McDaniel is trying to change. One of these changes is in the domain that has housed the school’s website for a long time. Portal will be taking over as McDaniel’s homepage. With its many up to date features, the IT department hopes that Portal will make students’ lives easier.
Because nothing has changed in so long, many students do not find the current McDaniel homepage useful.
One student said, “It’s annoying to have to click 10 different links to get to where I want to go, then type in my password anyway.”
With Portal, it only requires a user to login once. His/her information is saved temporarily, and any other service a student wishes to access will be ready.
Currently, it takes a number of clicks to get to Blackboard, The Archway, Student email, the McDaniel calendar, and more. With Portal, all of these services will be accessible from the homepage.
Esther Iglich, chief information officer in the IT department said that, “Portal is like the one-stop shopping center of websites. It allows any student to access their information or any service from the home page.”
She continued, “Portal will include new features like announcements for the day, athletic scores, events.”
Another feature Portal supplies is access to the student’s personal information. For example, financial aid information will be readily available from the homepage.
Iglich talked about a particular feature she was excited about. “There is a ‘task’ service where you can create a group with your friends and plan your own events.”
This service is primarily intended for study group purposes, but can be used for whatever students decide.
The IT department expects Portal to be up and running by Fall 2012.
