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This is a slightly
edited and updated article that
originally appeared in the December 2008 issue of Benchmarks Online.
-- Ed.
Beginning next month, all UNT students will be moving to a new digital communications
system replacing the existing Eaglemail email-only system. This is an
exciting development for the students and for the university as a whole
because it greatly expands the way various members of the UNT community
manage online information and communication. While the Eaglemail system
only featured email communications, the new EagleConnect will allow for
email, chat, calendaring, text-messaging, and online student storage as
well as ever-evolving new features and capabilities.
EagleConnect is powered by Microsoft Live@EDU - a solution that
centers around the 'Exchange Labs' offering best described as 'Outlook
for Students'. This is significant for UNT because the faculty, staff,
and students will all be on the same kind of digital message system
technology allowing for many communication possibilities such as shared
address books, shared and published calendars, email, and chat. Some of
these features will be implemented immediately while some will come in
on a more gradual schedule. The CITC
helpdesk, the
"Student Tour" site
and a variety of other places will be keeping students up-to-date on
current and upcoming features as they are put into place. Extensive
tutorials will be available via the CITC Helpdesk website and the
my.unt.edu portal and an example of this documentation is published
here in Benchmarks Online this month by
CITC Helpdesk Assistant Manager Jonathan "Mac" Edwards.
A new communication solution for UNT students
The final launch of EagleConnect represents the culmination of an
18-month process for choosing and implementing a new communication
solution for UNT students. The timeline below illustrates some of the
main highlights of the process which involved faculty, staff, and
student input:
- Spring 2007 – Student Computing session of the IT Peer
Review Team brings initial call for investigating alternative
digital communications solutions for the students to the current
Eaglemail solution.
- Spring/Summer 2007 – Survey conducted of the general
student population regarding digital communication habits and
solutions. Associate Deans’ Council campus wide forum on
communicating with students held.
- Fall 2007 – Student Email Task Force convened.
- Winter 2008 – Microsoft Live@EDU chosen as student
digital communications system solution. Product is called Exchange
Labs (Exchange for students – identical to faculty/staff system).
- August 2008 –
SkyDrive portion of Live@EDU rolled out. SkyDrive is the online
document storage part of EagleConnect.
- Fall 2008 – Timeline for remaining parts of EagleConnect
finalized and online documentation and instructions created in
preparation for the spring semester 2009.
Rollout of the EagleConnect system will be measured, with care taken
to give users plenty of time to migrate from Eaglemail to EagleConnect.
Tools and/or instructions to use the new system are provided and
actually, many students are already using part of it by storing
documents on the SkyDrive, web-based online storage solution. The
timeline for the move is currently scheduled as follows:
- January – February 2, 2009 - Students begin receiving
notices of new system and implementation timeline in preparation.
- February 3, 2009 (13th class day) – launch date: Students
told system is live now and to migrate now. Instructions and
tutorials posted on using new system and migrating to new system.
Full scale notification campaign begins. Current Eaglemail users
given notice of the deadline for moving to new system and migrating
current Eaglemail holdings to new system.
- May 18, 2009 (Monday after spring graduation) – Currently
proposed shutdown date for turning off Eaglemail.
New format for student email addresses
The new format for student email addresses is
FirstnameLastnamePossibleNumber@my.unt.edu (ex. ElizabethJones@my.unt.edu,
JohnSmith03@my.unt.edu). Students who already receive Eaglemail through
the euid@unt.edu (xyz0001@unt.edu) format or custom email address (fredsmyth@unt.edu)
will not have to worry about losing touch - email will continue to come
to this old address format as well. This new format is also the login
name for other EagleConnect services but students will be able to use
the same password that they use for their EUID. Students will be able to
get their login name/new format email address from their my.unt.edu
portal and through a variety of other links.
Stay tuned ...
EagleConnect (Microsoft Exchange Labs for students) works well using
Outlook or a web-based interface (Firefox, Internet Explorer) on Windows
machines and using Entourage (Macintosh), Safari (Macintosh), or Firefox
(Macintosh and Linux). Stay tuned as we greet the 2009 New Year as the
Year of EagleConnect! Any questions regarding this new system should be
directed to Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner (ehinkle@unt.edu).
 Please Note: The University of North Texas
will never ask for personal information
by e-mail. If
you receive an e-mail purporting to be from the University
that asks for personal information or account passwords, do
not respond. If there is any question regarding the
authenticity of an email, please contact UNT Information
Security at (940) 369-7800.
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