UW-Madison students can now access e-mail, grade information, course lists and campus calendars all in one place.
'My UW-Madison,' the university's new online service, allows students to obtain personalized information like grades, course schedules and tuition accounts, as well as campus news and academic calendars, all on a single Web page.
'Students will no longer have to go to the Bursar's Office to pay their bills, go to separate Web pages to look for athletic-event schedules or adviser schedules, or use the phone system to register for classes,' said Brian Rust, senior program specialist at UW's Division of Information Technology.
Tested by engineering and biology students last year, the Web portal was introduced to new students this past summer. By activating a NetID, users can log into the 'My UW' Web portal and customize the Web page to suit their preferences. Students will be able to intertwine their own personalized calendar with other university calendars, access library resources, view their individual financial status, check e-mail and within a year, enroll for their classes online, Rust said.
New students activated their NetIDs this summer and currently have full use of the Web service. But continuing students must wait until at least October to activate their own account. Faculty and staff will most likely not have full access to 'My UW' until next semester.
'We can't have students continually activating their accounts. In a couple of weeks, we will move everybody over at once,' Rust said.
Students who have not yet activated an account will receive an e-mail notice sometime this fall explaining how to use the Web service, Rust said. Those freshmen unable to activate their accounts by Aug. 31 must wait with the rest of the continuing students to gain access.
The new portal also features Web-based e-mail, allowing students to check their e-mail without erasing it off the server. Students will now be able to check their e-mail, saved on campus servers, anywhere in the world through 'My UW.'
Each user will receive 50 MB of storage for their e-mail, almost five times more than what a service like Hotmail offers, Rust said.
Students with more than one e-mail address will be able to designate a preferred e-mail address. All e-mail will be forwarded to that specified address.
Rust said security of a user's records and information was a major concern for the developers of the Web service. He said a fully encrypted NetID results in more security when a user's name and password are transferred through the system.
Rust said only about 5 percent of colleges and universities in the United States have developed Web portals for their students and employees. Once everyone has been integrated into the system, DoIT anticipates the Web portal serving more than 55,000 students, faculty and staff.
In addition to its new Web portal, the university is also in the process of moving away from 3.5-inch floppy disks toward a larger, more reliable 250 MB Zip disk. The computer labs at Memorial, Steenbock, Health Sciences/Middleton, Math and College libraries have either replaced or are in the process of replacing their computers, said John Staley, senior information consultant at DoIT. The computers will also be equipped with a CD and DVD combo drive. He said services will be available to help students transfer their data on floppy to Zip disks.
For more information on the 'My UW' Web site, contact DoIT at 264-3648.
