Skill Review: Park University

Park University is an interactive academic-oriented voice skill developed by Park University for the benefit of its students. This innovatively woven Alexa voice app has been designed to boost student interaction and productivity at Park University. It almost simulates a smart buddy feel for the students on campus. The voice app was developed to help personalize the student experience both off and on campus. 

Home to Parkville, Kansan city, the Park University supports a vast majority of distance and online learners in addition to its students on campus. The “Ask Park” feature was designed by the university to drive student engagement and create a more student-centered institution. The skill provides students access to career tips, the KGSP Pirate Radio as well as the President’s address which is presented in the form of video lectures. The sole motto that the voice app attempts to serve is to provide a dedicated service to its students and connect each one of those across the country with the core academic support at Park University. Besides offering information about school programs and events, it also provides answers to frequently asked questions. The voice app allows students to access course schedules, grades, and GPAs just by linking their university ID to Alexa, and all of this is made possible through the inclusion of more than 400 available commands. Well, with all the major positives aside, there seem to be a few downsides that could let down the user during the conversation. The most prominent one is the extensive set of commands made available in the Help section which may be quite difficult to memorize and pull off the top of one’s head when in need. Another downer is that the conversation ends abruptly after providing the updates. Moreover, the absence of the “repeat” option mildly tones down the overall beneficial aspect of the skill. All the more, for certain commands, the skill offers stunted responses that do not address the user’s point of inquiry.

The VOGO Voice team scores this skill 4 out of 5 stars based on our rating system. Yet, you’ll have to try for yourself and see if it lives up to your expectations. To experience utilitarian aspects of the voice app, you either got to be a student or a prospective one looking to fetch out details that otherwise would be time-consuming.  So if this skill matches what you’re looking for, then go ahead and try it out and see if it offers the informative and engaging experience you had anticipated.