“The new systems are going to be fucking amazing!” With that enthusiastic remark panel member Alex Dings has the laugh on his side. The student of Software & Web Science represents the focus group of students and has helped to think about how to flesh out the changes. During the meeting he urges students to make sure they pass on their hints and points for improvement.

Member of the Executive Board Jo van Ham opens the meeting by going back on the reason for the coming of the new systems. In short: the current systems are outdated and not future-proof. Subsequently Fred Gaasendam, information manager of the Education table, outlines the overall picture, giving the floor to the various panel members who can elucidate ‘their’ part.

Those present are brought up to date about the main ‘newcomers’: Osiris and Canvas. The roll-out of the Learning Management System Canvas started in September 2016 with a small group of lecturers and by March 2017 everything should have been switched. Canvas is comparable to Oase, but the greatest difference is especially in the possibility for more interaction between students reciprocally and between students and lecturers, says panel member and dean of the Graduate School Jan Fransoo. This will enable students to upload assignments, which the lecturer can then comment upon.

From enrollment to graduation

Osiris, the student information system, takes care of the management of all the student data – from the moment of their enrollment up to their graduation. Students will be able to find their grades there, can register for courses and examinations and monitor their academic progress.
Also in March 2017, there is going to be a new and improved Planapp, which is to be part of Osiris. The idea is that it will make it simple for students to plan their study route. Another project will focus on the introduction of a digital test system at a later moment.

Right from the start the new systems will all be available on one and the same –personalized - portal. Every user can design it entirely according to their own tastes and ideas. It will not be necessary anymore to log in separately for the separate systems. For that start page, which must also be ready for use in March 2017, a new name still needs to be devised. User-friendliness was the chief criterion when these systems were selected.

At the end of the meeting there do not appear to be all that many questions. One employee would like to know to what extent it is possible to add existing apps (Answer: ‘First the relevance will be examined and then that will definitely be possible via plug-ins). And the question ‘will there also be a smartphone app?’, is answered affirmatively by the panel members.

More information can be found on the website. You can ask questions and make comments via canvas@tue.nl or telephone number 3826 or you can post them via Twitter: (@TUeEdusys). Ideas for the name of the new portal may be sent to portaal@tue.nl.