Washington State University students, faculty and academic support staff will soon have access to the pre-release version of WSU’s new portal, called myWSU. This fall, the portal will focus on serving students.
An initial portal test group of faculty, instructors and students in selected class sections will be able to access myWSU on the first day of classes. Additional groups of students and faculty will gain access to the portal in phases throughout fall semester.
The portal is a personalized Web site where users can access customized information using their Network ID and password. The pre-release version offers basic portal features and provides an environment for testing, tuning and gathering user feedback.
“We know that introducing any new technology has impact on users, so we are taking a prudent approach to deployment,” said Debby Lawson, assistant director of Information Technology in charge of operations and systems support. “We need to observe the system in operation with increasing numbers of users before opening it up to all students.”
MyWSU will make it easier to conduct university business and communicate with students. Features of the pre-release version include official notices, classes and links to the many online resources in Student eInfoCenter.
Faculty and instructors can send messages to students and provide classes with links to schedules, handouts and online discussion forums.
By linking to the eInfoCenter through myWSU, all users can manage their Network ID secured information from one location.
Later this year, all faculty, staff and students are expected to be able to use the portal.
“The portal is a major step toward our goal of a seamless, integrated information environment for the university,” said Mary Doyle, chief technical officer and vice president for Information Systems. “This is an exciting strategic direction. New features will be added to the portal by a broad community of developers.”
Among features to be added are Web e-mail, a personal calendar, instant messaging, academic and research tools, personalized links to external websites and news about campus life.
“The portal enhances our ability to communicate within the WSU community,” said Nils Peterson, assistant director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT). “As it grows, it will improve learning opportunities for students in and outside of class,” he said.
More information about the portal project can be found on-line at www.wsu.edu/portal-project.
