App Watch: Managing Classes on the iPad

Stanford University student Kayvon Beykpour had just finished his junior year when he sold his company Terriblyclever Design LLC, which made customized apps for universities, for $4 million last July. His first app called iStanford let students search for courses, add or drop them and check up on their grades.

In his senior year, Beykpour is now balancing school with a job as vice president for Blackboard Inc., the course management company that acquired TerriblyClever. One of his first projects is a new iPad app that lets students and teachers manage their classes. The app lists courses, syllabuses, grades, and other course information including assignments and handouts. A user could pull up multiple pieces of content and hide them with a quick swipe of their fingers.

The app also lets users create content on the iPad. Professors, for example, can post announcements, while students can contribute to discussion threads. “We want to make this a one-stop shop for school learning experiences,” said Beykpour.

Blackboard doesn’t disclose which schools use the app, but when the app is downloaded onto an iPad, the first page shows the list of schools that provide login access. Among them are Princeton University and Northwestern University.

Blackboard says the app will also be available in mid-June for iPhones, Research in Motion’s Blackberry devices, and phones that run Google’s Android operating system.