On e-Portal, students will also be able to sign up for financial aid, find out if they have school holds, access their grades, look up their transcripts, get degree plans and obtain other school information.
A student can find his or her schedule on the site. There, you will find all of your instructors’ e-mail addresses.
When a course is clicked,
you will go directly into that course’s web page. You will be able
to get any messages your instructor has put on a message board, which
you can also use to post messages to your class. A chat room is also available
for you to talk to your classmates who are logged on at the same time.
E-Portal can bring classes together by allowing students to be better connected to their classmates and teachers. It will also allow students to perform better in class because they will be able to get assignments and instructor messages if they happen to miss a class.
Mary Jo Garcia, an
English skills instructional specialist at Palo Alto, has begun to use
E-Portal with her students. Her students do not meet at a scheduled time,
they are required to meet three hours a week on their own time. She uses
the message board component to invite students to respond to different
controversial questions.
"I would just plant the seed of debate and everyone would get going
from there," said Garcia. “People are really getting into it.”
"They can respond if they have connected to what another student
has said or if they disagree," said Garcia. "In the past, they
never interacted at all, now they have a sense of being a class."
E-Portal has been in effect since January, but very few students seem
to know about it.
"We keep trying to let students know that they get free e-mail and
school announcements, but they are just not logging on," said Ginger
Carnes, Director of Community and Public Relations.
E-Portal is a service that is provided to by Campus Pipeline Company.
The school gets it free for a minimal amount of advertising.
Every student has the ability to log on. It is a 5-minute process that
requires no technical knowledge.
"All you need is a user name that will be provided to you and a password
and you have e-mail," said Gonzalez, a client support specialist
for ACCD.
When you are logged on, you will immediately see school announcements
concerning you. No one from any other ACCD school will be able to access
this information.
"We will put things on there specifically for our students and faculty,
someone from Northwest Vista can’t access this," said Carnes.
E-portal’s features will create a many opportunities for students
and teachers.
"When more people get used to it, it will become very valuable,"
said Carnes.
Log on at accd.edu/pac.