The launch of the main website of the multiportal is the first stage of changing the image of the University on the Web. Next, individual Faculties and other University units will join the website.
We have made every effort to ensure that the new website is as adapted to the needs of its users as possible, and at the same time that it fits into the strategic goals of the University of Lodz and in the future facilitates functioning of such an extensive institution as our university. However, we know that this is not the end of its development.
What distinguishes the multiportal is a completely new approach to the roles of the website visitors, which translates into the applied navigation and functional search engine. The website takes into account the needs of all people associated with the University of Lodz: students, doctoral students, employees, graduates, as well as those who are going to join us, i.e., candidates. The multiportal, despite the main page of the website being already handed over to you, will continue to evolve. As new materials are added, the portal will gain new functionalities.
We described the main assumptions of the new website while conducting the survey - Help create the new website Let us remind you:
User-friendly
One of the main assumptions of the new website is: Information is to follow the user. That is why the content for a specific group of users will be published in the zone intended for it, e.g., for an employee, student or doctoral student, and it will be administered by the units responsible substantively for the prepared messages. Thanks to this, everyone should find information important for them in one place without having to visit the websites of a dozen or so units of the University of Lodz. Due to the fact that the information functions will be taken over by the user zones, the main pages (University of Lodz, Faculty-related, etc.) will be mainly image-related, supporting building of the University of Lodz brand.
Functional
The multi-search engine will also help in the search for the desired information. It will allow users to search through all the pages of the multiportal and first display information assigned to the zone from which it was used (e.g., in the student zone, information published in the zone will be displayed first, and then university-wide content, Faculty-related etc.). The search engine will also search through the websites of units and employees, facilitating quick and effective access to the unit or an employee who deals with specific tasks (e.g., settlement of invoices, Erasmus+ trips, scholarships, etc.).
Integrated with the UL systems
The website will cooperate and use data from the University of Lodz IT systems. Thanks to the new module of the Employee Service [Portal Pracowniczy] that is created in parallel by the employees of the IT Centre, information about the unit along with data on management staff, contact, working hours, staff and scope of duties will be supplemented by the employees of the unit via the Employee Service panel, without the need to log into the new system, or sending requests to change data, which will allow you to update the content quickly.
Connecting the community - individual employee pages
In the multiportal, in order to improve communication between the lecturers and students, as well as between the employees of various Faculties, each UL employee will have an individual business card page, which can be edited from the Employee Service [Portal Pracowniczy] level. The employee's website will contain information about the employee along with contact details, assignment to an organisational unit of the University of Lodz, working hours/on-call hours and the scope of duties. It will also be possible to publish materials on the website - publicly available or after logging in via CAS.
Designed with the needs in mind
Another change that we have decided to make with the users in mind is the common news stream. News of all units will be presented in one common stream of information, so that there is no need to check the news separately on the home pages of the University, Faculty and department of interest to us. This mechanism will give users quick and convenient access to all the news posted on the website of the University of Lodz.
The news stream can be filtered and narrowed down to a specific Faculty or category, e.g., science, student, sport, employee. This will make it possible to filter news in such a way so that in one place only the topics that we are interested in are presented. Additionally, information created with specific user groups in mind will be published in the zones.
The system will also enable administrators, e.g., Faculty administrators, to send requests for publication of information on the websites administered by other units, e.g., to the home page of the University of Lodz, bypassing the e-mail route, which will shorten and simplify the entire process.