By Joanne Ferrone
The consensus is in regarding the so-called “improvements” made to MyTri-C Space! Simply stated, “total failure.”
After completing random interviews with Tri-C students, faculty, support staff, and administrative staff members, located at the three campus locations, students and faculty expressed the utmost disappointment about the website.
While on the other hand, support staff and administrative staff, (staff members), had nothing but praise for the alleged and much-needed update. Strangely, their comments seemed rehearsed or possibly they were told what to say by the higher-ups.
During the research phase for this article, it was fairly comical to see the wide-range of facial expressions received when asked, “What’s your opinion about the changes made to MyTri-C Space?” Based on individual expressions, you could already tell how people were going to respond!
Staff members always gave a polite smile before a long contemplating pause, prior to providing their docile, scripted, and cherry-coated response.
Phrases like: “easier to navigate, less cluttered and look is better;” “improved overall system;” and “old system made it harder to find what you needed for job duties,” were repeated during most non-faculty interviews. There was, however, one staff member who eloquently compared the new look being indicative of, “Tri-C is moving in a new direction.”
One small detail to keep in mind, is that most support members commonly use MyTri-C Space for specific work-related responsibilities on a cyclical basis. In theory, staff members use the website and same folders in order to prepare employee timesheets, order supplies, schedule meetings, and other job responsibilities.
This explains the united front by non-faculty members that improvements were needed and the fact that they wholeheartedly embraced the new MyTri-C Space.
On the other hand, when speaking with students and faculty about the issue at hand, they took this opportunity to vent, and trust me when I say, they held nothing back!
Complaints voiced by both students and faculty were abundant, and topics of concern were recurrent. Not to mention that the majority of complaints were supported by each others statements with rather negative comments regarding the new layout, ease of navigation, and purported improvements made to the website.
However, it was one student’s comment that summarized the results concerning the majority of students’ concerns, “The new update to My-Tri-C space is an embarrassment. It confuses rather than informs the viewer, whether its multiple links leading to the same place or just struggling to find your term schedule. It’s
surprisingly a step back, even though the point was to create something more user-friendly.”
Two questions administrative staff members avoided, or possibly ignored, and that is who decided changes were necessary to the website? And were updates completed through Tri-C’s Information Technology Department, or was an outside company hired by the college?
Whoever made the final decision to release the new Tri-C Space, apparently never thought that it might be beneficial first to seek out feedback from students, faculty, and staff members prior to doing so.
Then again, had this been done, the necessity of this story would be moot.
- Tags: joanne ferrone, tri-c space, West
