Unisa online - Unisa launches new communication channel for students

Unisa's student portal, myUnisa, was launched three years ago to give students direct access to Unisa information, to allow them to update their personal details on the Unisa student system, to give them access to information about the modules for which they have registered, to join and study online, to consult their lecturers and the library, and to even pay their accounts.

Unisa has now taken this a step further. Unisa has signed an agreement with Microsoft to provide a new service to its students. Phase 1 will simply be an exchange email account, which will be implemented when online registration opens on 24 November 2008. The email account will include a 10 gigabyte storage facility. In Phase 2, we plan to include other Microsoft live services such as social networking facilities (similar to Facebook), online file storage, and Office Live workspace. The vision for this project is to provide a social environment for students to foster a sense of belonging that is separate from the myUnisa academic platform. This platform can be used to enhance communication with and among students, and will create many marketing opportunities for Unisa.

So how does it work? From 2009, Unisa will offer each registered student a free email account for life, known as myLife. Once a student has registered on myUnisa, Unisa will automatically create a unique email address for him or her, which he or she must activate before being able to use it. From this point onwards, Unisa will disregard all other email addresses it has in the student system and will only use the student's myLife email address for formal communication. If the student decides, therefore, not to use the myLife email address, he or she will not receive any email communication from Unisa; students will, however, be able to forward email from myLife to their preferred personal mailbox.

For more information, contact Johan Möller at ICT (jmoller@unisa.ac.za) or Louise Schmidt at CCM (schmil@unisa.ac.za).