Today, August 7, DU students, faculty and staff will see a change in the way they use the internal Internet: the DU platform WebCentral will begin to shift over to a new site called PioneerWeb.

The change was announced on the WebCentral homepage leading up to the event, which will begin at 6 p.m. tonight.

Jeff Derksen, University Technology Services (UTS) Director of Web Services, said the changes users will experience will be relatively minor.

“Initially the main changes people will notice are a slightly updated look, a more mobile-friendly layout and, of course, the new name,” said Derksen.

“For technical reasons, we needed to change the name when we switched from the old platform to the new one,” he said.

Derksen also said that PioneerWeb should provide an upgraded user experience.

“Replacing the webCentral platform with PioneerWeb is an upgrade to several facets of the portal framework including the portal application itself, the user interface, and underlying components you won’t see,” he said.

Though not directly connected to the shift from Blackboard to Canvas, Derksen said that the change to PioneerWeb is a part of a holistic “technology improvement strategy.”

“As we continue to integrate new functionality into PioneerWeb, the DU community will see changes inside the DU portal. Students, faculty, and staff will also experience benefits from the underlying architecture upgrades in other DU applications,” he said.

According to Derksen, DU’s Office of Marketing and Communications conducted surveys over a year ago to gather input on the change.