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Initial student portal rollout complete
An update from the student portal project team.
May signaled the completion of the initial phase of the student portal: build it, test it and roll it out to all current Waterloo students. Science students were the last group to get access to the mobile-friendly communications tool, and were invited last month.
The student portal, which delivers the UWaterloo information students need, just when they need it, has regularly evolved the content and design, thanks to valuable feedback from our student and campus partner users. Through the portal’s feedback tool, consultation groups and presentations to student societies, students have told us they really like the portal and see it as a one-stop-shop for important academic and campus life information. They also want the ability for more customization, a mobile app and continued integration with key campus systems, such as Learn.
In the last few months, we’ve focused on delivering greater customized content, particularly on the portal home screen, for easy, on-the-go reference. Recent highlights include real-time WatCard balance, favourite food locations, most frequented computer labs and bus times for favourite GRT stops.
The portal has also recently added a:
- Clubs widget – to select favourite club events (a frequent student request)
- Blogs widget – to select campus blog feeds
- Goose watch widget – to map nest locations (which has now been disabled thanks to the proliferation of goslings around campus)
We’ve improved the functionality of several key features including:
- Athletics widget – to customize favourite fitness class schedules
- Crowd Reporter widget – easier to report busyness of locations and introduced predictive data to ensure greater accuracy
- Food widget – includes halal and vegetarian options of the day
- Course materials widget – can hide books already purchased from the list
- Plus lots of smaller feature enhancements and user experience improvements
In March, we hosted the first student portal hackathon where 12 student teams pitched their portal content ideas. We are currently working with a student developer on a widget to accurately display when classrooms are empty so students can use them as study space. The Registrar’s Office is pleased with the progress. We’ll continue to work with other student developers in the coming months.
Phase two of the student portal includes focusing on enhancing campus-wide use of the portal, with particular emphasis on incoming students, both undergraduate and graduate. We’ll also explore broader use of targeted notifications, faculty or college-specific content not currently addressed by existing portal features, the creation of a mobile app and greater campus system integration, where possible.
As portal use increases, the need for timely and accurate web content (which feeds into the portal) becomes increasingly important. If you are a WCMS web maintainer, now is good time to review whether all of your content is up to date, and to also tag your content with audience and category taxonomies to help your content be pulled into the portal event and news widgets.
It’s easy to stay up-to-date on the student portal’s progress and if you would like access to the portal (with a fake student data set so you can see what students see) please email the student portal team.
Based on the success of the student portal and the feedback received throughout the project, the decision to move forward with an employee portal was easy. If you have suggestions on what sort of information should be included in an employee portal, or are looking for more information, please contact Andrew McAlorum or Natasha Jennings in IST.
Outstanding performance award winners named
The winners of the 2014 Outstanding Performance Award have been announced.
A memo from Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard provides the details:
"Effective May 1, 2005, in accordance with the 2003 Faculty Salary Settlement, the University of Waterloo established an Outstanding Performance Fund to reward faculty members for outstanding contribution in teaching and scholarship."
"I am very pleased to announce the award recipients for 2015, and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them for their outstanding contributions to the University of Waterloo," the provost writes.
Applied Health Sciences: Linda Jessup, Sharon Kirkpatrick, Heather Mair, Joe Quadrilatero, Richard Staines.
Arts: Lois Andison, John Burbidge, William Chesney, Frances Condon, Mathieu Doucet, Alan Douglas, Riemer Faber, Jonathan Fugelsang, Francisco Gonzalez, Kathryn Hochstetler, Shelley Hulan, Khim Kelly, Michael Macdonald, Robert Park, Evan Risko, Jennifer Roberts-Smith, Mathias Schulze, Jennifer Simpson, Mikal Skuterud, Joanne Wood, Erik Woody.
Engineering: Hossein Abouee Mehrizi, Slim Boumaiza, Wayne Chang, Duane Cronin, Ali Elkamel, Ehab El-Saadany, Maud Gorbet, Mohamed Kamel, Amir Khajepour, Fue-Sang Lien, Wayne Loucks, Mark Pritzker, Maya Przybylski, Luis Ricardez Sandoval, Xuemin Shen, Susan Tighe, Robert Van Pelt, Steven Waslander, Jeffrey West, Alexander Wong.
Environment: Jeffrey Casello, Jennifer Clapp, Alistair Craik, Paul Parker, Daniel Scott, Su-Yin Tan.
Mathematics: Jason Bell, Mike Eden, James Geelen, Mark Giesbrecht, Ian Goldberg, Jochen Koenemann, Kevin Lamb, Pengfei Li, Yuying Li, Anna Lubiw, Laurent Marcoux, Tamer Ozsu, Ken Seng Tan, Troy Vasiga, John Watrous.
Science: Michael Balogh, Carey Bissonnette, Vivian Dayeh, Scott Hopkins, Lyndon Jones, Jamie Joseph, Changchen Li, Brian McNamara, Roger Melko, Linda Nazar, Carol Ptacek, Rebecca Rooney, Mark Servos, Phillippe Van Cappellen.
Procurement trade show this week
Procurement and Contract Services is hosting its annual Trade Show to showcase to the University community the resources available to them through P&CS's suppliers. This year the show is being hosted on Tuesday, June 2, Wednesday, June 3 and Thursday, June 4 in the DC 1301 fishbowl from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. daily.
"On Tuesday June 2 we are hosting a number of our Vendors that will be showcasing their online ordering systems," writes Donna Foreman Braun. "There will be many vendors, which include everyone from our paper supplier to Lab Supplies and Electronics and much much more."
"With the rapid pace of technological advancement we are proud to once again showcase our technology day on Wednesday, June 3. This show offers something new every time we hold it."
Staples Advantage will be back by popular demand on Thursday, June 4 supported by a number of their select suppliers.
"P&CS will also be raffling off prizes to some lucky winners!" writes Braun.
For more detailed information on all of the suppliers and departments who will be represented at the trade show, please see the flyer on the Procurement & Contract Services website.
"We look forward to seeing you there!"
Board of Governors meets tomorrow and other notes
The University's Board of Governors will meet tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. in NH 3001. Among the agenda items:
- Approval for sabbatical leaves and academic appointments;
- Approval of increases to the Federation of Students fee, Feds-administered fees, Orientation fee, Graduate Student Association-administered fees, Accounting & Finance endowment fund fee, Accounting & Finance student association fee, and amendments to the Accounting and Finance endowment fund;
- Approval of a motion from the Audit & Risk Committee to delegate authority to approve the University of Waterloo Financial Statements, 2014-2015;
- Approval of a motion from the Building & Properties Committee to transfer to the City of Waterloo a parcel of land comprising 0.188 acres (759 square metres) along the north boundary of Seagram Drive as a dedicated road allowance;
- Approval of a motion from the Pension & Benefits Committee to approve the Actuarial Valuation of the Pension Plan as at 1 January 2015; and
- Approval of the Institute for Quantum Computing's annual report to Industry Canada.
Beginning today the exterior stairs at the MC loading dock will be under construction. The loading dock itself will still be usable, and access to the loading dock from exterior will be through the lower stairs. A barricade wall will be installed on the inside the loading dock to prevent exiting through loading dock door. Access to fire panel will be maintained. A fence will be set up on the exterior to prevent use of stairs. According to Plant Operations, the work will take 3 to 4 weeks to complete.
Human Resources notes that myHRinfo will be offline from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. today for regularly scheduled maintenance.
The University's main library catalogue, Primo, will be unavailable during the week of June 15 due to a server migration, according to a notice from the Library. From June 15 to June 19, for a catalogue search please use TRELLIS. To find journal articles please use one of our research databases. If you need help choosing a relevant database please ask for help.