UITS to unveil new Webmail, Oncourse

Development of technology on all of IU's campuses continues to be at the forefront of the UITS agenda. Throughout the remainder of the spring semester and at the beginning of the fall semester, it will introduce better interfaces for both Webmail and Oncourse.\nWebmail has already begun to transition from its current platforms to the new Cyrus mail system, moving between 8,000 and 10,000 accounts per day until April 22. \n"However, if the accounts have not completely been transferred by that date, we will cease transferring until after finals are complete and grades have been sent," said Vice President of Information Technology, Chuck Aikman.\nThe new e-mail system includes 100 MB storage capability allowing students, faculty and staff to send and receive larger attachments and multiple e-mails.\nAlso included in the new Webmail system is the ability to filter the e-mail into separate storage boxes once received.\n"For example, if you receive a spam e-mail, you can set up rules for it to be filtered into a separate box," Aikman said.\nAttempting to prevent a reoccurrence of last semester's e-mail outage which affected many students right before finals week, UITS has set up a separate server in Indianapolis which can be switched on in case of a flaw in the Bloomington system.\nJunior Detroit Spencer is satisfied with the changes and said he believes them to be appropriate.\n"More space means I can send bigger presentations and projects," Spencer said. "Also, spam control would be an excellent thing this way I can avoid those unwanted e-mails with ease." \nIn the fall semester, students can expect a change to Oncourse, as the new Oncourse CL will be introduced. Already, students can access the feature and take a tutorial of the new design on the current Oncourse Web site. It will take a total of 18 months, however, to migrate from one system to the other.\nOncourse CL is a collaborative effort between IU, MIT, Stanford and the University of Michigan. However, the design of Oncourse CL has been made to fit each university for their specific needs. \nUITS Communication Specialist Angie Quick cited a couple reasons for the switch, including the wide use of Oncourse and the fact that its capabilities were being used to capacity.\n"It helps to advance what students and faculty do online," she said. \nThose advancements include features that allow students and faculty to drop and add what they want to see on their Oncourse CL homepage. Those features include a place where instructors can place assignments onto the site and students can even turn in their assignments in the same area. \n"You can create a project site, where all the students that are involved in the project can get together and meet to discuss what is going on and what part of the project they are assigned to, etc," said Quick.\nA new feature which the current Oncourse was unable to incorporate will allow students and staff to create their own tool bars for their own specific needs.\n"If they have a tool that is not currently in the application, they can build it and UITS will just plug it in for them," Quick said.\nAlthough the system is not completely available yet, Director of Learning Technology Operations for IU Beth Van Gordon said instructors can currently teach in it.\n"Right now we are involved in the testing and preview phase; however, faculty can teach if in it if they want to," she said. "But, we do not have the complete functionality of the program into the version as of right now."\nFreshman Cody Collier tested the new Oncourse CL system by checking on the Oncourse Web site where there is a testing tab on the lower left-hand corner.\n"Everything is so much better organized," Collier said.\nFor Webmail, expect to see an e-mail in your inbox when the change occurs saying "Welcome to Cyrus mail." The change to Oncourse CL will not occur until next year, however, even than you will still be able to use regular Oncourse for other needs.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ryne Shadday at rshadday@indiana.edu.