my.pitt.edu: Pitt Portal provides a single point
of Web access for academic activities

The Pitt Portal, which debuts this Fall Term, allows students to customize their pages to include the Web sites they use most often. CSSD plans eventually to offer the service to Pitt faculty and staff members.

By Mary Ann Lambing & Michele Kiraly

With the debut of the Pitt Portal this Fall Term, students at the University of Pittsburgh will be able to create their own unique Web pages to access the University’s computer network and the Internet.

The portal is a Web-based framework that brings together information from the Web, enabling students to log in to one place rather than multiple sites to view the electronic information that is important to them.

The portal allows students to create a personalized view of the University by combining topics drawn from department intranets and Web sites with services integrated from other systems.

“What we’re doing is taking all the information that relates to students’ academic and personal lives and giving them one location to go and look at these things,” said Jinx Walton, director of Computing Services and Systems Development (CSSD). “It’s a way to customize and personalize their view of the University.”

The portal provides University students with immediate value and convenience, particularly since Web-based e-mail will be available for the first time. Students will not need to have software on their computers to read e-mail; instead it will be accessible with a Web browser.

Students also can choose to have their personal e-mail forwarded to their University addresses, eliminating the need to check different e-mail services. For example, if a student has an account with America On Line, he or she could forward that e-mail to the portal.

The portal is accessed at the Web address my.pitt.edu, using a student’s University computer account and password. The first time a new user logs in to the portal, he or she will receive a welcome page and the option of a tutorial of the system.

Each student’s individual portal page is set up initially with electronic mail and a link to Student Services. Students can then customize their pages to include the Web sites they use most often.

Portal Features

The portal features four main headings: My Pages, Communities, Web Mail, and Student Services.

The My Pages option allows students to create and modify their pages to provide them with the information they choose. A “gadget” feature allows students to choose and add links to various Web sites.

The portal also offers stylistic freedom so students can personalize their greetings and select page colors and layouts. Each student is permitted to create up to six different personalized portal pages.

Communities, similar to personalized portal pages, are assembled by CSSD with the input of various departments for others to use. Whereas each student may have one or two personalized portal pages, he or she may belong to more than a dozen communities.

The Communities option enables University departments and groups to offer subportal sites that combine information and software from various sites and deliver them to the people who have the most need for and interest in that information.

For example, from the technology community, a student can reach the HelpDesk, manage his or her University computing account, and get other useful information, such as computing lab hours and available software programs.

Of the communities offered, Student Services is particularly beneficial to students by offering links to relevant information, including financial aid, registration, Student Affairs, and Student Health Services.

In addition to providing a tutorial, the portal offers a help button in the upper righthand corner of each page, which provides useful tips to guide the user through various sections of the portal.

The portal also features a link to the University’s Central Directory, a centralized list of all individuals affiliated with the University. This directory provides the necessary framework to allow the portal to be customized for each student or group.

The portal will allow students to become more efficient in their academic work by providing an at-a-glance view of the information that is important to them. Students will spend less time searching for information and switching between applications.

For research purposes, the portal is an ideal tool since it supports a link to the University libraries and the capability to do a PITTCat search.

Although the initial portal will be released only to students this Fall, CSSD plans eventually to offer the service to faculty and staff members.

“The new portal is a great way to integrate a variety of computer services,” said Walton. “There are a lot of things that have been available on the Internet. We just haven’t had a way to deliver them before my.pitt.edu.”