Internet use is almost unavoidable now at UW-Madison: each semester students receive valuable information from the administration and professors by e-mail, and a whole world of research was made available at the fingertips when the library created online archives.
Now UW has taken another step into the computer era, ceasing the tradition of mailing grades home at the end of semester and opting to provide them online instead.
Beginning this semester, students can view and print official versions of their transcripts online through the newly formed “My UW-Madison” web portal. At www.my.wisc.edu, students are now provided an online portal that university spokesman John Lucas said acts as a “student point of access with the university.”
Though grades are currently available online through EASI, UW officials hope to compile them along with e-mail access, course information, announcements, campus directories and financial information on the “My UW-Madison” site, which is individualized for each student.
According to assistant registrar Jim Steele, the move to provide grades online is a trend across the nation.
“If you look at other universities of our size, very few are still mailing out printed grade reports,” Steele said.
Free copies of the paper version of grades will still be available, but even so, in order to request that grades be mailed students will have to use the Internet. Lucas said this does not put students without Internet access at a disadvantage.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for students out there to get their grades,” Lucas said. “The registrars office is looking at this as more of a convenience for students.”
Lucas said the “My UW-Madison” web portal, including the online grades, will reduce spending on behalf of the registrars office and ease an already “cumbersome process.”
The online grades will also help pull students into the “My UW-Madison” site.
The registrar’s office is “trying to encourage students to check it out and get involved with it,” Lucas said.
According to University Communications, students will receive an e-mail message before this weekend outlining the procedures of the new system. Grades will then be posted and available for printing before the next semester begins.
