Pikes Peak State College has rolled out a new indoor navigation tool aimed at helping students find their way around campus, particularly at the start of a new semester when the pressure of orienting to college life runs high.

New students arriving on a college campus already face a full plate — registering for classes, buying books, and managing financial aid — but the first day of the semester can be especially hectic as they try to locate their classrooms, including many who speak English as a second language.

The initiative grew out of concerns held by the director of accessibility services at PPSC, which operates four campuses and enrolls a total of 12,000 students. He attended a technology conference last fall looking for ideas to improve indoor navigation for students, where he watched a presentation about an indoor GPS app already being used to help people find gates at major airports and exhibit halls at museums. That raised the question of whether the same technology could work inside college campus buildings.

The result is GoodMaps, an indoor GPS app that became available to students at the start of the fall semester last week. According to a PPSC release, the free app uses camera-based technology to identify a user's location and provide precise directions through complex indoor spaces, offering both audio and visual guidance, step-free route options, and navigation support in more than 25 languages.

It is not known how many college campuses currently use GoodMaps, though Michigan State University, with an enrollment of more than 51,000 students, is among its users.

The app releases usage data weekly, meaning figures on how many PPSC students have engaged with the tool are expected to become available sometime this week.