The university e-mail address and the related free access to Office 365 are now available for every student of Semmelweis University. This development, which aims to reinforce Semmelweis identity, provides an opportunity for the university and the students to stay in a continuous contact with each other. The complex package of O365 provides students with a personal cloud based data storage of 1 terabyte and it also makes the creation and sharing of online office documents available for the students of our university.
In the 250th academic year every student of Semmelweis University was provided with an official university e-mail address and a free access to Office 365 – highlighted Dr. Péter Hermann, vice-rector for educational affairs. Based on international experiences, it can be stated that contacting students is a challenge in every university of the world. As opposed to the always changing e-mail addresses, now a permanent contact information related to each particular student was established, with which student status can be justified during the university years. The university e-mail address contributes to the reinforcement of Semmelweis identity, since it strengthens cooperation and unity – pointed out Dr. Péter Hermann. According to the vice-rector for educational affairs, the university e-mail address is an advantage in the establishment of rankings as well, because in many places student feedback is only accepted in case it is sent via an official e-mail address in order to detect manipulative attempts.
The service was introduced in a two-stage phase: first year students were able to activate their university e-mail addresses at the end of August, meanwhile students of upper years had the opportunity to do so during October. Therefore, by now all the students of each faculty, Hungarian and international students alike, possess their university e-mail address – explained Dr. Levente Kiss, head of the Center for Educational Development, Methodology and Organization of Semmelweis University. As regards the e-mail addresses, there is a help desk available supervised by the Center for Educational Development, Methodology and Organization. Regarding the general O365 help desk support, students can contact Microsoft directly.
The O365 package enables a cloud based e-mail and calendar service with the help of Microsoft Exchange Online and a university domain name. In the case of graduate students, this domain name is @stud.semmelweis.hu, and for PhD students it is the @phd.semmelweis.hu domain. Now there is an opportunity for the creation and editing of online office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) on a web interface. OneDrive provides every user with a personal cloud based data storage of 1 terabyte. As regards the significance of the e-mail address and the data storage: the university e-mail address provides an opportunity for accessing different online databases, meanwhile the data storage can facilitate knowledge sharing and studying – said Dr. Levente Kiss. Those students who are participating in a research can also find useful applications. It is particularly convenient for the students who are writing their thesis, because they can use the required softwares for free with the help of the university – emphasized the head of the Center for Educational Development, Methodology and Organization.
One of the most important advantages is that information flow between students and professors is accelerated this way and becomes more accurate, since the e-mail address does not change – highlighted Dr. László Tornóci, head of IT at the Directorate of E-Learning and Digital Content Development. Both as a professor, and as an IT operation specialist in e-learning systems, Dr. Tornóci experienced that the university tries to contact the students many times by using an old, inactive e-mail address displayed in NEPTUN or in the SEKA system.
Introducing a common university e-mail address came up as an idea several years ago, but the current epidemiological situation made it urgent to have a wide range of online learning opportunities and a secure electronic contact information – emphasized Dr. László Tornóci. As regards the background of the development, he said that the system was created by connecting EduID (SEKA) identification, which is common all around Europe under the auspices of the international GEANT, together with Office identification. The name conflicts were detected during the generating of e-mail addresses. In the pilot program, a smaller group of Semmelweis University Students’ Union started to use this service in January 2020, and now all the students joined in this system. This one-stage identification is convenient for the users, but beyond the modern user management, there are further advantages: the data storage can be used until graduation and the data are always available via mobile devices. According to Dr. László Tornóci, one of the most useful applications is OneNote, with the help of which students will be able to take notes, to elaborate on exam topics and to share their notes in a more convenient way.
The information related to activating university e-mail addresses was sent to the students’ current e-mail addresses in the form of a system notification. For further information and login support, please visit this site.
Dóra Vas
Photo: Attila Kovács – Semmelweis University
Translation: Katalin Illés-Romhányi
