Oversea Students Are Impressed!

At skignz we always want new people to be informed and test out the new technology that we have created. We love seeing how impressed they are with it and just how great of a reaction we get from everyone.

The 1^st July saw a group of oversea's student’s travel across from Africa to Teesside University on a 4 week course as a consideration to study their Masters here. 

within a day of arriving in the UK, straight from getting off the plane they came across to Teesside University to meet skignz and get involved in a treasure hunt/orientation activity.

Now some may wonder students have travelled across from Nigeria on a long flight, why would they want to come and first of all see skignz before they do anything else. Well skignz is their guide, essentially. 

They need to get to know the area and know where they are going while they are here, and skignz is the way for them to do that. Also we wanted them to get introduced to this great technology and see just how impressed they were with it.

When they arrived at the university we decided to give them a short introduction to skignz; what it is and how they can use it. We showed them a couple of videos of how it worked and then got them to download the app to their phone ready for the treasure hunt/orientation activity.

Just from watching the video and talking about it, we could see by the reactions on their faces and some of the words they were coming out with: “wow, amazing, great” just how amazed they were by how good this new piece of technology is.

We started them off on their orientation activity. The original plan was to split them up into groups of 5 however there was a slight problem with them coming from overseas not all of them had 3G connections (expensive overseas roaming charges) which was no at problem when on campus due to the use of the Wi-Fi, but upon stepping off the campus they had to rely on only a few members of the group who could access 3G and off they went to discover the surrounding area beyond the campus.

The orientation activity started from Teesside University leading around Middlesbrough down Linthorpe road into town then back up to the university again. 

It was set to take around two hours so that they could get used to the app, have some fun and also get to know about Middlesbrough. All aimed at helping them to decide whether to come over to study their Masters at Teesside University.

After the orientation activity was completed, they arrived back at Teesside University and we gathered some feedback from how it went.

The engaged students gave positive feedback saying that it was good, not so hard to use and was fun getting to know about Middlesbrough. 

They said it was an easy way to understand where they were going and did not get lost.

After the feedback was gathered we then decided to gather back in the Business School and get some further feedback of how they found the app and how they decide they are going to use it in the future. 

We also offered to answer any questions that they may have had about attending Teesside University or wanting to study here.

Some of the feedback from the students that we received was excellent. 

Statements ranged from:

            - “It will be helpful at concerts”

            - “We have large carnivals in our country, including big festival”

            - “I will use it wherever I visit the UK”

            - “I will skignz up our University back home”

            - “We will introduce it to our friends when we get back home”

            - “It is great technology that is beneficial and fun in a lot of ways”

The students from Africa were very excited about the technology that skignz offered and were excited about using it back home. They were excited to tell all of their friends about it and wanted to know what more we could do with it, giving us a lot of ideas which were really appreciated. 

Fresh ideas from overseas students!

We were really pleased with reactions and feedback we received. The students were very cheery and had a lot of positive thoughts about skignz. They stated that they were going to use it while in the UK for four weeks to help find their friends if they get lost and to also find the accommodation where they are staying if not sure where they are. 

The skignz app will defiantly be useful to the over sea students while they are over in the UK.

When we were showing them the videos of the work we were doing with some luxury brands at the moment they were amazed with what we showed them. 

When we showed them all a video of a luxury car makers, Car Configurator and the work we have planned to do with skignz they got even more excited about the technology, stating once again, just how amazing the work is that can be done with skignz.

We hope to be having a catch up with them in a couple of weeks, see how they are getting on and how they are enjoying it over here and also to see how they have found skignz.

If you want to know more about studying at Teesside University then visit their website www.tees.ac.uk to see some of the amazing under graduate and post graduate courses they offer. 

If you are a college or overseas university and would like to come and visit the TU campus and discover skignz for yourself then please contact either Teesside University or skignz.

If you would like to get to know more about skignz or if you have taken an interest in it, whether it be beneficial to you or to a brand you may know of then please get in touch with us using the links below.

www.skignz.com

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz

www.twitter.com/discoverskignz

www.youtube.com/skignz

Navigation / Orientation / Induction: Scary 1st day!

For anyone the 1st day of a new job or starting a University course can be daunting. What if you are doing this in a new town or city, this goes from daunting to scary. How about coming from a different country? Speak a different language?

A whole new culture and experience awaits you! Your senses are 'through the roof', your usual creature comforts and habits don't apply here! This for all intents and purposes, may as well be the Moon or Mars that you have landed on?

Atmosphere, landscape, colours, smells everything is different and it's that way until you settle in! Big question is, how long will that take? What parts of your life, health and peace of mind will be effected in the meantime?

Today (7th February 2014) was induction day at Teesside University Business School for some of their courses. Most of the students who started University today instead of the usual September/October intake is because they are 'top-up' students who are continuing their education from their previous course, from wherever on the planet they previously studied and 'top-up' to gain a degree or to a masters degree at Teesside University.

Kamran Tanveer, is one of those students embarking on the final year of the BA (hons) Applied Accounting & Finance Degree at TUBS (Teesside University Business School). Kamran is from Pakistan and has not previously been to the North East of England let alone Teesside. During a brief discussion with him it's apparent he's keen to learn and get on with his course, but he has not much knowledge about how to find his way around the campus or how to find his way around the surrounding local area. Something he and his new colleagues are clearly daunted by!

Kamran Tanveer:
Induction Day using skignz!

As part of their orientation and induction for new students TUBS engaged with skignz to produce a 'treasure/scavenger hunt' using the skignz technology to take the students on a hunt around the campus and surrounding town centre to help them familiarise themselves with their brand new surroundings.

Each student download skignz onto their smart phone or mobile device, then they were asked to go out onto the campus and use skignz to find the first clue, which when they found it, not only gave them some important information on that specific location, but also gave them the clue to the next location.

To prove they had visited each location the students had to take a 'selfie photo' in front of the venue and pick up something (something physical, menu, what's on leaflet, etc..) from each specific location. Only by accessing each skignz at each location would they know what they had to get from each venue.

Kamran said: "skignz was really easy to use, helpful with information and that you can zoom in and out of clues, even swipe away content to see other skignz behind them. The whole experience really helped me not only find places that I will need to go to such as supermarkets and clothes shops; but also places I would like to go to such as the Cinema, Art Gallery and the Main Library.

skignz is informative, helpful and I will certainly be telling all of my friends about it! Even when I return home to Pakistan, it will be really useful in many ways back there."

Kiersten Avery, Assistant Dean, TUBS said: "We wanted to not only help the students settle in, find their way around campus, but also provide them with a whole new interactive experience. skignz provides us with something that no other University has and we are working with them to utilise the skignz technology in many different ways for the benefit of our students. 

Kiersten Avery: 
Assistant Dean, TUBS

The feedback so far has been incredible and gives us a whole different way in which to interact and communicate with our students. Due to this successful pilot of using the technology in this way, we aim to roll this out for all students for this years September induction and orientation events".

In 2014 many of the largest brands in the world are focusing on how they can improve user/consumer/customer experience rather than just try to advertise at them and push their products on to them.

Teesside University are leading the way by using skignz technology to improve the whole student experience on campus in a way that is helpful, insightful, interesting and provides the students with something they can take out into the real world and use, alongside their studies and learning.

skignz was co-founded by two local Middlesbrough guys Gary Baker and Si Brown, the latter an Alumni of Teesside, who gained both his undergraduate and postgraduate Master Degree at Teesside University. 

As part of the induction, Teesside are showing real life examples of how students have completed their course and apply that experiences and knowledge in the real world, this demonstrates to students about how important employability and gaining work experience is, alongside their studies and gaining a formal qualification at the University.

If you would like to learn about the courses on offer at TUBS please follow this link: Teesside University Business School

If you would like to learn a little more about how skignz can work on your University Campus(es) please take a look at this short film. 

This film was actually developed and produced by varying members of the skignz team, ALL of which are ex-graduates of Teesside University, having completed an internship or placement with the company. They are now in graduate positions working on projects for some of the worlds most popular brands.

If you are interested in how skignz can help your University please either email us on info@skignz.com or call us on +44 (0) 845 058 0519.