Gateway to the Web

Getting what you need just got easier

by Nina Scupp '08, Summer Intern

September 11, 2007

Portal Administrator David Kelly demonstrates new features.

Dickinson College has unveiled its latest technological feat—a new Web portal for the campus community called Dickinson Gateway. A Web portal—a Web site designed to provide users with a single location for accessing a variety of online services—makes navigating the Net a whole lot simpler for Dickinsonians.

Portal Administrator David Kelly explains that the goal of the project is to "try to make it easier [for users] to get to the information that they need by putting it all in one place." With Gateway, crucial Internet tools such as Banner, Blackboard, e-mail and campus announcements are combined onto a single site that requires only one password.

"What we're doing is not so much new, but rather we're pulling a lot of things together," Kelly explains. Director of Electronic Communication Paul Dempsey agrees. "The Gateway is a way of streamlining and smoothing things out," he says.

Have it Your Way

But there are many new bells and whistles accompanying Gateway. The portal boasts the ability to display announcements to specific cross sections of users, which "gives Dickinson some flexibility with how it sends news to people," says Kelly. "We'll be able to send announcements to very tailored groups such as the senior class or all biology majors."

Gateway also will facilitate extracurricular endeavors as each student organization will be given a corner of the portal to call its own. Groups will have access to private spaces within the site where they'll be able to communicate through message boards and post announcements, calendars and photos.

In addition to practical features, a few things are just for fun. There will be tools called channels to which users can subscribe, allowing them to see only the things they're interested in. Users can add channels that show information such as daily menus for the Union Station and the cafeteria, a running tab of their declining balance or varsity sports-team results. "People can customize [their portal home page] depending on what they care about," Dempsey says.

Another Gateway feature will allow students and faculty to access their network files when they're off campus. This provides a tremendous amount of flexibility for a wide range of users such as students who want to access their files from abroad.

Director of Institutional Systems Jill Forrester is excited about how this new option will help faculty and staff. In the past, she says, new employees often lamented their inability to access their network files when off campus. The new portal addresses this former shortcoming.

Phasing in the Portal

Beginning in May, the incoming first-year students were among the initial demographic to test the new system. Through Gateway they submitted forms, registered for classes, learned about orientation and chatted on message boards with other incoming students.

Things went smoothly with only minute glitches and, with this successful trial run under the college's belt, Gateway was expanded this summer to include faculty, administrators and full-time staff. After another successful demographic acclimated to the new system, Gateway was then opened up to returning students in time for the start of the academic year.

The portal team is proud to have rolled out a solid starting point, although the portal is not yet complete. Rather than wait what could be years to reveal a polished finished product, portal administrators plan to introduce the portal in stages as new pieces are finished. "We're trying to keep people's appetites whetted throughout the first year," explains Kelly. "Every week we want there to be something new to keep pulling people back."

The portal administrators also have ensured that Gateway will integrate naturally into Dickinson's current infrastructure. "It'll be organic," Kelly explains. "As we go, incoming classes will get more and more used to it. Ultimately, we'd like to shift user behavior from checking e-mail two to three times a day to checking Gateway two to three times a day."