Students focused on improving Pitt portal

‘ ‘ ‘ University officials may redesign the my.pitt.edu portal based on students’ feedback. ‘… ‘ ‘ ‘ University officials may redesign the my.pitt.edu portal based on students’ feedback. ‘ ‘ ‘ Student Government Board and Computing Services and Systems Development completed the last in a series of three focus groups aimed at reworking my.pitt.edu earlier this semester. Students participating in the groups gathered to discuss possible improvements to the portal and e-mail system directly with CSSD. ‘ ‘ ‘ Jinx Walton, the director of CSSD, said the group helped coordinate the focus groups so they could understand the changes that students wanted them to make.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We wanted to get feedback and find out what is important to students,’ said Walton. ‘ ‘ ‘ Groups working in CSSD are compiling the data from the focus groups. CSSD’s senior managers will then decide which changes they can implement. ‘ ‘ ‘ In the focus groups, students pointed out problems with the organization of the portal and with its appearance. Although CSSD originally planned for the focus groups to target solely the portal, students also told them about problems with the e-mail system.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Walton said CSSD learned that it needs to provide better instruction on how to navigate the portal because many of the features students suggested adding exist on the site already. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It must be hard to find some services,’ said Walton. ‘They were there already, but people didn’t know.” ‘ ‘ ‘ Students around campus also identified problems with the site. ‘ ‘ ‘ Ida Bastiaens, a student in the Graduate School of Public and International affairs, said she’s had several problems with Pitt’s e-mail service.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘The e-mail is really problematic,’ she said. ‘There’s low space available, and it’s hard to delete things.” ‘ ‘ ‘ Sean O’Sullivan, a Pitt junior, said his problems were with the spam filter.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘The spam filter takes out the wrong things sometimes,’ he said. ‘ ‘ ‘ CSSD relies on Postini, a supplier of spam and virus filtering services, to filter spam.’ CSSD chose Postini in 2004 because it’s compatible with the University’s system and it gives users a lot of control over their settings, said Walton. ‘ ‘ ‘ Not everyone, however, would welcome changes to the University’s e-mail system. Jarae Payne, a freshman in the School of Nursing, said she feels comfortable with the portal already. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Now I’m going to have to get used to something else,’ said Payne. ‘It’s like Facebook. You get used to it, and then they change it.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ SGB assisted CSSD with this project by gathering students to participate in each of the three focus groups. ‘ ‘ ‘ SGB member Perry Servedio said the board has considered working on a project to reform my.pitt.edu for several years but that, with board members graduating every year, no one has followed through until now. ‘ ‘ ‘ Servedio, though, said that he had an obligation to follow through, because he included the project in his platform when he ran for SGB. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Students voted for me and my platform, so it must be a problem with them,’ said Servedio, who added that he thinks the site is ‘cluttered, and sometimes it’s hard to find things.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ CSSD developed the portal about six years ago to bring together all the different sites. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Before, people would have to go to various Web sites,’ said Walton. ‘So we consolidated them here.” ‘ ‘ ‘ CSSD purchased BEA AquaLogic Portal, a basic software package, and customized it to suit Pitt’s needs. The site has changed several times since then, usually when a new version of software came out. ‘ ‘ ‘ Most schools now also use a portal, Walton said.’ However, no particular software stands out as common among them, and some schools even develop their own.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Walton said CSSD has used student focus groups to change the portal before.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We had a focus group about the portal about three years back,’ she said. ‘It was helpful this time to have Student Government [Board] to identify students that wanted to help.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Typically, Walton said, CSSD uses its 150 or so student employees to get the word out.