On Dec. 1, 2025, Shepherd University launched My Shepherd, replacing RAIL as its long-standing online platform for student records. After hearing students express frustrations with the new system, I thought I’d dig deeper to discover if My Shepherd is truly an upgrade from RAIL.
Students use My Shepherd to register for classes, review financial aid and account balances, request transcripts and view grades. Faculty members also rely on the platform for advisee records and finalizing grades, making it an essential resource for all.
Being a go-to platform for Shepherd, a mid-academic-year launch didn’t seem like an ideal time to introduce this new technology, especially on the heels of spring course registration and prior to a monthlong winter break.
Personally, I feel a launch with the new academic year would’ve offered a smoother transition and less hesitation to adapt.
While students were well informed about the transition nearly 40 days prior, a 3 p.m. email on launch day with how-to guides was belated to some degree.
With the launch, users received a much-needed facelift to the platform’s interface, as RAIL was antiquated with its file-folder-style organization. Yet, students, like myself, were accustomed to RAIL’s simplicities and ease of navigation.
Some processes also became slightly more difficult through My Shepherd, with class registration being one.
RAIL only required course reference numbers (CRNs) with a simple click to submit. Now, after entering CRNs, each class must be added to the registration record before final submission.
Class registration is already stressful. These added steps do not make it any more pleasant.
On the subject of registration, I, too, am not a fan of the new class schedule view (formerly known as the week-at-a-glance schedule). RAIL had everything I needed for the first day of a new semester in one place: the class, duration and location.
While the colors in My Shepherd add some creative flair to my class schedule (and help with the struggle of course color coding), it only displays the course name. No longer can I easily glance to see which building and room I’m headed to, nor see start and end times.
With classes occurring at odd times, like 9:35 a.m. or 1:40 p.m., it’s difficult to know when my class truly starts and ends with this new interface.
Another frustration with My Shepherd: each page opens in a new tab. Between juggling email, Brightspace, external course resources and more, I already have enough tabs open.
After completing my desired action, it’s easy to have five or more My Shepherd tabs open.
That goes without saying that everything seems hidden in the new platform. I can lose several minutes navigating all the buttons and options, only to discover it’s not what I’m in search of.
The login process is also strenuous. Single sign-on (SSO) sounded appealing, until quickly realizing it required the dreaded multifactor authentication on each login attempt.
RAIL was much simpler, only requiring a student ID and password to gain access. It’s unfortunate that My Shepherd access isn’t seamless like the Brightspace SSO.
And, speaking of passwords, if you need to locate your username or change your Shepherd network password, you’re directed back to RAIL. Kind of ironic, yes?
One good thing, though, there are no changes to DegreeWorks. Yet, with DegreeWorks being another primary platform, it’d be prudent to add a quick link to My Shepherd’s main landing page.
The financial aid interface is a bit easier to navigate, too. That was always one of my biggest frustrations with RAIL: the inability to easily view my tuition balance and the amount covered by scholarships.
In the end, we traded RAIL’s simplicity for My Shepherd’s modern interface and added perplexity. In my opinion, was it worth it? No.
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