Of the several changes that happened at UTM over the summer, many students and faculty noticed the bold change that the look of UTM.edu took on July 31.
“We wanted to strip out the old while maintaining the new,” said Craig Ingram, Director of the Instructional Technology Center.
Ingram has been with the Web Services since May of 2001 and has held his current position as Director of ITS for one year.
During this time, Ingram wanted to know what changes the UTM website was lacking. He and his staff began to gather feedback from the campus faculty members and students. Their main goal was to make sure that the site would be more user-friendly and that any device would be able to access all the pages and content with ease.
“Our objective is to make sure that everyone on campus is aware that we are listening to the ideas and concerns of our users,” Ingram said.
Ingram and the staff had a desire to stream UTM.edu live, but the old site didn’t meet the needs of all the users. The idea for the updated design began in the fall of 2012 and went into full force in May of this year.
The problems that users were facing when logging onto the site was the ability to view all necessary content according to the type of device that was being used. The new design and setup will optimize the experience, making it easy for anyone to access, whether it’s through a smartphone, laptop or desktop.
ITS updates the content of the site on a daily basis, along with paying close attention to the way students use the site.
New enrollees have access to their own personal link that will help them with basic questions they may have about what UTM has to offer including tuition, enrollment applications, important campus dates and scheduling a tour date of the campus.
Current students have access also to their own personal link that will guide them through academic programs, technology services, resources and student services.
The updated site offers Google and Apple apps so there will be easy access to all UTM website needs.
If students have any suggestions regarding anything concerning UTM, they can click on the Suggestion Box link located in the footer of the homepage. The suggestion will be submitted anonymously to the area on campus that deals with the subject of the suggestion.
For more information on the UTM website, contact ITS at 731-881-7900.
Craig Ingram is not the Director of Information Technology Services but he is the Director of the Instructional Technology Center.