The New Hopkins Portal

Last week, the TechBlog explained the new changes to the Hopkins email system. As promised, this week will handle the new Hopkins Portal layout, which is accessed using your JHED and password at my.jhu.edu. Let's get started!

First the layout of the login page has changed. What was once angular and monochromatic has become softer and more inviting, but the end goal remains the same: enter the information and access your resources. Seniors are veterans at this, and freshmen will soon realize how invaluable this interface can be when used efficiently.

The new Portal login page.

The old Portal homepage looked like this:

The old Portal Dashboard.

It was never the prettiest thing to look at, but it got the job done. On the left hand side were links to email, ISIS, W2 information, and general settings, as well as Blackboard and my JHU Profile. The Profile was a little used element of the Portal, but it allows any student to go in and add information about him or herself. For example, mine has an explanation of my chosen majors and what my independent research is focusing on. It's also the place to go to set up Emergency Alerts, which is the quickest way to be updated of a massive development on campus regarding the safety of the students. I'll talk more about this at the end.

On the top there were multiple headings that led to different tools. It doesn't make sense to describe them all here, since they all changed and the new system is significantly different from this one.

On September 3, every student's Portal Dashboard (home page) will look like the one shown below. If you choose to update your individual Portal before that, click the orange link in the yellow bar at the top of the old page. The screen will immediately change to one that looks like this one:

 

The new Portal Dashboard! Ta da!

On first impression, the design here is a major improvement over the last one. It looks more friendly, and the colors are not dreary (though blue and orange seem an odd combination for Hopkins to have selected).  The main section of the page is virtually identical, but the real differences are along the top and the left side options. The least appealing feature of the new page is the Hopkins sanctioned photograph in the top left corner. It shows the most recent photo of you to be put onto an official Hopkins page. For most students this will be the JCard photograph, but if you have worked at the Medical Campus, the Portal will automatically use that picture. Even if it's a bad picture, you cannot change it. This particularly rigid feature was found on the old page as well, but at least there you could choose to never look at it and hide it fairly well.

Despite this aesthetic inconvenience, the new home page is a step forward in modernity for the greater Hopkins community. In an effort to make the Portal homepage easier to navigate, Hopkins officials have combined like tools under headings accessible by the tabs at the sides, which serve now as umbrella headings. For example, instead of having a tab just for ISIS, it's now embedded in the Education tab, along with Blackboard and MyLearning. The HR tab contains information regarding W2 access and employee verification forms, and the Technology tab connects JConnect, MyJLab, and the Tech Store, among other things. It's worth it to take a few minutes and look around at all the tabs so you're not scrambling later to find something you need.

One of the most important things to note is that the myJHED tab that was formerly located on the top of the screen has now been moved to the side as an umbrella tab. It now allows easy access for students to register an alias, request a group ID, and enter the Spam Quarantine area.

The Library tab is a nice touch in that it takes the user to a page with all the links to the libraries included in the Hopkins Enterprise system, including the SAIS and the Welch Medical Libraries. The Students tab is a new feature that shows a compilation of all the links an undergraduate could ever need, including KSAS and WSE Academic Advising pages, Daily Announcements, and every student oriented office on the Homewood campus. Another nice touch is the column of links created to give students perspective on the city of Baltimore, and some visitor information on what to do and attractions to see.

As for the Dashboard page, this is different in the new version. Dashboard used to mean the central home page, but here it is pitched as "your private space within the myJH." Not much is known about it yet, aside from links to recent Hopkins press releases, but the myJH team assures its student body a plethora of exciting, new features to "make myJH even more valuable to you," the student. This blog will follow these updates in the future.

As for the Emergency Alerts, that option is the first one on the MyProfile umbrella tab on the left side. Click on it, type in your phone number, select your mobile carrier, agree to the terms and service, and forget about it. I strongly suggest that every student sign up for the service. While it's very helpful for dangerous situations, it also will inform you of a snow day, and you definitely don't want to be the only one showing up for a 9 am Orgo class after shoving through the snow.

How to reach the Emergency Alerts sign up page.

That's it for the TechBlog this week. Questions/rants/comments can go in the Comments section below. Until next week!

New Hopkins email system

Well, fellow students, we are approaching the end of August, which means that we’re about to start another exciting school year with some significant changes all around campus. Construction on Malone Hall is progressing well, North Charles Street is completing the final stages before the street is reopened, and the new biology labs have finally been opened and they are ready to go. Internally the campus has changed as well: Aramark has been replaced as the food provider by Bon Appetit, and the campus dining options and lounges have been completely renovated with new stations and services. The worst part is Einstein’s Bagel Bros. is gone, but judging from the food at Levering, we’re not going to miss it for long.

This is what CharMar looked like a month ago, but no pictures have been posted since. They're clearly hiding something amazing. From https://www.facebook.com/HopkinsDining

Another difference between this year and last year is the renovations to the Hopkins websites that are happening in every department and office associated with Johns Hopkins. They are everywhere, and the place where they are most noticeable is within the Hopkins portal. We’ll talk about the changes to the dashboard and home page next week, because today is going to focus solely on the Johns Hopkins email system. 

What it used to be.

On June 17 Johns Hopkins switched its email provider from Outlook 2010 to Office 365, and while the transition has been smooth for some, others have expressed displeasure at the change in the email. Personally, I always used the ending @jhu.edu. If you are like me, then you probably had no issues with forwarding Outlook email to your Gmail or Yahoo accounts. If you instead used the ending @live.johnshopkins.edu, however, you’ll need to know that this ending has changed. The implications of this are your Gmail won’t accept mail that isn’t from the address listed on the options page, and mail that used to reach your Hopkins mail account just bounces back. 

What it is now.

The new ending, for the record, is @jh.edu.It's pretty simple and short, unlike the cumbersome @live.johnshopkins.edu domain.

As you can imagine, the login page for Outlook also doesn’t work anymore. The old address, login.live.com, is still accessible, and you can still enter your Hopkins ID and password, but it will only take you to the storage space you were afforded with the original Live@edu account. This means the SkyDrive and cloud storage space is still available to you, but your email is not. To access your email without traveling through the portal, the new address is outlook.office365.com. The login page for this email looks identical to the ones for the portal, but it does open directly to the familiar Outlook email system. 

The login page for the email system and the new JH Portal.

You can also prevent yourself from ever looking at Outlook again, if you are so inclined, since you can easily forward your email to another interface, such as Gmail. To do this, just go to the top right corner of the Outlook mail screen and make the drop down menu appear. Click “See All Options,” then click the tab at the top of the middle section of the page called “Connected Accounts.” You can choose to connect your two email accounts, so you can access all the information from both and send from either email address by using only one interface, or you could choose to simply forward email from Outlook to the other.  Of course, if you want to use the portal to access your email, ISIS, Blackboard, and other Hopkins sites and keep the other mailbox separate, that’s fine too. It really depends on what you want, and it’s great that the system is flexible enough to give you choices. 

Where the See All Options tab is in the upper right corner.

One of the best advantages to this upgrade is the increase in email storage space in Office 365. While Outlook only permitted a maximum of 10 GB of email data, Office 365 is equipped to handle 25 GB per user of space. SharePoint Online is also the cloud storage system, reserving SkyDrive for the independent Microsoft account now associated with live.johnshopkins.edu. This upgrade has not been completed yet, and will happen independently at a later date.

Lastly, to set up the Office 365 email on your mobile phone requires a bit of cellular gymnastics. Some phones will accept the JHEDID@jhu.edu and password, and start working immediately. Androids and iPhones also require the name of the server, and there are three different servers that could satisfy this requirement. For more information on these servers, you can go here, but in general one of these should work for your mobile phone.

POP 3 Server Name: outlook.office365.com, Port 995 SSL

IMAP4 Server Name: outlook.office365, Port 993 SSL

SMTP Server Name: smtp.office365.com, Port 587 TLS

For more information on the email system in general, the link is here. Hopefully this has alleviated any concerns that you’ve had with the new email system, but if you have any comments, please leave them below. Until next time!