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New MyMiami offers social networking

Allison McGillivray, Staff Writer

This is the second part of a series about the new features of MyMiami.

When the new MyMiami is unveiled in December, it will offer students a social network just for Miami University.

According to Anjli Jain, executive director of CampusEAI, CampusEAI's social network offers social media features such as chat, message boards, document or photo sharing and student profiles.

The name of the social network is MyCommunity, according to Randy Hollowell, senior communications and web coordinator for IT services.

"The MyCommunity is going to be like a web-space for each person," Hollowell said.

MyCommunity allows students to create and share a profile with friends at Miami. You can search for friends or invite them to your profile.

In order to protect student privacy, MyCommunity allows students to decide what they want on their profile to be public and what they want to be private. MyCommunity will only allow students who are friends with any student on MyCommunity to see that student's private profile information. Only the information that a student has made public can be searched for by other students. MyCommunity sites can only be viewed by other people at Miami, according to Hollowell.

"It's not going to be open to people outside because you have to sign in to get any information," Hollowell said.

Jain said she believes this social media opportunity fosters both social and academic connections between students.

"Social media can be an excellent communication space for students and a collaboration space for classmates. These features make it a lot easier to stay in touch on campus," Jain said.

Senior Jennifer Leonard agreed.

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"I feel like it might promote more discussion between students and classes," Leonard said.

Leonard said she does not think she will be distracted by MyCommunity because it will not be entirely social. MyCommunity will, instead, make working with other students easier and more comfortable, according to Leonard.

"Sometimes email is distant and unfamiliar and with [MyCommunity], you can see who the student is and you get to learn a little bit about them before you work with them for whatever project," Leonard said.

Another feature that MyMiami will offer is an e-portfolio. The e-portfolio will give students the ability to create an online resume, cover letter and store samples of their work. The e-portfolio can make interviewing for jobs easier because students won't have to send out multiple print copies of their portfolios every time they interview for a job, according to Hollowell.

"Instead of having to send a bunch of stuff, you can send them a link to go here and they can view whatever you want them to view," Hollowell said.

The e-portfolio will also allow students to control who can view their portfolio and for how long.

With all of the new sites that Miami has recently set up, it is hard to know what to do with what site.

According to Claire Wagner, associate director of university communications, Miami will share a document with students, faculty and staff which will explain what the options are for Niihka, MyMiami and The Hub sometime before Christmas break.

Differences between Niihka, MyMiami, and The Hub:

  • Tests and quizzes can only be given through Niihka.
  • Polls can be done through Niihka.
  • MyMiami communities allow organizations to divide into subcommittees.
  • Elections can be done through The Hub.
  • The Hub does not allow students to store folders of information like on MyMiami or Niihka.

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