More than 550 WUSTL undergraduate students will participate in a pilot program beginning in January 2010 to test the University’s new student e-mail and online service, Microsoft Live@EDU, said Andrew Ortstadt, associate vice chancellor for information services and technology.
The University selected Live@EDU to provide e-mail, calendar and Web space to a pilot group of students after several months seeking student and staff input. The pilot is a step toward offering students e-mail and online services that are an improvement over the University’s current approach, Ortstadt said.
If the pilot is successful, all undergraduate student e-mail will migrate to Live@EDU by summer 2010. Graduate student e-mail services will be evaluated on a school-by-school basis.
Each Live@EDU account includes 10 gigabytes of e-mail storage and 25 gigabytes of file storage, calendaring, instant messaging, built-in social networking integration and Web development space.
Free access to Web versions of Microsoft Office tools such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint is planned for spring 2010. In addition, the Live@EDU address book can be synchronized with University directories, making it easier to find WUSTL e-mail addresses for people without Live@EDU accounts.
Currently, each WUSTL school independently provides e-mail services to students. The features of the different systems vary, and many students have multiple University e-mail accounts.
For more information about this project, e-mail Information Services and Technology at livecomments@wustl.edu.