Personalised study portal in the pipeline

The web portal is still at the development stage. It is currently being tested by students on two Arts degree programmes, but all students at AU can expect to be given access to it in the next 12 months.

Everything in one place

With the new portal, students are offered a single point of access to timetables, Blackboard and registration for exams, among other things. The information available is personalised, so students can see only what is relevant for them personally, and will thus not have to navigate in, for example, numerous academic regulations to find their own.

This is an IT project at AU where student involvement has played a key role in the development process. Students have helped to define the content, relevance and the way in which it is presented. “This means that the users tell us what to do,” says Project Manager Kim Nørskov, AU Student Administration and Services.

The system’s functionalities and user-friendliness are being developed continuously based on student feedback. This will also be the case once the web portal has been rolled out.

Clear feedback

It is still early days, but there is every reason to look forward to the roll-out. The constructive – and clear – feedback from users has a direct influence on how the system will actually work. Examples of student feedback:

“Not necessary with two links + an integrated table to and from timetables.”

“The fields are too large. Would prefer them to take up less space.”

“Nice feature that it is so easy to find your own academic regulations here, as it has previously been difficult to find your way around the many different versions of academic regulations. Your weekly timetable is also very clear.”

“It's really nice with the shortcuts, as it also shows you which options and tools you have as a student. As it is now, you need to search for information about what is available.”

From September this year, all students at Arts will be able to use the web portal, and it will then be rolled out at the other faculties.

Background:

For a number of years, students at AU have said that they find it difficult to navigate the many IT systems and websites which they need to access during their studies.

Against this background, the development of a new personalised point of access began in 2016. This access point has been developed over the past six months in a process where students from all of AU have been closely involved.

In May 2017, students on the Media Studies and the Scandinavian Languages and Literature degree programmes started testing a prototype of the system. The prototype period serves as a learning period and makes it possible to make adjustments prior to university-wide roll-out of the system.