The Student Services Portal Initiative, a plan aiming to improve the UCSD online student network, was presented to the A.S. Council on Dec. 3 by Student Services and Business Affairs representatives. The proposal seeks to enhance student convenience by implementing MyUCSD, a Web portal that would blend important services and information from both Student Affairs and Business Affairs, as well as add new online features not available on StudentLink.
Related services and information will be aggregated into clearly defined sections, such as separate academic, finances, career, student life and wellness and student records pages. The proposal aims that students will be able to easily access important information without being confused by a chain of links. In addition, the quantity of this information will be expanded under this plan to enable students find answers to their questions online, avoid lines and long visits with administrators.
Darlene Willis, executive administrative officer of new initiative and community relations, expects UCSD to “”deliver a portal that is student-friendly and student-service oriented.””
UCSD currently maintains two Web sites specifically tailored to its population: StudentLink for student use, and Blink for faculty, staff and administration use. The proposal emphasizes that while StudentLink provides relevant academic information, it lacks the news, campus messages, schedules and other information that Blink possesses.
By forming a portal that merges the two sites, students would not only have access to their academic records and other information provided by StudentLink, but have the features of Blink without having to switch back and forth between Web sites.
In addition to creating a portal that blends StudentLink and Blink, Web technicians hope to build on the ideas of the former and offer the UCSD student community an improved site containing features that do not currently exist. Two new features are 24-hour access to an improved information source as well as the creation of online student service transactions.
The new portal is expected to be online after two phases are completed.
Phase one, primarily a planning period scheduled to be completed by winter 2005, will consist of gathering student input and forming an idea of how the new infrastructure will be built. Focus groups consisting of students, faculty, and staff will be consulted to determine preferences and desires of the UCSD community.
After meeting with student service staff, directors will develop a look, content and service plan, which will give a rough idea of how the portal will appear to users, which information in particular will be made available to students, and how essential student service transactions will be conducted over the internet.
The second phase, consisting of the actual construction and improvements of various elements of the first phase, has a goal of fall 2006 for completion.
Designed to correlate with the opening of the Student Academic Services facility in 2006, the portal will “”reduce the overwhelming nature”” of such tasks, according to John McCleary, director of technology and development.
Students would be able to fulfill all their administrative needs with one site ‹ including payment of bills, ordering transcripts, answering major and general education questions and making various appointments.
One feature of the portal, Willis says, is to make sure someone navigating through the system doesn’t need to know the organization of the infrastructure to find what they are looking for. For example, for students to access leadership opportunities online, they must know to look for Student Services; this portal, Willis believes, will eliminate the confusion that such scenarios present.
Students expressed various reactions to the plans for the new portal.
A.S. representative to StudentLink Vincent Pascual sees the initiative as a good first step, but said he feels something is missing from the plan.
“”I felt it was geared toward staff with the addition of a few bells and whistles, with the first priority being to fulfill business transactions,a he said.
Pascual mentioned two issues of concern to him: the reformation of the online registration function, WebReg, as well as building online student interaction with blogs or online journals specific to the UCSD student community, neither of which are included in the current proposal.
The most pressing matter, Pascual claims, is to make changes to WebReg that allow students to see professor and class evaluations online, view a record of completed and required general education requirements specific to their respective colleges, and access information specific to their major along with required classes and which quarters they are offered.
Thurgood Marshall College Senior Senator Sierra Catcott is favorable to the idea of the portal, although she expressed concern that the presentation of the proposal was made by Student Services and Business Affairs representatives, leaving out any feedback from Academic Affairs. Stressing that each group would play a vital role in the success of the portal, Catcott said the proposal “”must be agreed upon by all three or else it will be fairly useless.””
As for new features, Catcott said she would like to see online Triton Taxi registrations.
Although there is a rough structure to the institution of the portal, Willis mentioned that there will inevitably be revision phases and that portal directors welcome as much student input as possible. A student survey regarding features students would like to see for MyUCSD will be available online in the near future.
