Over the past few months, Steven’s IT department has been creating a new hub for the Stevens community’s software, websites, and applications. Stevens Hub is a SharePoint site run directly by Stevens IT. It will be a centerpiece of Stevens’ intranet software center. The Stute looked into the new program and investigated its features, usability, and future as we venture into the 2023-2024 academic year.
Starting over the summer, on June 6, content owners could transfer their content from the former system, myStevens, to the new Stevens Hub. The new system uses Microsoft’s SharePoint program and is an upcoming standard across different universities, industries, and agencies. Stevens Hub will feature many programs from the legacy myStevens page like the Academic Support Center (ASC), the Campus Card Office (DuckBills), the Stevens Shuttle, the Office of Undergraduate Academic (OUA), and the Writing and Communications Center (WCC). Additionally, Stevens Hub will include easy access to a campus map, People Finder, and many other services the school offers.
The first step in accessing Stevens Hub is to log onto your Stevens account and proceed to Microsoft Office 365 or myStevens. In Office 365, go to SharePoint and navigate to the Stevens Hub site, and for myStevens, click the Stevens Hub Chiclet. Once there, Stevens Hub offers an easily followable format with some of the most-used links on the heading and the rest of the provided services listed alphabetically.
Steven’s IT will continue integrating existing software and websites from the legacy myStevens to the new Stevens Hub in the coming months. The project team will continue contacting content owners to work with them to facilitate a smooth transition to the new system. The current prediction from IT is for all content to be moved from myStevens to Stevens Hub by November 29, 2023. At this point, the IT department will decommission the myStevens intranet platform.
The Stute explored and compared the new Stevens Hub to the original myStevens program. The first significant difference is the user interface’s (UI) appearance. While the myStevens UI offers a more visually pleasing and spaced system, Stevens Hub favors a more compact UI. While myStevens does not provide immediate access to all programs and content it contains, it has a search bar that allows users to iterate through the entire database to find their intended program. On the contrary, Stevens Hub does not include a search feature, but all available content is listed alphabetically and visible. One improvement in Stevens Hub is the control Stevens has over the program compared to myStevens through SharePoint’s settings.
Stevens Hub is a promising replacement for myStevens, providing a more streamlined and efficient system for accessing various services and programs offered by the university. Although there are some differences in UI, the new hub provides more centralized options and a more Stevens-centric program. As content owners continue to transfer their content to Stevens Hub, Stevens Hub will slowly become a hub of software, programs, websites, and more for Stevens students, faculty, and staff — facilitating a smoother and more integrated experience for the entire Stevens community.
