iSolutions trials new SUSSED features

University IT services team iSolutions are experimenting with new features for Southampton’s staff and student portal SUSSED.

The iSolutions team have been looking at the data available to them and aim to bring together the most useful of this information on the SUSSED homepage. The new features are accessible from today under the “prototype” tab.

The current SUSSED layout

The emphasis is on saving time, so iSolutions are keen to hear any suggestions for what would make using the IT services easier. As one iSolutions colleague told The Tab:

There are lots of other things which are hard, but some are really 30 seconds of fiddling to save every student 30 seconds of fiddling every time they do a task.

Improvements include an assignments reminder box, the print credit total and how much printing that will buy you and also details of your courses and who teaches them. Library book reminders and links to contact course reps are other ideas under consideration. Student feedback is driving the project:

I showed the demo version of the service to students who told me “It’s alright but why don’t you link to the page where you buy print credits, we can never find that. Also, why don’t you link to the module instructors email?” Both those suggestions took literally minutes to add and make it way better. I’m really interested in finding those obvious ways to make student life easier that we’re too out of touch to think of for ourselves.

The current prototype features ID card photos of lecturers with links to email them as well as the full list of Soton email subscriptions. iSolutions have set up a blog for people to follow the development and discussion.

What features would you like to see added to SUSSED? Let us know below!