Coastal Eco Explorer: A Mobile Application for Ecology Education

The Coastal Eco Explorer is an Apple and Android mobile application that delivers educational information for 64 ecological sites in Carolina Beach State Park. The app is an interdisciplinary collaboration between university faculty and state park rangers to educate park visitors. The Coastal Eco Explorer was launched in March 2021 and has several hundred users. This article describes the genesis of the Coastal Eco Explorer project, its technical architecture, and its current functionality. The app is the first official app published by the university. The app’s development yielded several lessons learned of interest to educators interested in developing published end-user software.