When you think of an online degree, you might imagine a pajama-clad thirty-something, clicking through slides on a text-filled screen, occasionally watching an instructional video or lecture to spice things up. According to University of Southern California’s Melora Sundt, that picture is all wrong.

USC has recently teamed up with New York based TouchAppMedia and 2tor,Inc. to introduce the first mobile app for higher education. It rolls an assortment of technologies resembling Skype, Facebook, and Twitter into a virtual school experience. Video chat with a classmate on the bus, receive push...