Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Case Study
Portal System Keeps Students, Alumni in Touch at Plymouth State U
5/2/2007
In addition to e-mail, the portal offers a range of additional services and resources available to both students and alumni, and the university is continually adding services. The alumni portal includes:
- Information on class reunions;
- Alumni scholarships and awards;
- An alumni directory;
- Unofficial transcripts; and
- Weather reports.
Attracting Alumni to the System
By partnering with third parties who offer value-added services, the university has been able to offer some creative benefits to encourage alumni to continue using the portal after graduation. For example, the school is partnering with Experience to offer an online career services component to both students and alumni. Set to launch in July, the service will offer alumni to alumni and alumni to student job postings through the MyPlymouth portal.
Other services available to alumni include personal announcements and current university and alumni news. Services offered through the portal, Long said, "have been extremely well received."
Sites like Facebook have shown that students have a strong interest in social networking, Kochien said. Unlike with Facebook, however, a university site that connects its alumni can add the support of the institution and can provide a strong sense of community and continuity. "If alumni are using the site for social networking, they are more likely to be engaged with the university in other ways, too," Kochien maintains.
Meanwhile, Plymouth State has continued to add new features and services to its portals--and to draw increasing alumni interest. It's not just the newest graduates who are intrigued by their free e-mail account and use of the MyPlymouth portal. "The oldest alum that has communicated with us using their alumni e-mail account," Long said, "graduated in 1937."
Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- California Community Colleges Partner with Waterfall Mobile on Statewide Emergency Notification Coverage
The Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC) has awarded a statewide emergency alert notification contract to Waterfall Mobile. The contract establishes Waterfall's AlertU as an approved technology through the official non-profit foundation for the California Community College (CCC) system office. Through this partnership, individual colleges may directly implement emergency communication services, eliminating lengthy technology evaluation and RFP processes.
- King's College and ASU Add e2Campus for Improved Emergency Notifications
King's College and Arizona State University have switched to Omnilert's e2Campus for emergency notification. Omnilert also has introduced a new program called the ENS Conversion Service that allows schools to bulk upload data from their previous emergency notification system into e2Campus at no charge.
- Saint Joseph Builds Out Wireless Network in Multi-year Upgrade
Saint Joseph's University has begun deploying a Meru Networks wireless local area network across its Philadelphia campus as part of a multi-year effort to bring wireless coverage to every building on campus.
- Vista Ramp Up Is Happening Now, Study Says
Organizations may have been slow to adopt Microsoft Windows Vista, but expect that to change by late 2008 to 2009, according to a Forrester Research report by Benjamin Gray et al., published last week.
- Talisma Launches New Version of CRM with Built-in Application Management
Talisma Corp. announced version 8.0 of its constituent relationship management (CRM) application for higher education. The new release includes application management, a revamped user interface, two-way text messaging, personalized Web portals, and an ADA-compliant Web client, among other enhancements.
- Bringing Composers into Classrooms Through Skype
Two Pennsylvania teaching colleagues with an interest in music and technology are bringing remote experts into classrooms at almost no cost, using Skype's free videoconferencing technology.
