Our staff and student portal will bring together a whole range of services and information into one place. We’ve been thinking about this for over a year and have spent a great deal of time planning our overall approach and being clear on the priorities. We’ve had good feedback from workshops and discussions with staff and students – some of their top requests were:
• Better access to information
• The ability to personalise
• A more seamless access to services
• Areas for collaborative work
• Electronic workflow and document management
The first stage of the new Portal will launch this summer. This will allow students to see information on their timetable, e-mail, appointments, library books, exam results, twitter etc to name but a few services. They will also be able to access web based information about University Schools and Departments. This is all built around the “5 minute” concept – bringing the key items together in one place so that students can check their key information in 5 minutes. Staff likewise will be able to link in their calendar, e-mail, many other services and have access to web based information from other University schools and Departments.
The second stage of the project will be to start to use key features like online forms and workflows and the facilities that will allow people, for example, to collaborate online on projects. That will be our focus during 2012-13.
The third stage will be to hook up the Portal to other University systems so that these can be accessed directly from within the Portal without people having to remember where to go.
Ultimately, we want this to be the “go to” place – somewhere that you can log into and from there pretty much get everything you need from our online IT services.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that this new portal will be one part of our total web environment:
1) Our main Web Site – http://www.rgu.ac.uk for our “external users” – visitors, prospective students, parents, organisations looking to work with the University, and other stakeholders;
2) RGYou – the Staff and Student Portal. The information environment for staff and students;
3) Our Virtual Learning Environment – http://campusmoodle.rgu.ac.uk/ where on Campus and distance learners access their online learning resources.
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