Retiring FirstClass Email and Conferencing System

FirstClass was introduced at the University of Maine in the mid-1990s as the primary email and conferencing system for the UMaine community. Twenty years later, FirstClass usage is decreasing, and many of its once unique and highly desired features have been supplanted by social media, University of Maine System services, and emerging technologies.

Faculty, staff and students at most UMS campuses now use the University of Maine System’s Google Apps platform for email, calendars, scheduling and document storage/collaboration, and Blackboard is commonly used as the learning management system. Moving towards a simila approach at UMaine for email and learning management will facilitate communication and collaboration for students, faculty and staff, and make  a streamlined service model for all in the University of Maine System possible.

What does this mean for FirstClass at UMaine?
A project to retire FirstClass by May 2018 is under way. One of the first major project milestones to be initially aware of is that May Term 2017 is the last semester when FirstClass conferences, including academic course conferences, can be created.

What can I do now?
The FirstClass Project Team will convene focus groups for faculty, staff and students to gather input about how FirstClass is currently used, to receive input about the retirement process, and answer questions. If you are interested in participating in a focus group, email fc-focus-group@maine.edu. In addition, the team will distribute surveys to collect additional information.

What’s next?
In the coming months, we will provide additional project updates and information about what support services are available to help with the transition. We will also share information about exciting new collaboration tools such as Slack and Box as these tools are made available.

Questions?
Questions and comments can be sent to fc-migration-questions-group@maine.edu.