University students can expect to see changes with their e-mail and Blackboard in the upcoming semesters.Groupwise Webaccess, the e-mail provider currently used by the University, will be replaced with GMail effective Jan. 1.
Tom Bonvillain, director of academic computing, said the University currently pays to license the Groupwise system. With the budget cuts, the University thought it would make sense to switch to a service that is free.
GMail offers numerous advantages, Bonvillain said. It is part of a larger group called Google Apps that offers students the ability to collaborate with peers on things such as papers and projects. Documents can be shared and edited, and a calendar and contact system can be set up for personal organizational purposes or for group viewing within the system. Programs such as Word and Excel can be shared, but the system has its own set of programs as well.
Anyone who receives a GMail account will be able to keep the account forever, Bonvillain said. Once a student graduates from the University, he or she will roll over into the alumni section and retain only the e-mail portion of Google Apps.
“It will give the University a way of keeping up with you after you move on from Nicholls,” Bonvillain said.
Students who have been at the University for more than a semester are using an old username format that consists of the first four letters of their last name, the first intial of their first name and three assigned numbers, Bonvillain said. The University is looking into converting all usernames to the format given to first semester students, which consists of the first letter of their first name, their last name and an assigned numeral. If the old usernames can be converted, the University hopes to be able to display new usernames in Banner Self-Service, which provided the format for the new usernames. However, these changes are pending at this time, Bonvillain said. Once Gmail has been set up, a link to the new account will be put on the old e-mail login page, Bonvillain said.
Blackboard will also be replaced with Moodle, effective summer 2011. Bonvillain said the switch will cost the University less, just like Gmail, and will be similar to Blackboard.
The University plans to shut Blackboard down after spring 2011 and is currently working with faculty to convert courses to Moodle format, Bonvillain said.
The main difference students will see with Moodle is the way information is laid out, Bonvillain said. All the features in Blackboard are the same but may called something different. Also, a course can be laid out in topics as seen in Blackboard but can also be laid out in a weekly format. This will be advantageous to students in online courses because it will allow them to see what assignments need to be done for a particular week.
“All of these changes will be advantageous to us. It will save the University about 100,000 dollars in a year,” Bonvillain said.
