Aug. 21, 2015
Inside Loss of a BeLoved ReseaRcheR
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His presence and impact will be sorely missed.
ResidenT PRogRam
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Orthopaedic residency benefits two countries. 2 Around Campus 5 Meet Stuart 11 President’s Letter
T h e c aTa Ly s T onLine http://www. musc.edu/ catalyst
MEDICAL UNIVERSITY of SOUTH CAROLINA
Vol. 33, No. 50
New student portal streamlines online experience By J. Ryne Danielson Public Relations The Office of the Chief Information Officer, under direction of the Office of Enrollment Management and the Student Government Association, will release a new student portal this fall to streamline the online experience for new and current students at the Medical University. The portal, located at life.musc.edu, will be live and ready for students in time for their return. “It’s a technology we’ve been working on for a while,” said John Dell, interim deputy CIO. “It integrates functionality across disparate systems that students used to need to access individually. “We worked closely with the SGA and asked what functions they needed as students,” he continued. “Students take courses on Moodle and pay tuition though Webadvisor; get notes from their professor through email; access academic and personal calendars, as well as campus information. Now, they can do all that in one spot. This opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of online education.” “Students can even see the weather,” said Michelle Hagar, systems analyst with OCIO. “There’s a whole number of things they can do with this system, not only pay bills, but sign up for direct deposit; contact their advisers; access tax forms, grades and transcripts.” One of the most useful features, she said, is Shibboleth, a single sign–on system that allows students to access a host of features with one password. The only feature that cannot be accessed from within the web application via single sign–on is the Exchange email service, though an unread email count does appear with the app, as well as a link to the Outlook web app. Students can customize bookmarks and campus feeds to receive the latest
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photo by J. Ryne Danielson, Public Relations
New College of Medicine students pack the Bioengineering Building Aug. 12 on the first day of student orientations at MUSC.
The new student portal will provide students the ability to pay tuition, view grades, get class assignments and more all in one place. student broadcast messages and Catalyst stories in real time, as well as add their own RSS feeds. “The old version of this portal was never really rolled out. It was just used by whoever found it. It had limited functionality; didn’t have single sign-on. The new portal is built on the latest version of Microsoft
SharePoint and is much more useful,” Hagar said. “There is a lot of flexibility in this platform, so as needs arise and feedback and suggestions come in, the content can evolve to become even more useful for students.” George Ohlandt, executive director of the Office of Enrollment Management, agreed. “We strongly encourage students to provide feedback on the site so we have an idea of what features we could add or improve upon,” he said. There will be a comment box and short survey near the bottom of the landing page for students to provide feedback about which functions of the site they find most useful and to request additional features. Ohlandt, who is the executive sponsor of the portal, is excited about the rollout and believes students will be pleased with its functionality. “Life.musc.edu is the best way for students to access all of the academic and administrative tools they need on a regular basis.” Visit the new student portal at life.musc.edu. For questions about the site, email lifesupport@musc. edu or call the OCIO help desk at 792-9700.
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