Puma mobile, which is stored in the İKÜ Design Factory under the project management of Istanbul Kültür University (İKÜ) Department of Information Systems and Technologies, was launched. The launch which took place on Friday, December 15, at the Bakırköy campus Ataköy building was attended by Our Chairperson of the Board of Trustees Dr. Bahar Akıngüç Günver, our Rector Prof. Dr. Fadime Üney Yüksektepe, our Secretary General Ender Rıza Ekici, our Design Factory Manager & Deputy Head of Department of Information Systems and Technologies Ahmet Gökhan Uluçay, academic-administrative staff as well as many students.
“A PLATFORM THAT ALSO SUPPORTS THE NON-EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF OUR STUDENTS”
Speaking to our Rector Fadime Üney Yüksektepe at the launch, she said, “We are excited today. We are together with our students and colleagues at the Puma launch. Puma is a platform where non-educational activities can be followed. There are many courses that show their student knowledge, and they try to gain different methods and skills through these courses. All these skills and collectibles are strengthened and developed through the clubs, competitions, projects and other activities of the students they participate in. We want to continue these course activities and participate in their portfolios within the scope of this Puma project. Just as registration labels are obtained for courses and documents are recorded, they will graduate with a similar document for non-course registrations. These will also stand out more than other competitors. You have registered them all, they will be using them as official documents. At the same time, you can examine for yourself which features they have developed and which are missing, and the development programs will be implementing the missing ones before graduation. Istanbul Kültür University is among the universities that have always been a leader with its digital projects. “I would like to thank all my colleagues who contributed.”
“IT WILL BE AN APPROVED DOCUMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY”
Our Rector said, “Thanks to this application, students will be able to see their missing competencies and improve them before graduation. At the same time, when they apply to companies, this information recorded by the university will be included in a QR code that they will add to their CVs. Therefore, they will not only have written it but also added a document approved by the university to the CV. We hope that this will bring them to the fore in a significant way.” she said.
“A PLATFORM WHERE THE STUDENT CAN MANAGE BOTH THEIR PERFORMANCE AND COMPETENCIES”
Ahmet Gökhan Uluçay said, “In the İKÜ Puma project, our focus was on making an application that students can benefit from in their academic life and after their education life, rather than making a pure, information-oriented mobile application. We analyzed students' needs through surveys and one-on-one interviews. We made some needs analyzes according to the reports published by authorities around the world, and in return, we felt that our students needed to keep their academic memory alive and carry it forward. We developed the İKÜ Puma project in this direction. “It is a platform where students can manage both their performance and competencies.” he said.
“WE ARE CREATING A COMPETENCY MAP”
Uluçay stated that they prepared the mobile application after a period of 2 years with a team of approximately 20 people, and added: “Here, we used gamification techniques to involve students in the process. We provided badges to students with these gamification techniques. We wanted students to meet certain criteria to receive badges. While students are doing these, they constantly create activities, so we started recording all of them. We associate competencies with the records and activities we have received. In this way, we create a competency map by determining which field the student is oriented towards. In addition, we have created an infrastructure focused on meeting the student's needs at the university, where they can manage their course schedules, GPA, homework and exams from a single place.”
