By Travis Walters
A virtual bulletin board will be launched in MySCAD on Sept. 14. The board will provide much the same functionality that the boards in academic buildings provide now. It was created to “provide a centralized spot for students to post events and opportunities using new media,” says Erin Ebert, portal manager for SCAD. Erin and her team partnered with Student Media to create and launch the initial version.
The system works much like the current system does. “Students submit their requests as they normally would and if they include a digital version Student Media can post a copy to the online bulletin board, without involving more paper and the gasoline required to drive to each building for distribution. Since there is also an option to post by school, opportunities and events can be more targeted towards students who will be most interested in these options,” says Ebert.
One of the ways to get a flyer approved currently, is for students go to Aisha Michael in the Student Media Center in Keys Hall. “I will stamp 25 flyers to expire in about 10 days. This usually covers students with exhibits or shows. For approval, I check to make sure imagery isn’t overly vulgar, wording is appropriate, and is advertising something other than yourself,” says Michael. Then the student is given a campus map and a list of buildings known to have bulletin boards.
“We plan to launch the Bulletin Board as it’s own tab in MySCAD, right after the News tab. Students can click to the board and browse by school to see the most current events and options available. Any updates by Student Media will show up in real time and expire in 30 days, keeping the postings time and uncluttered.”
MySCAD Theme
A contest to design a new theme for MySCAD will start for the second time Monday. The first contest, which ran Feb. 13 to March 31, was unsuccessful because of very low participation says Ebert. A survey was conducted in Nov., 2008, to gauge user response to the new MySCAD. At that time 62 percent of respondents said they’d like a skin by major or school, 19 percent said they’d like a change in the skin each quarter, and 19% said they’d like no change at all.
“Our vision is to have the look of the portal created by students from our own community to represent our community. We’d like to offer the contest on a yearly basis to keep things fresh,” says Ebert.
Creating a theme for MySCAD is simple, says Ebert. All a student has to do is log in to MySCAD and read the instructions, then go to the skinning contest page. This page has options to name it, specify the school it belongs to, upload images, and pick colors.
Themes are comprised of three basic things, a large banner that’s 800 pixels wide, by 60 pixels high; a small banner that’s 800 pixels wide, by 30 pixels high; and a 6-color Web palette.
Students can design a theme for the school they belong to, or all 8. They are:
- School of Building Arts
- School of Communication Arts
- School of Design
- School of Fashion
- School of Film, Digital Media and Performing Arts
- School of Fine Arts
- School of Foundation Studies
- School of Liberal Arts
If you’re looking for some inspiration, here are some screenshots of what MySCAD looks like for freshman before they arrive on campus. It reverts to how it appears now once Fall Quarter starts.
“Each student will log in to see the winning theme by their school as their skin for that year. In the future we’d like to let the students select their own themes, but the software has not yet released this capability to date,” says Ebert.
The current contest will end at the end of the Fall Quarter. The dean of each school will judge the entries and the winners will be implemented over the winter break.
“We are always open to suggestions and feedback on the MySCAD portal and applications that supports students and faculty. We have a couple new features in development, and are working with small groups from the SCAD community to make sure we gather feedback and customize our solutions to meet the needs of our audiences,” says Ebert, “As always, suggestions and feedback are welcome. Please send thoughts and comments to myscad@scad.edu.”
Audience Poll
