The Tilburg University student portal at a glance

Some information on the Tilburg University student portal, which was launched on September 30, 2008:

Students target group page

Students target group page

The Tilburg University web site has dedicated information pages for the various target groups, including students, lecturers, and prospective students. Through the students target group page, students can login to their personal portal. The portal has been implemented in Blackboard, and integrated with its existing Digital Learning Environment. Once logged in, the student sees three tabs: My Study, My University and My Stuff. The portlets (channels or views on applications or information resources) on the portal tabs are by default only, and can be (re)moved by students as they like.

My Study page - part 1

My Study tab – part 1

My Study page - part 2

My Study tab – part 2

My Study page - part 3

My Study tab – part 3

My Study contains study-related portlets. The default portlets on the My Study tab include My Courses, My Course Announcements, My Study Facilities, Webmail Notifier, My Week Schedule, My Schedule Changes, My Exam Schedule, and Language Tools.

My University page - part 1

My University tab – part 1

My University page - part 2

My University tab – part 2

My University tab - part 3

My University tab – part 3

My University-portlets are related to the organizational context in which students study. Depending on the faculty a student is studying at, different faculty-related portlets are presented. The default portlets on the My University tab include Course Catalog, Organization Catalog, a Faculty Hotlist, Faculty News, Tilburg University News, This Week at Tilburg University, Univers News (the university newspaper), University Address Book, My Library Facilities, Library Search, News from the Faculty student associations, Portal News, and My Portal Suggestions.

My Stuff tab

My Stuff tab

The My Stuff tab is empty and can be filled with portlets by students as they like.

Modify content

Modify content

Modify layout

Modify layout

Using standard Blackboard functionality, students can select portlets from an ever growing list and add them to their tabs. This way, they can also modify the layout of their portal environment and portlets.

Student portal launch movie

Student portal launch movie

Communication with stakeholders has always had a very high priority in the project. A suggestion form is available, and suggestions are publicly accessible, and a weblog is used to communicate about the progress of the portal development. To prepare students (and other stakeholders) for the consequences of the changes in functionality, a series of electronic newsletters was published. To draw attention to the student portal, a humorous “all throughout history, mankind struggled with technology” launch movie was produced, together with the Tilburg University theatre sports association Rataplan (click here for the “Making Of”).

Posted by Aldo de Moor

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