Central releases new ‘Flight Deck’ landing page – Central Times

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Naperville Central High School’s administration officially launched a new student landing page known as the Flight Deck, designed to streamline access to essential school-related resources for students.
The Flight Deck, which appears in a new tab, was officially deployed to all student Chromebooks on Jan. 5th, and its launch was formally announced to students on Jan. 6th during Advisory.
“The Flight Deck came about as a result of conversation back in November amongst myself, Mrs. Thornton, and a group of staff members […] to discuss the future of Advisory,” said Dr. Steve Jeretina, Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction. “One of the things that came up was a limited amount of time for our freshman advisory, compared to sophomore, junior, and senior advisory, and the discussion of announcements, and what can we do to condense or utilize the time that will otherwise be reserved for announcements?”
While developing the Flight Deck, staff and administration turned to Neuqua Valley’s student splash page as a model for how to centralize information in an easily accessible area in a clear and efficient manner.
“Some of [the staff] brought up the idea of Neuqua Valley’s student landing page where all relevant resources are provided, announcements being one of them,” Jeretina said. “We took Neuqua’s model as a starting point [and] we wanted to make sure that we had our bell schedule, access to resources that are frequently used, and a place to put relevant information.”
Jeretina added that the Flight Deck is an ongoing project and will continue to evolve as students provide more feedback and as students utilize the landing page more frequently.
“Right now, it’s Ms. Szopinski and myself that make some modifications to it,” Jeretina said. “We’ve shifted it now to have really important, ‘right now’ information to be at the top, so we’re getting more feedback, and we’re going to be adjusting until it meets the needs of the vast majority of our students, but we’re always hoping for feedback on it.”
According to Jeretina, early reactions to the Flight Deck have been mixed, with some students expressing appreciation for the consolidated access to information, and with others preferring the Google new tab page..
“Some have come and said that it’s nice to have the resources that they’re looking for right in front of them, having the announcements in text, and being able to see that daily,” Jeretina said. “Others have a preference for whatever their previous landing page looked like. We know that we’re not going to make everybody happy with it, but again, we’re open to feedback to make sure that it’s doing the best that it can for the most students.”
As part of the development process, administrators gathered informal student feedback to help guide the initial design.
“Myself, Mrs. Thornton, some department chairs, members of student services, and some teachers created it,” Jeretina said. “Oftentimes, I would go into the Learning Commons and find a couple of students sitting there, showed it to them before it was pushed out, and asked, ‘What do you like about this? What do you not like about this?’ and tweaked based upon that feedback. We didn’t get it to 2,500 students and over 200 staff members, but it was enough to get a sample size and perspective for a starting point.”
After creating the Flight Deck, administrators collaborated with the IT203 to ensure it could be successfully deployed to all student Chromebooks.
“There were some back end tech things that I didn’t know how to do,” Jeretina said. “When we had the finished product, we worked with our building and tech teams and said, ‘Here’s our idea. How can we make this happen?’ My only ask was that starting on day one of second semester, that it be pushed out. We actually had it ready to go the day prior, on January 5th, it was pushed out. I was able to see it, test it, and it looked great. It’s very easy to edit, so should something need to be updated on the fly, we’re able to do that, so we’re pleased with where we’re at.”
Students said they are beginning to notice the Flight Deck’s usefulness, even as some features could be improved.
“I would say that I rarely use the resources on the Flight Deck,” junior Mandy Yuan said. “The most useful part of it would be having the schedule at easy access, and that we have access to the hallway slides now […] I do appreciate having the hallway announcements at easy access.”
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