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Ellingsburg UniversityHome of the “Fighting Elves”

Web PortalConceptual Development Team Report

Vivek ArunkumarJim Ginzer

Kristi MaxwellLisa Yafonaro

Wright State University

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Agenda

Current situation At Ellingsburg In Higher Education

Project Objectives Pros and Cons

Project Proposal Scope Assumptions Organization Requirements Roll Out Costs

Sample Pages Measuring Success References

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Ellingsburg’s Current Situation

University Website is “Stale” Design Branding Functionality

Conceptual Development Team Chartered by Technology Director

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Needs Statement Ellingsburg wants to identify a need for a portal as opposed to the website.

The following were identified from other institutions: To get a students, faculty and administration on the same page- a “one-stop-

shop” idea. To improve the quality of student life, thereby improving retention To aid in campus recruitment efforts, especially if the student portal included a

“prospective student” variation. To showcase what the university offers To foster a consistent sense of university identity To market the university to past student population *

Support and justification from a mixture of stakeholders will be necessary. To collect surveys, to hold public meetings, have interviews with successful and

unsuccessful universities with portals, and to hold focus group, all for the purpose of implementing a useful and successful web portal for

* Source: http://bearlink.berkeley.edu/sis/projects/mn_rpt.html.

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What is a Customized Student Portal?

A portal is a kind of Web site. Technically speaking, a portal site includes a start page with rich

navigation, a collection of loosely integrated features (some of which may be provided by partners or other third parties), and a large, diverse, target audience. For example, Campus Pipeline is a web portal.

A web portal is the central point of web access from which all members of the campus community tap into academic resources, administrative services, community information, and the Internet - all online, from anywhere at any time.*

* Source: http://www.ui-integrate.uillinois.edu/over_glossary.asp

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What is a Customized Student Portal? - cont.

This means that: The portal supplies a secure gateway to access institutional

systems and services. It brings together a collection of services and information. It allows the user to receive a personalized content and

experience. It allows the users to actively customize their own content and

interface according to their own needs.*

* Source: http://www.eportal.mis.ed.ac.uk/MyEd/Service/general/Why%20we%20need%20MyEd.htm

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What is a Customized Student Portal? - cont.

Portals are the current direction for student web access 22% of all Higher Education Institutions have one already 18% were in process of implementation 40% were in process of planning *

Established portals eventually report between 60 and 99% usage by students.**

* Source: EDUCASE study referenced in http://www.wright.edu/usr/portal/portal.html

** Source: http://bearlink.berkeley.edu/sis/projects/mn_rpt.html#section_two

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Why a Portal and Not Just the University Web Site?

A portal benefits both to the institution and the users themselves. The benefits of having a portal can be seen in a multitude of ways: A portal would advance the institution’s community, help students to save time and resources,

and help students stay more organized. Support a single log-on to obtain authentication and authorization to all information resources

and applications Provide a framework where all elements of the university (academic, administrative, and

community) and all business applications can be integrated Provide a convenient set of Web-based communications services Provide a one-stop place to perform all business transactions Provide the ability to present information and access to services on an individual basis in a

personalized manner Provide each member of the community with the ability to customize the appearance, layout,

and information Grant to the university full control and management of appearance and content Be vendor independent (not locked into proprietary hardware and/or software) Be free of commercialism Be available to all constituents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Be flexible and able to absorb new technology advances and new applications.

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Student Learning Experiences Ausiello and Wells (1997) described a number of valuable student learning

implications Student involvement in planning and implementation teaches

Negotiation skills Planning skills Requirements gathering skills Project monitoring skills

Ongoing portal usage teaches Web page development skills Collaboration tool skills Career exploration Multiplistic thinking

Can lead to improved student satisfaction, an important indicator of academic success, because Information available 24X7 Up to date information available Technology based administrative processes

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The Literature Katz and Associates (2002)

Advocated (p. 36) creation of a “CPAD” Vertical Portal Customized Personalized Adaptive Desktop

Recognized (p. 28) a changing paradigm in communication between students and faculty and administrators

Saw (p. 33) information management moving from institution-centered to student-centered All the information that is important to a particular student

Described (p. 39) personal “data cameos” present on web pages at all time Possible applications may include

Overdue library materials Homework assignments Organization meetings

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Some Concerns Associatedwith Implementation of a Web Portal

A university has to expect students, faculty and/or staff to express some concerns with the development of a web portal. Such issues that may be expressed are: Resources

Is the funding and budgetary support available for software, hardware, training and staffing support for faculty and administrative divisions? Funding needs to be stable and available for the life span of the portal project.

Integration How useful will the portal be? The more systems that can be incorporated into the

student portal, the more useful and beneficial it will become. Built Strong and Scalable

Can this portal support heavy usage? Technical communications/infrastructures must be able to support heavy traffic.

Governance- Who “owns” or is responsible for establishing and maintaining internal campus communications? Clear guidelines and authority need to be established and maintained. *

* Source: http://bearlink.berkeley.edu/sis/projects/mn_rpt.html

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Some Concerns Associated with Implementation of a Web Portal - cont.

What support may be required for students with disabilities?

What support may be required for students who do not own computers? Walk up computers and loaners (Ausielo and Wells, 1997)

What support may be necessary for those students who are not comfortable with the technology? (Ausielo and Wells)

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Scope Phase 1 - Portal Home Page -

One stop shopping for student affairs Library Residence Life

Residence Hall activities Maintenance reports

Electronic Mail WWW access Student Union Notices Community Activities Elves Athletics Bursar Registrar Other Linkages as

Departments are identified

Phase 2 - Electronic Campus Student Customization Collaboration Tools Calendar Tools Academic Support Tools

Course materials Student Group Pages Bookstore

Phase 3 - Life Long Access Alumni Pages Parent Pages

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Phase 1 Project Milestones Approval for Phase - Spring 2005 Needs Assessment Complete - 4 Weeks after Approval for

Phase 1 Planning Complete - 4 Weeks after Needs Assessment

Complete Go/No Go Check Point Detailed Schedule, Costs

Ready for Trial - May 2006 Trial Complete - August 2006 Go/No Go for Phase 1 Turn Up - August 2006 Phase 1 Turn Up - Fall 2006

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Assumptions/Dependencies Performance requirements must be developed High level of customization for the user

Ability to change “busy” pages to choose variety of channels or “uncluttered” pages to display primary functioning channels

Ability to view channels and pages at different levels of graphic accessibility regardless of memory and computer upgrades on user’s computer

Portal must be compatible with Mac and IBM computers Ability to link up with the system regardless of what server the user is accessing

the portal Must be able to link a variety of services together

Student Registration Financial Aid University Library Career Services

Portal will comply with the Disability Discrimination Act or 1995 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act of 2001 Assistance from webaim.com (provider of Web accessibility expertise)

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Project Organization The development and planning committee will identify the needs of the university

community by conducting a series of surveys, interviews, and focus groups.

Conceptual Development and Planning Team Besides the member of the Technological Department’s staff and the assigned team

members, the development and planning team should consist of the following members:

o Director of Residence Services

o Representative from the Office of Communications

o President of the Faculty Senate

o Senior Academic Affairs Officers

o Representative from the Registrar’s Office

o Representative from the Bursar’s Office

o Vice President of Student Affairs

o Representative from the Alumni Association

o Represen tat ive from the Mar ket ing Depart ment

o Represen tat ive from Univers ity Librar ies

o Represen tat ives form the var ious Student Affa irs Depart ments

o Represen tat ives form the Inst itutiona l Re search Office

o Repr esen tat ive from the Student Govern ment Assoc iat ion

o Represen tat ive from the Office of Disab ility Serv ices

o Represen tat ive from the Res ident ia l Co mmunity Assoc iat ion

o Trans fer stu dents from Univers ities with exist ing porta ls

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Project Organization (cont.) Implementation Team

Professional web designers Technology specialists from the various departments on campus Representatives from the Office of Communications Representatives from the University Technology Office

The Conceptual Development and Planning Team will remain engaged through the implementation phase to report to each division of the university on the portal design and project progress

The Office of Student Affairs should maintain overall advocacy for the project

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Implementation Considerations Needs Assessment

Collecting input and feedback

Planning Detailed project planning Scheduling Cost estimates

Implementation Monitoring Vendor management Change control

Close Out Implementation retrospective Evaluations

Communications Plan Environment

Performance Reliability

Risk Management Costs

Implementation Ongoing

Enhancement Maintenance

Training and Rollout

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Legal and Ethical Considerations

Ausiello and Wells (1997) pointed out that better access to information and technology needs to be coupled with information regarding Plagiarism Cheating Illegal downloads Copyright laws Email and chat conduct Harassment

Recommend that Ellingsburg quickly develop guidelines on appropriate use of the portal tools.

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Site Structure

Portal Conceptual Map

Academic DepartmentsLibraryRegistrarBursarCourse SupportCollaboration ToolsUniversity CatalogAdvising Information

Academics

Elves' Athletics

Per Residence Hall Page

Residence Life

Student UnionStudent HealthStudent AffairsJudicial AffairsStudent GroupsClassified Ads for Student SalesStudent HandbookCareer ServicesCampus Scene Webcams

Student Life

Community ActivitiesLocal Business Pages

Community

News ChannelsWWW AccessEMAILInternet RadioChatAnything from the other pages

Student Custom Page

Parent InterestAlumni InterestVillage InterestCareer ServicesRegistrarECourses(Future)

Life Long Members

Student Portal Home Page

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Roll-out and Training Phase 1 availability at start of academic year

Trial implementation turned up during summer sessions Introduce with email and U.S. mail from VP of Student Affairs over

summer Student Affairs Staff will promote on campus via hall meetings, info sessions 24 hour support “Hot Line” during first four weeks of term

Quick Reference Card Available in all residence hall rooms on move in day

Contests to be run to encourage exploration of portal links Scavenger Hunts Treasure Hunts

Local merchants who provide links will also give discounts during first month of term

Subsequent phases will be turned up each term

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Initial Cost Issues Hardware

Portal Server - $5,000 (estimate) Additional campus computers - $50,000 (estimate)

25 Loaner laptops for library use 70 Desktop computers

Can we get a grant or special donation to cover these costs? Software

Use freeware (e.g. uPortal) Implementation

1.5 FTE staff for duration of planning, trial, implementation, and turn up phases

Bias toward granting students work study or academic credit (Ausiello and Wells, 1997)

Support University staff required for needs assessment and implementation reviews

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On-going Costs

Hardware Internet connections Server maintenance PC maintenance Printer maintenance

Technical Support Critical to maintain “freshness” of sites Implementation support for groups and departments - 1 FTE

staff member Bias toward granting students work study or academic credit

(Ausiello and Wells, 1997)

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Examples of Good Sites

University of California at Berkeley Bear Link (sample follows)

Wright State University WINGS (sample follows)

University of Saskatchewan PAWS (http://students.usask.ca)

Customizable student portal page

University Academic Support and Collaboration Tools

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Measuring Success The success of the portal can be measured in terms of

Number of hits on different channels Number of registered users Number of sessions Use of surveys and focus groups to measure student

satisfaction of portal implementation Number of integrated systems Students spending less time waiting in line Better quality advising due to decreased in-person

advising on basic issues Reduced staff burnout Fewer calls to administrative offices ** Source: http://bearlink.berkeley.edu/sis/projects/mn_rpt.html#section_five

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High Level Recommendations Under the leadership of the Office of

Student Affairs Move forward with detailed planning

Under the leadership of the Finance Office Start to identify funding sources

Under the leadership of the Technology Director Develop an Information Technology Mission

Statement (Ausiello and Wells, 1997)

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References Ausiello, K. and Wells, B. (1997). Information technology and student affairs: Planning for the twenty-first

century. New Directions for Student Services. Summer 1997 Issue 78, 71-81.

Cabacungan, C., Clark, C., Feldman, R. , Flamm, P., Ford, G., Markowitz, K., et al. (2002, May 22). Leadership development program 2001/2002: Student portal project. Retrieved from http://bearlink.berkeley.edu/sis/projects/mn_rpt.html

Enterprise resource planning glossary. Retrieved February 25, 2005 from http://www.ui-integrate.uillinois.edu/over_glossary.asp

Katz, R. and Associates (2002). Web portals and higher education: Technologies to make IT personal. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lowey, K. (2002). My University Portals FAQ V1.0. Retrieved from http://www.usask.ca/web_project/uwebd/portals_faq.html

University Systems Replacement Portal Project. Retrieved February 25, 2005 from http://www.wright.edu/usr/portal

Why do we need MyED? Retrieved February 25, 2005 from http://www.eportal.mis.ed.ac.uk/MyEd/Service/general/Why%20we%20need%20MyEd.htm