Starting August 6, students will no longer access ACES to view course information, register for classes, update their personal data and accept financial aid. Duke's Student Information and Services System (SISS) is launching the first phase of a new portal called DukeHub, which has a more modern look and navigation, and back button.
Student and advisor input prompted the changes, said John Campbell, associate registrar and senior associate director of SISS. “Students really wanted us to show the important information more quickly, to reduce clutter on the page and let them drill down more if needed,” he said. “At the same time, we needed to ensure the data remained accurate and secure.”
Duke Student Government worked closely with SISS on the project. Sean Bissell T’19, a DSG academic affairs senator, was the lead student liaison, said DSG President Tara Bansal T’17. DSG Chief of Staff Kavita Jain T’17 and Kushal Kadakia T’19 also worked on the team of DSG advisors.
"I think DukeHub is going to be a great resource for students as it allows access to Sakai and announcements right on the home page," Bissell said. "The interface is more and user-friendly than ACES was and students are really going to appreciate that. Overall, I believe that DukeHub is a needed update and will be welcomed by the student body.
Saturday’s initial roll-out of DukeHub applies only to students, faculty and advisors, Campbell said. Over time, it will be the central location for any user of the student information systems, including applicants, students, faculty, advisors, staff and guests, all of which currently have their own URLs and interfaces.
“We thought it would take another year to make it perfect,” Campbell said, noting that some of the transactional pages have the old look. “However, if we went with the current design and framework, by getting it up now in front of the faculty and students, we can adjust it faster with better information.”
Campbell also knows there will be questions about the need to clear caches and cookies manually. Each time one accesses a file through a web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, the browser stores it to avoid retrieving the same files. How to do this with the various browsers is explained here, Campbell said. His office recommends that one does not use DukeHub in Internet Explorer, unless one’s system requires it.
As long as they don’t get stressed by the cache clearing, advisors should also appreciate the changes too, said Alyssa Perz, an assistant dean in Trinity College. “What (SISS) has done really well is to bring everything that advisors need to access to one screen.”
Programmers are inviting feedback from all the users and have provided a way to provide input on most pages. Comments will help guide them on future development needs.
DSG President Bansal said she looks forward to more DukeHub improvements. “I'm excited to use the introduction of DukeHub as momentum for other ACES changes,” Bansal said. “I plan to continue working with the Office of the Vice Provost of Academic Affairs to discuss integrating a syllabus archive and allowing students to make text comments about a course.”
For more information go to: http://sissoffice.duke.edu/DukeHub/index.html