In fall 2012, Emory began phasing out LearnLink. As a current freshman, I never used LearnLink when it was at its prime. However, I still have a few classes that use it. From my limited use, I have concluded that while many people are right in calling LearnLink outdated, it performs a necessary function that no replacement has managed to do. It may be old, but it's easy to use, and it gets information across quickly.
I understand that the University was in need of a new email client. Office 365 is okay, but the switch to it has caused students to stop checking LearnLink often. In addition, rather than keeping LearnLink for non-email uses, the Emory administration decided that LearnLink should be completely phased out and new programs should be used for distributing information about campus events.
Now, to make sure one is covered on all things going on at Emory, one needs to check the following: Office 365, LearnLink, Community and Blackboard.
There are probably a few other places used by single clubs/organizations, too. The spreading of communications across multiple platforms has decreased the efficacy of all of them; students do not want to log into four different things daily.
Not only have we unnecessarily spread communications, but the new venues for communications are simply not as good as LearnLink was.
Community is a horrible replacement for LearnLink. It fails at its main purpose: to easily convey information about organizations and events to the Emory community. Making an announcement on LearnLink is much simpler than doing it on Community. You hit "New," type in the conference name, type your message, and hit send. It's quick, and everyone in the conference can now see your messages. They get a red flag notifying them of the message, too.
It's also really easy to reply to others' messages on LearnLink, facilitating group discussion. Community and Blackboard have this ability, but they are much slower and harder to use. On Community, "Messages," "Events," "Documents," "Links" and "Editable Documents" are all separate pages.
So, for one club you must wait for at least 5 different pages to load, and you must remember to check all of these every time you wish to get all of the most recent updates.
On LearnLink, all of these features could be placed on the main conference. For one club I am in, we currently have group discussions by "replying all" to e-mails.
It's disorganized, but we have no other choice, given that everyone has abandoned LearnLink and the replacement programs do not work well.
Above all, I think the worst problem caused by the phasing out of LearnLink is the fact that no one uses Class Comments anymore. Emory undergraduates no longer have a method of getting feedback about the classes they are interested in taking.
Some of the old reviews are there, but information on new professors is nonexistent. Students must now rely on word of mouth, which can be limited. The administration needs to develop a class/professor rating system that is easily accessible to students. Ratemyprofessors.com is one option, but it too is lacking in the quantity and quality of reviews. I think fewer people post on it because it is public, and it is more time-consuming. Class Comments, being on LearnLink, is quicker and nearly effortless. Students used to always be on LearnLink anyway, so they found it easy to ask and give advice.
The Emory community has to work to develop an effective system for students to communicate with each other and for the administration and faculty to communicate with students. Specifically, organizations need to have a way to communicate with their members and the community at large, and we students need to have a good professor review system as we did previously.
Facebook and social media have become part of the solution, but these platforms will never capture the entire Emory community. LearnLink may not have the latest user interface with cool graphics, but it's incredibly simple to use and it did its purpose. We must eschew fancy features that do not actually help us achieve our goal and may even be counterproductive.
If we do choose to upgrade our technology, we must make sure to educate everyone about the new technology.
We must look to other institutions and to the market for better alternatives to ensure a connected campus.
Ross Shulman is a College freshman from Bellmore, N.Y.
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