Students, faculty and advisers will have access to a newer, streamlined version of eLion beginning today.

Although none of the functions will disappear or change, the overall look of the Web page will change significantly, making navigation easier, said J. James Wager, assistant vice provost for enrollment management and university registrar.

"What students will see (today) is a completely new look for eLion," Wager said.

The most obvious change will be the creation of a two-frame design. The left side of the screen will contain links to all the functions of eLion, everything from registering for classes to obtaining grades.

"If they click over any of those (links), the function will come on the right part of the screen," Wager said.

The addition of the two-frame design should alleviate users from repeatedly using the "back" button on their browser, he said.

"The student, the faculty, the advisers — once they go in, they can switch between applications really easily," said Marcella Immel, information technology project leader and one of the members of the Web design team for eLion. "I think students will really like it."

Additionally, Immel said the number of graphics have been reduced, which should make downloading time shorter.

There will also be a new section of eLion specifically for prospective students.

The upgrade was no small feat for the teams working on the project.

"There have been a group of people working on this all semester," Wager said.

The entire idea of eLion started about five years ago, Wager said. The initial product, Comprehensive Academic Advising and Information System, had many different functions and applications under many different names such as Open Access to Student Information Systems and Interactive Advising. The various labels made CAAIS confusing and user-unfriendly, he said.

"Those were just names people put onto different parts of the system. To be honest, the names were getting in the way," Wager said of CAAIS. "Last May, we made the first step. We took all the activities and put it under one name: eLion."

But Wager said originally eLion was simply a superficial cover for the many names underneath it.

"The first time I went on in, it was a little confusing," said Richard Schmidt (freshman-education). "It (did not) tell you all your options. I didn't know what to look for."

With the new navigation system revealed today, students will notice that the distinctions of OASIS and Interactive Advising have disappeared. Although Immel said the bulk of the work is now finished, she added the teams are always looking for ways to improve eLion by making it more user-friendly and adding new features.

"Some of the things the Web team is going to address now is the current applications and future applications," she said.

Eventually, Wager expects eLion to be personalized for every person who uses it. The system would greet the users by their own names and also remind them of tasks to accomplish on eLion. He anticipates this upgrade near the end of this semester. The eLion Web site is located at www.eLion.psu.edu.