Team members Esha, Casie, Megan, and Akshaya at pitch meeting for My Courseway.

Students should buckle-up because crash courses aren’t the only things coming their way. 

My Courseway is a district-based app which focuses on computing course catalogs for easy student access, and it was recently released by website developers. 

Akshaya Athila, a senior at Centennial High School and the Chief Technical Manager of My Courseway, and her team members have narrowed down three hundred pages worth of course descriptions into their prerequisites and GPA. It took nearly six hours for them to complete the job, and sort them into different sections.

“The descriptions aren’t that clear, so we just wanted to make something that was easier for students to look through,” Athila said. 

There are many different features on this platform. For example, students can select up to four classes which they are interested in and learn more about them.

“Students are now able to easily search for classes saved to their favorites, and pin their classes,” Athila said.

High schoolers can check out the college credit section, which details which colleges will accept their credits.

“So, imagine a student got a three on AP Bio, they want to see what schools or colleges take that,” Athila said. “They can head on the app, and it’ll take them straight to the College Board website where students are able to see sort of where their credits will transfer.”

My Courseway has many features which are currently accessible for student use, even gaining district wide recognition.

“We were given many opportunities to attend pitch events, and different things like that,” Athila said. “We went to the mavericks game, and we were able to get top three at the pitch competition. So, we pitched the idea through, namely presentations, speeches, and powerpoints.”

Esha Bandi, the CEO of My Courseway, asked Akshaya Athila (the Chief Technical Officer), Casie Plat (the Chief Financial Officer), and Megan Patel (the Chief Operating Officer) to be a part of her team. She already had an idea of what she wanted to do, but she needed help with website development and making it an LLC. Doctor Gerlacher, the investor of My Courseway, has helped the team land opportunities with website developers.

“He has helped us get our idea into sort of a real business and made it an LLC and he’s paid for it too; he’s helped a lot,” Athila said. 

My Courseway is intended to help Frisco’s budgeting since it combines a variety of apps that are used by Frisco schools into one.

“In a district like Frisco, a very wealthy district, they are able to cut out some of those other platforms and have My Courseway which has all of it in one,” Athila said. 

Additionally, My Courseway ensures privacy since it is FERPA and Coppa Compliant. The team had to work with lawyers to make sure the app was safe for student-use.

“We are doing a pilot year at Centennial this year, and students can use it for their personal use,” Athila said.

Students can navigate the website by creating an account, either guest or user. From there, students can access a feedback form, so they can provide feedback and share some input.

“We hope that schools, like your admin and everyone, will market it to you guys, but we’re also going to be doing a lot of marketing through our instagram primarily,” Athila said. 

Another feature which targets students, especially, are student-based course descriptions. Students can create their own class description and submit it, but it’s managed by the Frisco Administration, so they can review and regulate student responses.

“After talking to our counselors, we saw there is a lot of potential for our app to improve,” Athila said. “One cool feature that they were talking about was making your 4-year plan, and so that might be a future aspect of the app, in version two or three, so we hope that happens.”

The team had many ideas but after talking to the school counselors, they organized their ideas into features which will be seen in later versions of the site. They’ve also managed to develop the app along with other school work because they have an entire period in school dedicated to it. 

“This app originated from a class, a business class called incubator,” Athila said. “It’s kind of entrepreneurship on steroids, so I took this along with other girls during sophomore year. We were all in different groups, and we each came up with ideas. And then, she asked us to be a part of it junior year, so we took the second year version, accelerator, last year. This year, we’re seniors, so we’re taking the third year, teacher aid.” 

Overall, Akshaya was very happy with the district’s responses to their app, and she thinks they’ve received tons of good feedback.

“I’m really excited,” Athila said. “We’ve been working on it for a while, and it’s really interesting to see our ideas come to life, and people finally using it. My Courseway is now available and can be found using the link www.mycourseway.com. Students can sit back and relax, since this app ensures their seatbelts are fastened.”