About my.UQ for Students
my.UQ is the University of Queenland's enterprise portal. It brings together all the online resources students use at UQ, and these resources can be accessed from anywhere in the world with a web browser.
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History
my.UQ has changed the way students communicate at The University of Queensland. my.UQ is a portal that gives students a personalised view of their own webmail, course materials, student records, calendar, address book, and bookmark list. It also provides access to UQ's Library and its resources, as well as customisable search engines, news headlines, and weather forecasts.
my.UQ was created to address several needs identified by the University:
- to provide a higher standard of online services to UQ students
- to contribute to a sense of community within the University
- to provide a more efficient means for the University to communicate with its students
The success of my.UQ demonstrates that Queensland educational institutions and businesses need not be dependant on overseas vendors for creating an enterprise portal. It also provides an outstanding model for user-driven application design and for creative collaboration among diverse parts of an organisation.
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Advantages
my.UQ is a better portal solution for UQ than "off-the-shelf" enterprise portal products. In-house development allows it to be completely tailored to the needs of UQ's community. It also fits seamlessly with UQ's existing network infrastructure - no new purchases or upgrades were required. Furthermore, because it was developed in-house, my.UQ is scalable to UQ's future needs and doesn't lock UQ into purchasing a particular suite of products.
One of the unique aspects of my.UQ's concept and implementation was the close cooperation between UQ's marketing & communications and IT staff. The project team is made up of approximately equal numbers from each area.
my.UQ has increased the efficiency with which information can be conveyed to staff and students by the University. Important information can now be conveyed to the community en masse by posting a message on my.UQ.
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Innovation
my.UQ's many outstanding features include personalised webmail, course materials, student records, UQ services, calendars, important messages, contacts, news, newsgroups, search engines, and weather forecasts. my.UQ uses a variety of technologies to deliver these features.
Students were consulted thoughout the development of the my.UQ student portal.
This direct user involvement is largely responsible for the overwhelmingly positive response my.UQ has received from the student community. Because of its success, the my.UQ team continues to use this consultative approach when adding new features.
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Quality
my.UQ's high quality is demonstrated in a number of ways. First, its user interface design has been influenced both by direct user involvement and by industry best practice. To ensure that all users can access my.UQ, it also complies with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Priority One).
Further evidence of quality is in the high level of user support available to my.UQ users from the existing IT support providers at the University. These include a Help Desk provided by UQ's Information Technology Services and AskIT, a service provided by the UQ Library. These services provide user assistance in person, via email, and via telephone. They also provide fact sheets to answer frequently asked questions. Because this first tier of support feeds information back to the development team, the developers are able to modify the application very quickly in response to user demands.
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Recognition
The most important source of recognition for my.UQ has been from the students themselves. The positive response has been overwhelming. my.UQ has a community of over 37,000 users and receives around 6,000 logins each day.
 Find out more from the User testimonials page.
In addition to the recognition from its users, my.UQ also beat fierce competition to score in four categories of MIS Australia magazine's inaugural IT Innovation Awards, including sharing first place in the E-business category.
Find out more from the Awards page.
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Local content
my.UQ was wholly developed in Queensland by The University of Queensland. As a portal, however, it does provide access to some external applications, such as the iPlanet Messenger Express webmail and Calendar client and Citrix client. This world-class enterprise portal helps to attract and retain overseas and interstate students.
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Getting Started
Step 1: Read Using my.UQ first.
Step 2: Start using my.UQ by signing in to http://student.my.uq.edu.au.
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Resources
Use the following resources to help you find out more and how to use my.UQ.
 Using my.UQ
Scenarios
Send us feedback
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More Information
Please contact us if you need any more information on the my.UQ for Students.
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