Smith Community United by eSmith, the School's Internal Portal

For the past two years eSmith has been evolving into a comprehensive gateway that allows students, faculty, and staff to navigate through a network of public and private information, services, and business functions of the Smith School and the University of Maryland. The internal portal provides a secure infrastructure to present Web-based applications and information to the Smith community, focusing on tools for collaboration, research, and personal productivity.

On an average day nearly 400 members of the Smith community log in to eSmith to access e-mail, personal files, timesheets, financial and statistical databases, tools for video conferencing and file transfer protocol (FTP), and Web-based applications such as Blackboard and Lotus Notes, using a single, secure login.

"Once you log on to eSmith and are authenticated, the portal will enable you to traverse multiple systems without additional sign-ins and offer you access to the services and content of those diverse systems rather seamlessly," says Sandy Boyson, Smith's director of technology.

As the Smith community's reach expands throughout the world, "eSmith will increasingly bring these users content and tools to enrich their academic experience," adds Boyson. "For all of our users, it will offer an unprecedented degree of mobility and access to critical collaborative education and research environments."

Lately, most Smith students and faculty are raving about how they can easily access Microsoft Windows applications while off-campus. "eSmith allows users to run real Windows programs through their Web browser," says Ernie Soffronoff, Smith's enterprise architect. "What does this mean? Basically, you are accessing the actual Windows version of applications like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, statistical and research databases, and research content from sources like Dow Jones, Reuters, Hoovers, and Lexis/Nexis through VBIC (the Virtual Business Information Center) from anywhere using your Web browser," says Soffronoff.

In the past, to get this kind of exclusive access you had to be on a computer inside Van Munching Hall. "These kinds of applications give flexibility to the faculty to use their preferred tools, and convenience to the students," says Soffronoff. Now, students at satellite campuses can get the same level and quality of access to systems.

"eSmith is a terrific resource for students," says Aaron Adams, a first-year MBA student. "As students realize the one-stop-shopping potential (the ability to access e-mail, Blackboard, virtual team rooms, etc.) all through one portal, they will increasingly view it as one of their most valuable online resources. Specifically, for me, the virtual team collaboration tool [QuickPlace] has been quite helpful in the management of academic team projects and schedules."

Lotus Sametime and Lotus QuickPlace are two collaboration tools available via eSmith. Sametime is an instant messaging/video conferencing application that allows students, faculty, and staff to conduct real-time chats: typing, audio, or video depending on the user capabilities. QuickPlace is a virtual team room where invited users can post documents, chat, create a calendar, and conduct other virtual communications.

Smith's Office of Executive Education regularly uses Lotus Sametime to communicate with team members in Van Munching Hall, working off-site, or traveling around the world, particularly in Beijing where Smith's EMBA China program is based.

"With Lotus Sametime you automatically know which department members are in the office and available. And for departments whose staff is spread across several suites or even floors it allows for instant communication," says Kathy Marmon, a Smith marketing manager who works with executive education. "Sametime is also particularly useful for staff on travel. You can ask a question quickly and get an immediate response without having to filter through dozens of e-mails."

The Blackboard course management system can be accessed via eSmith and has more than 6,000 registered users this semester, with about 10,000 logins each day. Blackboard is a popular teaching and learning environment, featuring a robust setting for content management and sharing, online assessments, student tracking, assignment and portfolio management, and virtual collaboration.

"Blackboard serves as a great productivity tool for students and professors," says second-year MBA student Benjamin Brooks. "Students can easily access course readings and lecture notes straight from the Internet. This ready access to course information enables students to gain more from lectures by reading that day's slides prior to arriving to class. It also saves students money as it provides access to copyrighted material the university already has access to, thus preventing students from unnecessarily purchasing costly printed course packets."

Blackboard's online chat capability allows students and professors to continue discussions beyond the time limitations of the classroom. "A professor can post a discussion topic, and students can reply with their own viewpoint or ask new questions. It is a great supplement to the classroom," adds Brooks.

To find out more about eSmith, visit the introduction page. Members of the Smith community can log in directly.