As St. Edward’s University continues its transition from Edweb to the new online portal system called myHilltop, students and faculty can expect to see changes when registering for classes, advising, applying for housing and accessing necessary information.

Rather than signing in multiple times to access information on Edweb, Blackboard, email and the Think site, myHilltop provides a single sign-in interface where students and faculty can find everything in one place. 

The St. Edward’s Office of Information Technology has been working with other departments across campus to develop myHilltop since Oct. 2012.

Prospective students and finance users have already begun using myHilltop, but this semester the site is going into effect for current students and faculty.   

Information Technology Communications Coordinator Claire Dunn said that myHilltop “will be replacing Edweb over our multi-year implementation… It touches all pieces of the university.” 

One of the most immediate changes students and faculty will see involves registering for classes. On March 31 registration will open for graduate students, but rather than being assigned a specific time slot, users will be assigned a full day to register based on their classification.

“You don’t have those blocks of time that are so delineated by the fact that we can’t let you register during the day, so this is a huge improvement,” Associate Registrar Patrick Fields said. 

In the past, the university was unable to allow students to register during the day, because EdWeb did not have enough bandwidth to handle regular faculty and admin users in addition to students registering. MyHilltop functions on a separate system with a larger bandwidth allowing registration to take place during the day.  

Additionally, students will need a unique PIN number to access registration, which they will get from their advisor. The PIN number replaces the previous registration clearance process, which advisors completed through EdWeb. Every semester students will be assigned a new PIN number to use when adding and dropping classes.  

The Office of Information Technology has been pushing communication about the transition since last semester.

“Learning new tools is always a little bit of a hurdle,” Dunn said. “But we’ve had so much time to prepare and put all the communication plans in place…that we are really ready to be moving forward.”

Those involved with developing and implementing myHilltop have conducted at least three rounds of usability and focus group testing on multiple user groups to ensure that the final product is intuitive and user friendly, Dunn said.

While some initial users have been unsure of the system at first, the majority of feedback has been positive.

“Some people may have issues in terms of what something looks like or how they’re accustomed to getting information, but again that’s a growing pain,” Fields said. “It’s just a matter of using it and becoming more accustomed to it.”  

Janet Hemingway, an academic counselor in the Office of Academic Planning and Support, said that the new system changes the way her office conducts day-to-day work. She, along with others in her office, have gone through several training sessions this semester to learn the new software and have worked closely with the registrar’s office to transition into using myHilltop.     

“There are some things that we can’t do on this system that we could do before, but there are now going to be some things that we can do, that we couldn’t before,” Hemingway said. “It definitely has some advantages that I can see already, but it’ll just be a matter of adjustment and learning.”

Throughout the process of developing myHilltop, the university conducted research into how similar schools operate their online systems and registration process. The Office of the Registrar worked closely with St. Mary’s University to understand how best to communicate the changes with students and faculty, since they recently made the same system transition.     

“We’re coming from a system we’ve used for well over 24 years, so we’re moving away from a friend we’ve know for a long time into the unknown,” Fields said. “There are always going to be those kind of bumps with this type of transition. However, overall I think it’s been very smooth.”

Although Professor Stephanie Martinez has been through some training for myHilltop, she will be among faculty using the system for the first time during registration. Martinez misses having access to the class roster with photographs on EdWeb and feels that the transition will take some time to get used to. 

“It is like any new technology, it will take time to get used to it and time will tell if it works well for us,” Martinez said.

Students have access to a variety of resources should they need assistance before or during registration. MyHilltop offers several video tutorials to guide first time users through the site. 

During registration, staff will be available in open labs to help students with registration and answer questions. The Office of Academic Planning and Support is also having walk-in hours leading up to registration for students who need additional help.