Central Michigan University’s Portal, My Site and Team Site are getting upgrades.

Changes to the portal include enhancements such as blogs, surveys, wikis and RSS feed capacities to both My Sites and team sites.

“Essentially, once the portal changes and students go there, it will look a little different,” said Duane Kleinhardt, manager of Information Technology Communications.

Kleinhardt said students will be most affected by the enhancements to My Site – even though he said many of them probably do not use My Site.

The My Site enhancements, which have already gone into effect, will allow students to have a web presence and store documents, he said.

The portal’s new design will take place within the next few months and will be used to provide a platform for new and improved services, according to a mass e-mail sent to students from Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe Tuesday.

“Earlier this year, Central Michigan University transitioned to the latest version of Microsoft Portal hosting software, providing enhancements,” the e-mail read.

The CMU Portal will transition to the latest version of the software today. Although the portal transition will include a new design, all current services and links will remain the same.

Kleinhardt said that the Office of Information Technology did the internal work for the portal redesign and University Communications worked in collaboration with Information Technology communications for the portal changes.

He said he was unsure how much money the changes cost.

“The portal will be better with the added tools of blogs and wiki pages,” Kleinhardt said. “I hope students will use them.”

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E-mail the author: Joe Borlik