Wanting to create new SABA portal!

[ducman]

All:

This is for current students, administration, and prospective students. I have been unsuccessful in finding an "intranet" SABA portal for current students and students who are definitely matriculating within the next year. The purpose of this portal would be to post lecture slides, exchange housing info, interact with professors and administration, etc....

ValueMD is an absolutely incredible forum, but it is a forum with many topics... I was wanting to know if there is interest from students and anybody else from the SABA end for me to create a more focused password protected SABA portal. Only current students, alumni, administration, and those students who have given their deposit shall be allowed in.

Please send comments, criticism, advice... I AM HOPING FOR A LOT OF RESPONSES. This type of portal shall help improve our experience on the island and clinicals.

Please note: I am attaching a poll.

Thanks,

Ducman
SABA January 2005

[aychamo]

Hey!

That is a good idea. Do it! Would you put it on a web hosting thing (like www.sa****fo.com or something?)

It would be great to have a place to DL lectures, and talk with current students. Or just to post and ask questions, or even have individual sub-forums for different semeter's classes to ask for help, etc.!

[ducman]

Any URL suggestions? I already have a host for my non-profit and I am looking forward to getting this site up within the next month.

[wolfvgang22]

Would opening a saba student portal result in reducing the amount of posts and traffic on this forum by current Saba students? As an applicant, I would really miss current students valuable input.

[ducman]

That was definitely one of the concerns that I had... BUT the SABA portal would not be a forum for prospective applicants. It would have a forum internally of course, but the moderators would make sure it is targeted towards current students concerns, suggestions and comnumcations.

I would definitely have the ValueMD forum as a link/contributor for prospective applicants to gain needed advice. Like I said before... ValueMD was invaluable in my research process; I believe that it is an incredible community.

There are other schools that have a portal for their students - the SABA portal would provide another means for students to excel. We could have clinical students giving advice to "islanders," alumnis/residents providing advice, current lectures, SABA SOM and island developments, polls, etc...

I really need further input from current students. What do you guys think?

Thanks again and PLEASE KEEP THE COMMENTS COMING!

-Ducman
SABA SOM January 2005

[aychamo]

Hey there!

I've a suggestion. It seems that the portal for students and all that would defeinilty pull people away from here. That isn't a bad thing, it just sucks for prospective students (ME!) who have questions to ask, because that means even less students would come here.

Like, already we have a ton of questions to ask, and it's really hard to ever get them answered. I would think that a sub-forum for prospective students to ask questions in would be a good idea.

[ducman]

The SABA portal is a site to be completely dedicated to the exchange of information, be it ideas, questions, or hard paper lecture notes. It shall have a calendar of events, etc...

I am getting in touch with the SABA administration in order to get this on the road.

I agree that there definitely shall be a whole section dedicated to admissions... information not provided on the main SABA site yet different from ValueMD in that it focuses more on SABA.

ALSO, please add comments/strings to this thread if you respond to the poll. It is more helpful for someone to give a reason why they have replied Yes or No.

Thank you again!

-Ducman

[Stitches]

I think the portal will do more good than bad. I don't think too many ppl will be pulled away from ValueMD, since this is an excellent site for meeting current students from other schools and getting their opinions about CLINICALS, MATCH, USMLE, etc. I know I'd still come back here to check up on interesting forums that might be critically important for my future.

Take it easy!

[Manny22]

no comment (take note of the irony)

[amyames]

whatever happened to this idea? it sounds great!

St. Chris actually has a great student forum where students post info on admissions, housing fin aid, rotations, usmle help, and useful websites. it's one of the best places for information. I am very very very impressed with it. I dont think it has diminshed the st. chris valuemd forum any. Thus, I think Saba students could start one. You just need to download a forum program (2 or 3 kinds out there) and have a server to host the program. You might need to know some ftp, and other server jargon, but I'm sure someone going to Saba is computer savy. I think St. Matt's actually has one on their webpage, too.


I think this should be done stat! Is someone willing to step in and do this? I'm not computer savy in the least, or I'd start it and have ppl take over. anyone know about servers and such?

[eljefe]

I think it would be a very good idea.....

[amyames]

and actually here is one such program http://www.phpbb.com/ that will let you set up a forum, but I don't understand all the jargon and how to set it up. if someone does then they should start one for saba.

[BTH]

Salutations:

I am definitely in favor of having a Saba portal. I'll continue to visit VMD so having one won't affect me one way or the other. Ciao.