Victoria Patterson, 18, uses Delagate
to check her student e-mail account. (Photo by Ryan S. Williams) As if the challenge of doing well in school isn’t hard enough, students have plenty of other things to deal with. There are classes to register for and financial aid information to decipher – and that’s only the beginning of their troubles.
But now, there’s a way to navigate the system.
Delagate is DCCC’s new web portal designed to guide students more efficiently and safely wherever they need to go. It offers students access to grades, financial aid information, class registration and even activities on campus such as events, organizations and clubs.
The portal system also allows students to view campus announcements, class cancelations and academic resources such as peer tutoring, learning centers and Smarthinking (an online tutoring service). Through Delagate, students can establish their own e-mail account, integrated with google applications and g-mail, as well as access WebStudy with only one click of the mouse.
Delagate also provides online tutorials designed to help students customize their page layout, receive technical support and learn what the system can provide.
“The administration decided to bring the Delagate portal system here,” said Eric Wellington, acting dean of technical education and special assistant to the CIO (computer info operations). “It works through one single point of access … we’re doing our best to continually enhance the system.”
This single point of access is possible through Luminis, a Sungard higher education program, which is a digital campus, operating through a mixture of portals, enterprise applications and support structures. This allows students, once logged on through one system, access to all systems provided through the portal.
“We’re trying to tie together separate web pages as well as an area for communication,” said Bret Walker, primary network specialist and Delagate systems administrator for Sungard. “Delagate will be a one-stop shop for all students and faculty.”
Now, students must use Delagate for everything school related.
“I like the system a lot,” said Christina Cooks, 21, a nursing major at DCCC’s Marple Campus. “It makes sense that all e-mails are coming from one system because it stops confusion and adds organization so professors know who they are talking with.”
But not all students welcome Delagate with open arms. Dorothy Donnelly, 60, a health studies major at the college’s Southeast Campus, said Delagate runs slowly, is very difficult to work with and — for students who lack computer experience — is confusing at times.
A small number of students also feel that Delagate is inconsistent because it isn’t accessible when they need it. Some students have also been having trouble signing into WebStudy through Delagate because they initially created a different password to access WebStudy. In this case, they can take advantage of Delagate’s WebStudy “single sign-on” setup.
Students may activate this feature by clicking on the WebStudy icon in Delagate and entering their WebStudy username (student ID number) and original password. Thereafter, anytime they go through Delagate to access WebStudy, they need only click on the Web Study icon.
In a recent poll of 100 students concerning Delagate, 67 percent said they like the web portal system, 14 percent said they dislike it and 19 percent said they are undecided.
Even though many students are using Delagate, some haven’t logged in to the system yet. Wellington confirmed that only 86 percent of students have logged into the portal. “We made choices based on students’ input and are asking for continual input to make the system better,”
Many students who have been using the system feel that the technology is necessary for moving forward and that Delagate will become a valuable asset in the future.
“Delagate has been working well,” Walker agreed. There have been “growing pains,” he said, but he believes the administration has done a good job launching Delagate.
If students need assistance, they should contact the IT Support Center on the Delagate log-in page.
Contact Ryan S. Williams at
communitarian@mail.dccc.edu
