The University is to replace shuspace, our current student portal, with a new student portal called MyHallam. This will be hosted on the same content management system that runs our external webpages. The change is due to take place in early October, at which point, students will automatically be directed to MyHallam if they visit shuspace.
This new portal will have a more modern look and feel, reduce duplication of web content, allow students to browse information without the need to log-in, be more mobile-friendly and enable better integration with University systems.
Students have been engaged throughout the design process and the name ‘MyHallam’ was selected from a shortlist generated through a student competition.
This video (without sound) showcases the new portal and will give you an understanding of the changes.
A screencast and a PowerPoint presentation which give an overview of the new student portal for use in student inductions will be sent to all academic staff during w/c 17 September.
It is important to note that
- Blackboard will remain the Virtual Learning Environment for the University – there will not be any changes to individual Blackboard module or organisation sites. Both staff and students will continue to access those sites via the new portal.
- All existing web content linked to from shuspace will remain the same so links to those web pages should continue to work.
- After the initial launch of MyHallam, further developments are planned such as the integration of email, Blackboard, MSR and timetable into personalised dashboards on MyHallam.
If you have any questions about this change, please contact Brian Irwin, Head of Digital Capability in LEAD and Business Lead for the student portal part of the Web Development project.
Why is the change from shuspace to MyHallam early October rather than before induction week of full-time students at the end of September? So there will be a couple of weeks of the academic year then the change, which suggests the people responsible do not understand the core business of the University.
Hi Kim. I’ve forwarded your question to the MyHallam Project Team, and as soon as they come back to me I will update this reply. Rachel Parnham
Hi Kim. Thank you for your message. It was always our intention to launch the new student portal prior to student inductions, however we have encountered some technical challenges in development and have been forced to delay the launch until 1 October. We recognise that this is not ideal but we are doing all we can to ensure all students and staff are supported throughout this period of change.
Thanks for your support and understanding.
The MyHallam Project Team