. Oohlala advised us this will be addressed with their production team and made a priority for upcoming software updates to accommodate the unique needs of AU students. In the meantime, check out the instructions below for adding a class to your schedule:
How to Add Courses to your Schedule
Search for your class in the ?Courses? tile.
– Click ?Classes? in the top bar (or click the ?Add Course? button).
– Enter a semester name, start date & end date, and start and end time (just enter anything here ?we recommend picking a start time that corresponds with then you typically study if you can).
– Click the blue check-mark (top right).

You can now go to the Chat Groups and chat with other classmates who entered the same class to their schedule, or you can schedule assignments, study time, or exams for your class!

Other tips for using the Mobile App:
– Check out the ?Services? tab to find a list of various services offered by AU and AUSU ? many students may not know all of the services available! We keep this regularly updated with current services.
– Go to the ?Events? tab to find out when the next AUSU council meeting or national ?Meet & Greets? are being held. You can save events you are interested in to your own timetable!
– Check out the ?Deals? tab to see an extensive list of the various software and program discounts and freebies offered by AUSU and AU. For example, did you even know you can get a discount on Microsoft Office from AU?

If you have feedback about the mobile app, please let us know at services@ausu.org. The app continues to improve, so your thoughts are important to us! AUSU regularly updates the app with events and services, as well as posting important updates to the campus feed. We also regularly confer with the app developer about other ways to improve on the app, so let us know if you have any suggestions!

AND for those that like the hard copy planner, we have a simpler, more compact version available!

Download the App at http://athabasca.campusapp.com.