After logging onto myedu.com, it takes about 10 minutes to put together a class schedule for your next term at the University of Oregon. Curious about what your chances are of obtaining that coveted A-? Want to see a visual matrix to plan your naps? Hesitant to sign up for that 8 a.m. class before checking the professor’s student ratings? Myedu.com can help.
What’s more, after creating a username and password, students can use myEdu to explore internships, search job opportunities around Eugene and build a portfolio to showcase achievements to potential employers. This website has it all.
According to Bill Morrill, assistant director for technology in the UO Office of Academic Advising, myEdu and other networking websites like LinkedIn and Rate My Professors are examples of a student movement toward increasingly digitized educational and occupational networking.@@checked links@@
“I’ve been working in advising and career counseling for 19 years now, and there’s been a big change in the use of technology,” Morrill said. “I have seen and heard more and more from students trying to pick classes from what other students are saying about professors.”
For junior cinema studies major Zachary Twardowski,@@directory@@ technology simplifies planning ahead. Although he sticks to DuckWeb for building his schedule and browsing potential classes, Twardowski runs his potential teachers through Rate My Professors in addition to speaking with friends who have taken the same course. It was through applying for online scholarships through Fastweb.com that Twardowski first encountered myEdu. Since, he has used the portal to augment the resources provided by the UO for job and internship searches.
From an academic advising standpoint, Morrill believes that Twardowski’s balance between digital and personal interaction is key to planning ahead.
“It’s difficult to use reviews about personal teaching styles without having the full story in the background,” Morrill said. “Personally, I think talking to the professor beforehand is a good way to choose classes. Talking with students who have taken the class before would also be helpful because then you can actually ask questions.”
To keep up with increasing digital dependence, the UO Career Center is planning its own technological overhaul.
@@directory@@ By fall 2013 the UO hopes to have developed a site similar to popular portals like myEdu and LinkedIn, says UO Career Center Director Daniel Aguilar. Ideally, Aguilar says, the site will generate an automatic profile for any student with a UO identification number.
Twardowski, for one considers the possibility entrancing.

“I think that’d be very helpful,” he said of the Career Center’s potential website. “It kind of streamlines the process so that someone calling you in for an interview already knows a lot about you and your activity and involvement in things.”
Although sites like myEdu and LinkedIn create a portal through which prospective employees can connect with employers, Aguilar hopes to remind students that they are merely tools for providing meeting opportunities. True connections, he says, continue to require real life face time.