First steps

This chapter gets you into the system and explains the layout. Read it once and every later chapter will make sense.

Signing in

What it is for. Getting into the system with the account the university issued you.

Steps

1. Open the Portal address your university provided.
2. Click Sign in with Google.
3. Choose the university email account issued to you.

Notes

• The system only signs in through Google. There is no separate password field.
• An error message showing an email address means that address has not been granted access yet. Ask an administrator to add the account.
• Signing in with a personal account is the most common mistake. Check the email shown in the top right corner.

Choosing a campus

What it is for. Selecting the campus you work at. Everything shown afterwards — students, course offerings, rooms, fees — belongs to the selected campus.

Steps

1. After signing in, the Select Your Campus screen lists the campuses you may access.
2. Click the card for the campus you work at. The selected card gets a blue border.
3. Confirm to enter the system.
4. To switch campus while working: click the logo at the top of the left menu bar (the line with the system name and Campus: ...), then pick the campus from the list.

Notes

• If you have access to only one campus, the system selects it for you and the logo shows no list.
• The active campus is always shown under the system name in the top left corner, on the Campus: ... line.
• Switching campus from the logo keeps the page you are on; the page data refreshes for the new campus.
• Entering data under the wrong campus is hard to undo, because the records are attached to that campus. Always check the Campus: line before creating anything.

Screen layout

The screen has three parts:

• Left column — the menu. Every function, grouped by kind of work.
• Top bar. The name of the open screen and the path back.
• Middle. The working area: summary cards, filters, data tables.

The main menu groups:

Menu group	Work it covers
Overview	Summary screen
Academic Operations	Curriculum, terms, course offerings, attendance, grades, lecturers
Students	Student records, enrolment, decisions
Reports & Audits	Reports and data reconciliation
Finance	Fees: generation, collection, reconciliation, scholarships, tuition plans, vouchers
Store & Clubs	The Gold redemption store, student clubs
Campus	Rooms, bookings, events
Forms & Surveys	Forms and surveys
Communications	Email and notifications
Administration	Users, permissions, system configuration

Important. The menu reflects your permissions. Colleagues may see more or fewer items than you. A missing item means access has not been granted, not that the system is broken.

The Dashboard

What it is for. A quick read on the selected campus.

Who can open it. Every signed-in user.

What it shows

• Totals: students by status, lecturers, number of programs, and rooms that are free, in use, or under maintenance.
• The current term: code, start and end dates, the registration window, and whether registration is open or closed.
• Alerts to act on: students on academic hold, attendance problems, program changes.
• A chart of students by program.

Note. The alerts are only a starting point. The actual work happens in the academic and student areas.

Your account

Steps

1. Click your name at the bottom of the left menu column.
2. Choose what you need: profile, settings, or sign out.

Notes

• Portal has no password change screen. Your password belongs to your Google account; change it there.
• On a shared computer you must sign out, not just close the browser.

Actions repeated on most screens

List screens in Portal share a few controls:

• Search box — type a name or code to narrow the list.
• Filters — restrict by term, status, program, and so on.
• Clear filters — return the list to its original state when the data you expect is missing.
• Summary cards above the table — totals that follow the current filters.
• Icons at the end of each row — view, edit, or delete that record.

Note. An empty list is usually a leftover filter, not missing data. Click Clear filters before reporting a problem.