MyUCDavis Awaits Graduation Day
Computing Councils Give the Green Light
by Babette Schmitt
 
On March 29, at a rare joint meeting of the Academic and Administrative Computing Coordinating Councils, over 30 campus administrators, faculty members, and staff representatives gave the MyUCDavis portal a resounding vote of approval.

MyUCDavis Statistics

These statistics were collected as part of an ongoing survey. As of 03/29/01, there were 408 responses. Of these 408:
  • 73% will use MyUCDavis as their default browser page.
  • 79% find MyUCDavis to improve productivity as a student, faculty or staff member.
  • 78% believe MyUCDavis will help the campus attract prospective students.
  • 96% would recommend MyUCDavis to others.
As for the course management features:
  • 51 faculty have created course Web sites for 114 courses.
  • These 51 faculty have created over 1000 course documents using MyUCDavis Course Management.
  • There are an additional 139 links to existing course Web sites included in MyUCDavis.
After 18 months of development work and a six-month pilot, MyUCDavis got one step closer to graduating magna cum laude into Tier 1 status. If the Information Technology Policy Board approves the Councils' recommendation at its May 17 meeting, the pilot project will be elevated into the realm of mission-critical computing systems, joining ranks with the well-established financial system (DaFIS) and student information system (Banner).

To extend the portal to all faculty and students and to provide reliable, around-the-clock support for the system, the Councils also recommended the allocation of $187,000 in permanent annual funds. This budget does not cover any features or functionality beyond those already available. Instead the Councils proposed to use Instructional Technology Funds to implement two new features (an electronic grade book and a self-test module) that the AC4 Subcommittee on Course Management Systems reported faculty had requested.

The Councils' recommendations stem in large part from the success of the pilot and the widely-embraced notion that portal technology can improve the campus' ability to serve students, staff, and faculty. Those who have used the MyUCDavis portal see great potential ahead: over 75 percent of survey respondents indicated that it had improved their productivity and believed it will help attract prospective students.

Carol Wall, Vice Chancellor for Students Affairs, and one of the project sponsors agreed. "We need to make information easy to access for students," Wall says. "By combining efforts with other units and leveraging portal technology, we can improve our delivery of information and services to students, both current and prospective. And we can do this in new and more efficient ways. I am thrilled with our recommendation to expand MyUCDavis so more students can benefit from it."

As we get ready to open a new MyUCDavis chapter, we can't help but wonder what lies ahead. And that is exactly what the Councils asked a special committee to report on. More specifically, they asked the UC Davis New Business Architecture Steering Committee to investigate the possible expansion of MyUCDavis to include an enterprise portal that would provide a one-stop gateway into all major administrative services. That will be the day, in the not-so-distant future, when MyUCDavis might graduate summa cum laude.

 
 Related IT Times stories

Previous Issues
Project Updates (Nov/Dec 2000)

IT Project Updates (Sep/Oct 2000)

"MyUCDavis": A new window on the Aggie world (Mar 2000)

 
Other Resources

MyUCDavis Web site

MyUCDavis Frequently Asked Questions

Joint AdC3 and AC4 Meeting Minutes (3/29/01)

AC4 Meeting Minutes (3/19/01)

 

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