myGettysburg When You Build It And They Don’t Use It Rebuild It

Copyright Mark R. Albert 2009 Copyright Mark R. Albert 2009.This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

The Foundation Gettysburg College had a desire to display database information to the campus community in the mid 90s. The primary ERP on campus did not have a web interface, as that was still very new technology. 1995 Gettysburg College started developing its own web interface to display data extracted from the ERP databases. This is College NAVigation (CNAV)

CNAV (the built) Launched for student, faculty, and staff in 1995 Alumni, parents and prospective students added from 1996 - 1998. Today CNAV is a mature, robust portal, with ERP data and its own modules making for a single place for users to go to see information from many different sources. The system was also built to expand easily as other data systems get added.

CNAV (the built) Primary College data source for 100% of the students Over 80% of the faculty 95% of the administration and staff Nearly 100% of prospective students

CNAV (the built) CNAV functionality includes: Accepted Student Application Admissions Info Alumni Annual Giving Appointment Attendance Career Mentoring Chatroom Cool Url Courses Data Management Digests Discussion Board Electronic Reserves Emergency Contact Events Experts List Forms Group tools Helpdesk Interests Inventory Library Tools Parent Views Portfolio Print Directory Progress Report Reporting Tools Rideboard Roaming Kit Search Services and FAQ Student Insurance Student Planner Student Sports Sign-off Survey Timesheet Transcript Web Services Wellness Tracking etc. etc. etc.

CNAV (the built) Alumni use of CNAV was minimal (< 10%) Despite the success with the on-campus audiences as well as parents and prospective students Repeated overtures by IT staff to the Alumni Relations Office to bridge this gap failed to achieve the desired results.

Reconstruction In 2006, Development & Alumni Relations (D&AR) division looking for a vendor-provided alumni networking/community solution IT saw this as an opportunity to try a new approach to bridging the gap between CNAV and the alumni D&AR division receptive to the IT demonstrating an alternative to a vendor-driven solution for an online Alumni community application.

Reconstruction IT took some of the tools within CNAV and positioned them within the newly implemented CMS Incorporated the new web design to give the tools a fresh look D&AR division thrilled by the IT developed option It matched the vendor solution Potential for nearly unlimited customizations This new element was labeled ‘myGettysburg’

myGettysburg (the rebuilt) Initial phase of the new ‘myGettysburg’ consisted of: Alumni directory search Profile display and edit tool Giving history Email forwarding maintenance Classmates and events near the alum

myGettysburg (the rebuilt) Tools are directly derived from tools within CNAV Represent just a small subset of the tools within CNAV By keeping the functionality manageable and focused on tools the audience actually considered useful, it made an application the alumni found less confusing and more user-friendly Second phase involves migrating the remaining alumni-based tools in CNAV over to myGettysburg

myGettysburg (the rebuilt) In the end this gave a fresh look to an old tool Helped bring functionality of the portal to an audience that was missing from the portal Shortly after the launch over 750 Alumni re-validated their portal accounts with a ‘myGettysburg’ account Found a comfort range with alumni and has more repeat visits As functionality is developed, introducing the tools in small numbers will help encourage adoption Contrast to the introduction of CNAV, which opened a large number of tools at one time to the alumni, creating a sense of being overwhelmed and confused, thus preventing adoption. Since the launch of myGettysburg in Nov. 2007, the number of the alumni that have reconnected to the college has more than doubled

QUESTIONS? Philosophical? Intellectual? Technical? General? June 2-5 2009 Gettysburg College www.gettysburg.edu/portal Keynote by Richard N. Katz, Vice President of Educause

CONTACT? Mark Albert 717-337-6944 malbert@gettysburg.edu www.gettysburg.edu