MyOxford - Further Information for Staff
Further details about MyOxford
What do students experience?
Initially, students will be presented with the same tiles on the central University dashboard whether undergraduate or post-graduate. Once a student has logged in with their Single Sign-On (SSO), the content is personalised to give each student their own calendar, email and library loans. Visibility of college dashboards is based on the student's affiliation.
The project is working closely with the Identity Transformation Programme within the wider Digital Transformation programme at Oxford to see how we can get more data to refine the audience targeted content further.
If you would like to see what the app looks like, please download this guide:
or watch this MyOxford Familiarisation video (SSO required):
Who is the supplier?
Following an extensive tender process, Ready Education were selected by Oxford as the preferred supplier with their MyDay product. It is a cloud-based platform, available as both a web portal and a mobile app, used by over 700 educational institutions and reaches in excess of 7 million students.
At Oxford, MyDay is branded as MyOxford.
Has MyOxford been designed with accessibility standards and usability in mind?
The project team are working in partnership with the supplier, Ready Education, to ensure the app is AA compliant as possible with WCAG 2.2 digital accessibility standards. The app, as we have purchased it from Ready Education, has already been audited and we are aware of some known accessibility issues. We have prepared an accessibility checklist for new features as they are added.
There will be an Accessibility tile in the app which will link to a set of web pages with a list of known accessibility issues, suggestions for workarounds, and a formal accessibility statement.
Will the app be available to download direct from the University website, for students whose devices can't access Google Play?
No, you can only download the app from either the Google or Apple app stores. However, MyOxford is also accessible via browser for students who can’t or don’t want to download the app.
Will students need to sign in with SSO each time they use the app?
In most cases, no. MyOxford contains many tiles that link to systems behind SSO however, these systems should not require students to log in to gain access after the initial log-in.
If students are prompted to log in again with SSO, this may be because 7 days of inactivity have been logged. We encourage students to remain active every few days to avoid being logged out. Students may be asked to log in again on other systems occasionally as they may have different frequencies for logging in again after inactivity.
Will the app be available to staff?
The MyOxford app is primarily designed to serve as a valuable resource for students, with features tailored to their needs. As of October 2024, staff can access the app to gain insight into the student experience. However, their access is limited to the University dashboard, and they will not be able to view college-specific dashboards.
Staff who contribute to MyOxford app content, such as the college newsroom and alerts, are granted access as needed.
There are no immediate plans to develop MyOxford into an app for staff. However, the University’s planned intranet, OxIntranet, is expected to provide features designed to enhance digital experiences for staff, and will be available from 2025.
Do college staff get training on how to use the newsfeed and alerts functions?
There are written guides for these topics:
For additional support, please contact myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk
I don't see my college or don't have access to the right permissions to do my work
If you are one of the college-nominated staff who publishes news or alerts in MyOxford, you should be seeing options as described in guides. If you don't or you do not see your college dashboard please let us know: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk
How do I update something on our college dashboard?
During this first phase of release the project team can action these changes on your behalf. Please complete a service request and we will action it for you. The longer term plan is to hand over these permissions to colleges and allow staff members to be able to update elements of their dashboards themselves.
How do I request a new staff member to be added to MyOxford?
MyOxford is built for students, however staff that need access to publish news, alerts or help with testing or support students can get access to the app upon request. Please complete a service request or email us: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk
How do I add a news item or alert to the University dashboard?
Content on the University dashboard of MyOxford, including news items and alerts, are manged by the AAD Communications team. MyOxford is part of a suite of University-managed channels to communicate with on-course students, and colleagues wishing to publish content within this area of the app are invited to contact AAD Comms to discuss requirements.
How do I request MyOxford to link or integrate with my system?
Please email the MyOxford team: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk
Can Colleges have access to change their own tiles/integrations and colour scheme as required?
While we are in the early stages of the project and testing, the project team will be making any dashboard changes for you so that they can be retested and assessed for any accessibility issues. This is to ensure accessibility and consistency checks between colleges are performed while we are still trialling approaches and building many dashboards.
The longer-term intention is that college IT and/or comms officers will have access, subject to training, to maintain their own dashboard, systems links and tiles. At this stage, you will be able to customise your college dashboard, including adjustments to the layout and colour scheme.
How are college systems and services handled?
MyOxford enables each College to have their own dashboard. We are using Single Sign-On (SSO) data to determine access to college dashboards and systems for that college, so they will only be available to students at that particular college with the correct affiliation.
How does MyOxford present links to other systems?
There are three types of tiles on the MyOxford dashboard:
- Integrations, such Nexus365 and SOLO, which enable students to see information and complete tasks without having to login to the downstream system
- Links to systems with SSO, such as Student Self Service and CareerConnect, where the student can access the system without having to login again
- Web content tiles, used for signposting content such as departmental or college web pages
How will MyOxford work with the University-wide SafeZone app?
The University is currently implementing SafeZone, a mass alert app for use in the event of a serious incident. It is due to be launched later in Michaelmas Term 2024. Students who download the SafeZone app will get a notification sent directly to their phone (app alert/sms/email) in the event of an incident. The MyOxford project is working with the SafeZone project to integrate the two apps so that if an incident alert is sent from SafeZone it will also trigger an alert on the MyOxford app to students, increasing coverage of the notification.
There will be an annual test mass alert notification from SafeZone that will also test the alert from MyOxford. The SafeZone project will release more details and the planning required later in the year.
How is the app support handled?
For queries and support with the app, students are invited to consult the App Support guidance on the student MyOxford webpage.
If their issue can’t be resolved in the App Support guidance, students are prompted to log a support ticket via IT Self-Service.
I have a student asking me to help with an issue. What can I do?
You can direct them to our App Support guidance or log a support ticket via IT Self-Service.
Students: please see the MyOxford Student page for help accessing and using MyOxford
Is MyOxford going to be used for other groups without SSO?
The scope for the initial launch at the start of 2024/25 academic year is enrolled students with SSO. The product that we have picked can be expanded to other groups such as offer holders, alumni, prospective students for open days and short courses. It’s a large undertaking for the university to rollout MyOxford and so the intention is that the project will focus on current students in Michaelmas term 2024 then start to look at the scope for the next phase of development.
Will the app be available to staff?
A select number of staff from each college has access to MyOxford to publish news items, alerts and for testing however, the app has been developed primarily for student use. Rest assured, the development of MyOxford is ongoing, and we look to expand its use and functionality in the future.
Data accessible by the MyOxford app and its supplier, myday from Collabco
MyOxford uses SSO details including name and Oxford University email and college affiliation to ensure that users can see the correct dashboards. These can be viewed in the users' MyOxford profile.
The app also has integrations that users need to consent to on the University dashboard in order for various functionality to work. These are: Office 365 Graph which allows the Nexus365 calendar to sync with MyOxford (related to My Calendar tile); Microsoft 365 Mail which allows the Nexus365 emails to sync with MyOxford (relates to My Email tile); and Canvas which this allows the Canvas calendar and course details to sync with MyOxford (relates to My Calendar and Courses tiles).
Data not accessible by the MyOxford app and its supplier, myday from Collabco
Location data: there is no location data being extracted from users using the app.
