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PennPortal: An integrated web experience for students

  Penn students asked for it — and this year, a new Penn home page, a new online security model, and the ability to offer a single sign-on for PennInTouch and Campus Express made it possible. Introducing PennPortal: a personalized web experience that brings together information from many campus sources and allows students to manage most transactions from one online location.


 What is PennPortal? 
 
  PennPortal provides a single interface for:
  • Accessing web-based electronic mail.
  • Viewing daily calendars of events for the current week — university-wide, for each undergraduate division, and for the Graduate Student Center.
  • Receiving current news and announcements from academic and administrative offices, both campus-wide and school-specific, as well as student groups.
  • Accessing your course web sites — Blackboard and/or instructor-designed.
  • Consolidating links to offices, services, and other Penn sites important to students.
  • Conducting transactions through PennIntouch and Campus Express
  • Personalizing PennPortal to include your personal course sites, headline news sources, favorite web links, and more.

 


The PennPortal toolbar
 


 
  The PennPortal toolbar keeps key resources available when you switch tabs.

 

Penn Home Page — The University of Pennsylvania's new public face on the web.

 
 

Webmail — links to a menu of student webmail services by school or other affiliation.

 
 

Directories — Penn's e-mail and phone directory of students, faculty, and staff, with directories of personal Web pages and other references.

 
 

Penn A-Z — an alphabetical index of links to the web sites of departments, offices, student organizations and other named entities at Penn

 

 


PennPortal tabs
 
  PennPortal groups resources by the context in which you use them. Tabs allow you to move from one context to another.
  Penn tab consolidates resources useful to all students across the University. The calendar display on this tab includes all Penn events for the day. Once you log in you can also subscribe to optional channels and add them to your customized Penn tab.

  School tabs organize resources for each undergraduate division, and for graduate students.When you log in, you will automatically be assigned the relevant school or graduate student tab. The calendar display will show events for that school. Some channels will be provided by the school, and you can subscribe to others and add them to this tab if you like.
.   My tab is yours to design. You can subscribe to channels from any PennPortal source, collect links, and arrange them to suit yourself. Like webmail, PennPortal lets you take your "favorites" with you, and use them from any networked computer.

 


PennPortal channels
 
 

Web resources appear on the PennPortal tabs in the form of channels. Each tab has its own set of channels.Channels contain the text, images, and links to other PennWeb sites that pertain to the content or topic of that channel.

How to create a channel for your group



  Fixed channels:
The location and content of some channels are pre-determined by the people designing a tab. For example, your school may have specific channels of announcements or upcoming events that will always be there when you log in. on.
 

  Optional channels:
Some channels are available for you to use, if you want to; it's up to you. You can subscribe to these channels, assign them to any tab, and move them around on the tab where they appear, to suit your needs.

 
.   Special channels:
There are different kinds of content in the various channels you see on PennPortal. Some content comes from academic, administrative, or student organizations and points you to resources elsewhere on the web. Some is supplied by automated feeds from news sources or custom views of the Penn Calendar. Some will contain headlines leading to more detailed information available within the portal, just a click away.
 

 

Log-in
 
   

Click on the words "Log in to my PennPortal," then enter your PennKey and password. If you need assistance, follow the link to "Password Help."

 
  Once you log in, several features of the PennPortal are automatically personalized for you, including a list of your classes for this semester and the coming term, with links to course websites.
     
  Your PennPortal will automatically display for you some tabs related to your academic life at Penn, based on your school or degree program.
     
 

You can further customize your PennPortal by adding your own features and personal preferences:

  • Use the MyLinks channel on the Penn tab to add links to your favorite web locations.
  • Use the Add/Remove tabs tool to subscribe to existing group tabs, or create a tab that is your own personal portal space.
  • Use the Choose Content tool to subscribe to channels. You'll find the choices of available channels grouped in categories, to make it easier to find what you're looking for. You can also use this tool to delete optional channels if you decide you don't want them on your PennPortal after all.
  • Use the Change Layout tool to move your optional channels around on the tab.

 

 

Single sign-on
 

 

Logging in to the PennPortal with your PennKey also allows you to use services in Penn InTouch -- like course registration, checking your billing status, using the online worksheet -- and Campus Express -- like signing up for a meal plan or finding out what your new campus housing looks like. As we move forward with developing the PennPortal, more and more services will become available via the portal's sign-on.

 

Your PennPortal will be available to you anywhere on campus from any networked computer. Because logging on with your PennKey takes you to personal as well as customized information, be sure you log out of the PennPortal when you are done.