Features
Paint the Cannon in Broad Daylight
MyPortico, U of G's new web portal, is more than a home page
BY MARY DICKIESON
Painting the cannon has taken on a whole new meaning now that the University's long-awaited web portal is up and running. Tested over the summer and officially launched Sept. 1, MyPortico (as U of G's virtual doorway is called) is loaded with features that can make you more efficient, add some fun to your day and perhaps even surprise you.
Project manager Gerrit Bos of Computing and Communications Services (CCS) says a number of students and staff have already tried their hand at painting the site's virtual cannon. And if you don't have a steady hand, you can log in to vote for your favourite version of Old Jeremiah.
(I'm particularly fond of the batman motif at right, which was drawn by student David Racicot.)
Whatever the reason, log in at myportico.uoguelph.ca and have a look around. If you do, you may be surprised at how handy your online life could be, says Bos.
Everyone with a U of G central login account can use MyPortico. Type your password and you'll be greeted by pages of web resources pre-configured for you depending on whether you're a faculty member, staff member or student. If you'd like a different experience, you can create your own pages to customize MyPortico.
That's what a portal is all about, says Bos. "You can build an environment that suits your personal needs and preferences."
Prof. Susan Brown, English and Theatre Studies, is an early user of MyPortico. She chaired an arm's-length evaluation committee that concluded most people in the University community will use the portal regularly.
Brown's committee judged the most welcome feature of MyPortico to be the single sign-on access point for all U of G online resources. They predict that users, particularly new students, will also appreciate the personalized welcome to MyPortico, the opportunity to customize a portal login and the briefcase function that lets you save, share and access files more easily.
(There's no more need to e-mail a file to myself if I want to access it from off campus. I'll just save the file in MyPortico and open it again when I log in from home or anywhere else.)
It was the desire to engage students that led to the selection of MyPortico as the name for Guelph's portal. High school applicants will begin their relationship with the University through MyPortico and will continue to use the portal throughout their studies and the transition to alumni status, when they will begin to receive The Portico alumni magazine.
The name "MyPortico" symbolizes the campus connection through the architectural portico sitting on Johnston Green, but it also speaks to the functionality of a web portal as a one-stop online information destination.
Master's student Emily Christofides, who worked on the MyPortico evaluation committee over the summer, says getting everything she needs through one URL makes her life much easier. She's also organized her portal page to put family connections up front, followed by a "Daily News" tab so she can check the Globe and Mail and BBC. Then comes her "Academics" tab with resources essential for her studies in marketing and consumer studies.
"I need to access WebCT and the library regularly," she says. "I use the briefcase a lot to share files; I get to WebCT and WebMail from there. I like the word of the day, and it's kind of fun to see who's painted the latest cannon."
Christofides says organizing favourite web links in MyPortico reduces clutter in her inbox, and one log-in lets her move quickly among all the school, extracurricular and family projects she juggles.
(Just don't try to use the back button, Emily. I forgot that the portal software doesn't respond to the back button and managed to log out before I was ready.)
In the committee report, Brown acknowledged that there are usability issues with the portal framework, but noted that many, like the back button, are inherent in the uPortal service that MyPortico is based on. It's an open-source web portal service developed by a consortium of universities that is currently used by 80 institutions worldwide.
Bos notes that the uPortal framework is regularly enhanced with fixes and new features that can be included in future releases of MyPortico. "One of the benefits of an open-source framework is that enhancements we make here at Guelph can be contributed back to the uPortal community," he says.
Portals are becoming more prominent on university campuses because of the complex information environment, says chief information officer Michael Ridley, who spearheaded the development of Guelph's portal.
"Users need to engage all of that, whether it's courses online or registration or something from the library," he says. "With MyPortico, you don't have to know which website to go to and which part of the site a particular piece of information is located on. The portal pushes information to you that's relevant to you, rather than you having to go find it."
The portal gives students access to several resources they didn't have previously, including the briefcase, a personal calendar that pops up reminders of meetings and classes and new ways to share information and chat with friends through online forums.
Not just students, but any group of MyPortico users can form a forum discussion group or use the portal to allow others to access their weblogs. MyPortico can already access blogs by Ridley and president Alastair Summerlee, as well as a variety of Canadian and international news services and campus news and events.
Ridley led the drive to develop a U of G portal with co-sponsorship from the U of G Library and CCS. Advisory, management, implementation and evaluation committees drew people from across campus, he says.
"We're proud of the content available in the first release of MyPortico and excited about its potential. Over time, MyPortico will offer an increasingly wide range of information resources and tools for faculty, staff, students and other members of the U of G community."
Bos says one of the most important links is the feedback button you can use to comment on the portal.
"This is very much an ongoing project," he says. "The information received over the summer has been really valuable, and much of it has already been incorporated into the first release, but we want users to continue to tell us how MyPortico helps them with their work and what improvements would make it easier for them to accomplish the things they need to do online."
(And some things you need to do offline. When I logged in to MyPortico, I discovered an outstanding library fine of $1.50.)
The next year will be a time of intense development for MyPortico as improvements are made to functionality and as resource providers across campus upgrade their own websites, says Ridley.
"The key to the success of MyPortico rests with departments that provide the information on the University's website," he says.
MyPortico was developed by a portal management committee that included Bo Wandschneider and Peter McCaskell of CCS, Blair Capes of Student Housing Services, Brian Pettigrew of Registrarial Services, Andrew Phoenix of the Learning Commons, co-op student Alana Cordick, Brown and Stuart Robertson of Communications and Public Affairs.