The University of New Mexico’s new portal, Luminis, is set to make its debut Monday, Aug. 8. The SCT Luminis Platform III portal will provide the UNM campus with a solid foundation of infrastructure, enterprise applications and features required to support an institution’s digital campus.
"The university is very excited about the new portal,” said Chief Information Officer Bill Adkins. “It will bring together the university community with a technology that will enhance the users experience and provide a unified way to bring all our applications together with a common interface. This is the first step in developing a real sense of on-line community at UNM."
Over the past several years, Luminis has become the predominant portal used by universities running Banner. The new portal will provide a single point of contact for many Banner services available at UNM. Banner staff users will access the same Banner functionality through the new portal by clicking on the “Employee Life” tab, while faculty users will utilize the “Faculty Life” tab.
Banner users will find the same functions located on the far right column. On the right side of the page, Banner users may then access three channels: “Banner Applications,” “Banner Announcements” and “Banner Training/Support.”
Although the content of these channels is being developed, links from the Banner Applications channel will connect Banner users to Internet Native Banner, Higher Markets, E-Print, Hyperion, Electronic Forms and Security/Authorization Requests, among others.
The Banner Training/Support channel will link users to Training Databases, Job Aids and Standard Operating Procedures. Users may also access a LINK Job Aid that describes how to access my.unm.edu portal by clicking:
http://link.unm.edu/Training/Finance/FIN_Job_Aids/UNM-018%20PortalAccess1.pdf
In addition to Banner integration, features of the new portal include channeled content and layout; publish-and-subscribe channel model; end-user customization; separate channels for e-mail, personal and campus announcements, and a channel for My Courses. Luminis provides other portal channels such as group collaboration tools that can be used by departments, organizations and clubs. Administrative offices concerned with attracting and retaining students can also offer a customized, service-oriented online environment that today’s students increasingly expect.
Over time, portal features will allow users to create an online environment customized by every member of the campus community. Luminis also comes with a calendar, SunOne, which will be available to faculty, staff and students. As the rollout continues, more aspects of the new portal will continue to evolve.
“The important thing with portals is bringing a single interface for online services that’s easy to use,” said Linda Miller, associate director, Information Technology at CIRT. “It targets individual groups with information pertinent to them.”
“From a technological standpoint, it involves CIRT deploying a new infrastructure using the Sun Operating System,” said Matt Carter, CIRT technological support analyst. “Technologically, nothing will impact students because all that will take place behind the scenes.”
One of the exciting new functions of the Luminis portal is called Group Studio, which provides an increased and efficient communications avenue. Group Studio provides group collaboration tools including chat and message board functions, group-targeted announcements and Group Maker, which gives certain users the ability to generate ad hoc groups from student information system attributes.
“In Group Studio, groups and teams could all potentially utilize new functions such as chat, message boards, and file and photo sharing areas to communicate more effectively with their individuals groups or departments,” said Miller. “People are fairly excited about it. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the project.”
The Luminis portal, which will replace UNM’s existing portal, will retain the URL: my.unm.edu. The new portal can also be accessed from the UNM home page by clicking on the myUNM button on the upper right hand of the page beginning Aug. 8.
For more information, visit the CIRT Web site at: Luminis.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
Posted by scarr at August 3, 2005 02:37 PM