Online Portal Offers UB Freshmen Customized Information

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- When they first arrive on campus, college freshmen are deluged with orientation packets and publications.

But after the first few weeks, that deluge dries up, often leaving students' questions unanswered.

The University at Buffalo has figured out how to keep information flowing to freshmen -- but not flooding them -- through the development of MyUB, an online portal for freshmen that actually grows with the student.

The system recently was recognized by the National Orientation Directors Association with an award for outstanding multimedia/emerging technologies. It also won the Sallie Mae Prestige Award at the WebdevShare Conference at Indiana University, an award that is given to acknowledge outstanding contributions to information technology in higher education.

"MyUB is a coaching, mentoring system," said Rebecca Bernstein, director of electronic media at UB and a developer of MyUB, along with Jim Gorman and Rob Wright of Administrative Computing Services in Computing and Information Technology at UB. "It complements what the human advisor can provide by bringing the wide resources of UB to the student's fingertips at any time of the day or night."

MyUB addresses the questions all freshmen have: How do I get an email account? What's my advisor's telephone number? How do I find out what's for dinner in the dining hall?

And because the site is accessed through the student's UB username and ID, it "knows" things about each student, such as his or her major and what courses they've taken, and steers the student to appropriate information, such as what academic requirements they have so far fulfilled and what they have left to take.

As students progress through the academic year, the site changes categories and Web links.

For example, the program kicked off in the fall with orientation links and basic information on university resources.

As the semester unfolded, they were replaced with links that provided information that would be more helpful later in the year, such as details about time management, finding a niche on campus or how to have a successful four years at UB. Around December, a series of links on study skills was installed to help freshmen get through the exam period.

Students also can add their own links, such as URLs for specific class Web sites or other sites they frequently use, or turn off categories they no longer use.

It's this customizing feature that makes MyUB unique among other educational and commercial sites, Bernstein points out.

"Rather than providing a set of passive, fixed links for all students, the UB site provides links that make sense, depending on that point in time," she said. "We've dug deeper to find the right sites; not just the top pages, but the hidden gems that can match the needs of our students and make life better for them."

As a pilot program designed solely for freshmen, MyUB has enjoyed an average daily response from students of more than 700 logins daily -- about 20 percent of the freshman class -- far higher than the originally anticipated response of between 3 and 7 percent.

One freshman wrote that he found it to be particularly useful since he was a commuter and not always on campus.

"Everything is there at my fingertips, even though I'm not on campus with people to ask for help. It has everything that I can possibly think about using online. I used to have all the different sites bookmarked as I found them. Then I decided to just bookmark MyUB."

Another wrote: "I think this is a great service that you guys set up. It makes it easy for new freshmen, such as myself, to become adjusted to college life and helps us to become a little less lost in the confusion of everything we now have to do. I like the fact that I can check my grades and academic progress any time I want and it allows me to make sure I am taking courses I need for graduation."

Although access to MyUB now is available only to freshmen, access is being planned for other members of the university community.

The information for the site was developed with the assistance of numerous UB faculty members, staff and students, and of various UB campus resources, including Computing and Information Technology, Student Activities, Student Affairs, University Libraries, the Provost's Office, the Academic Advisement Center and Student Services.