My Intranet Experience: As a user and working behind the scenes.

The American University of Rome’s student intranet portal, MyAUR, is an online gateway where students can access important academic and non-academic information. One of my duties working in the Admissions Office is to update information on the portal to offer easier navigation, greater access to resources and continued access to existent links. As an operational tool that contains useful information such as timetables, courses offered, contact numbers, updated calendars, transcripts and daily announcements, MyAUR is constantly updated.

The many benefits of using such an online intranet portal are its convenience and social elements. As an international University that recruits from over 50 countries, it is imperative that all students have access to the same information wherever they may be and on whichever device they may be using. Therefore, accessibility is a key aspect that defines intranet. The content of any internal communication is another key aspect as the information posted should not only be relevant but promote a sense of community in an institution or organization. In brief, that would mean students at AUR or employees at an organization would have the occasion to interact.

Improvements and updates are always made on such scales, however at times content may not be easily visible on many new and emerging devices. That being said, the biggest challenge I have faced would be satisfying user’s endless requests and needs to highlight their viewing experience. On the other hand, as a user myself, I also find that such intranets are sometimes either over-personalized or contain too much content to follow. Thus, it is paramount that when updating to not only think big but at the same time guarantee that every change being made would add some sort of value.