Institutional Portals and the PORTAL project

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk

Institutional Portals and the PORTAL project

Paul Miller

25 April 2003


Institutional Background

• Hull’s Digital University Project

– Planned over summer of 2001– Initially developing student version of

staff intranet

– Supplemented by JISC-funded PORTAL

project.See www.digital.hull.ac.uk/See www.digital.hull.ac.uk/


Timescales

– Digital University Project planned • (Summer 2001)

– Portal Procurement & CMS Development• (Autumn 2001)

– Pilot of port.hull portal• (Autumn 2002)

– JISC-funded PORTAL project• (September 2002 – February 2004)

– Portal goes live to all staff & students• (September 2003)


The Portal in Context

“a [thin] layer which aggregates, integrates, personalises and presents information, transactions and applications to the user according to their role and preferences.”See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue30/portal/ See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue30/portal/

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue33/portals/ See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue33/portals/


The Portal in Context [2]

• Aggregating and Integrating…– Core corporate data– The institution’s web space (with CMS help!)– Web based mail– Library Systems– Existing Staff Intranet– Virtual Learning Environments– JISC’s Information Environment + (with PORTAL)– New Services for a New Organisation…


REMEMBER :A portal is not the only way

in!










PORTAL

• Presenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences Locally– Funded by the JISC’s FAIR Programme

• 18 Month project, from September 2002• University of Hull and UKOLN

– Surfacing national content and services– Understanding user needs– Addressing content provider issues


– There is a lot of quality-assured content out there• JISC, and others, spend a lot of money on

procurement, construction, marketing and support

• awareness and use are low• users are confused by blurry distinctions

between VLEs, digital libraries, national and institutional portals, course web sites…

• can a standards-compliant, inclusive, institutional portal raise awareness, increase take-up, join up some silos, and deliver an enriched and value-added learner experience ?

/

National Content and Services

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.ukSee uk.jstor.org/See uk.jstor.org/

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.ukSee www.rdn.ac.uk/See www.rdn.ac.uk/

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.ukSee ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/See ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.ukSee www.nelh.nhs.uk/See www.nelh.nhs.uk/


A plethora of content

• A lot of URLs• A lot of interfaces• A lot of duplication• Resources too broad ?• A real danger of things

falling through cracks• Surely no one can be

bothered, so let’s just Google it…


Can the portal help… ?

We certainly hope so!– Bring a lot of these sources into a single

place– Use what we know to offer what we think

people want• The power of the institutional portal; student

records, HR databases, etc.

– Extract key services from the fluff• Don’t just point to someone else’s web site.


In search of answers

• How do we sort all this stuff?• How do we select and refine from the

mass?– Good metadata, but not just at our end!

• How do we reach functions rather than web pages?

• What happens when you integrate things that were designed to stand alone?.


Understanding User Needs

• Ongoing process– Online survey, focus groups,

interviews…

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/ around the end of April!See www.ariadne.ac.uk/ around the end of April!

See www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/deliverables.html nowSee www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/deliverables.html now



What users want…

Further Education Students:Review marksLibrary adminDeadline alertsCareers infoTeaching materials

Higher Education Undergrad:Deadline alerts Review marksLibrary adminTeaching materialsSearch favourite resources

Postgraduate Students:Library adminSearch favourite resourcesDeadline alertsLibrary & Internet resource alertAccess reading lists

HE Staff:Search favourite resourcesPersonal information = 2ndLibrary admin =2ndUniversity e-mailLibrary & Internet resource alertForms & documentation


…and what they don’t

• The weather !


Content Providers

• Not always keen to ‘let go’– Not yet persuaded of the benefits– Perceived loss of brand– Need to bring traffic to their sites– Ageing systems, not necessarily

equipped to syndicate effectively– WSRP 1.0 still coming real soon…

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/ around the end of April!See www.ariadne.ac.uk/ around the end of April!


Obstacles

• Institutional readiness– Changing institutional culture & process

redevelopment

• Technology– Significant legacy issues– CMS/VLE: overfeatured, overpriced, and closed– Digital Library Systems: ditto!– Readiness of external sites to disclose data or

services rather than web pages– Shifting set of ‘standards’.


Risks

• “Don’t like it, won’t use it”– Stakeholder survey work from PORTAL informs

development• “Bad data, Bad portal”

– Risks in exposing faulty institutional processes• When the previously hidden is made visible, the

anger/disappointment with dodgy content in back-end systems will be directed at the presentation layer every time..

• “Will it sort my network connection out?”– Managing expectations

• Staff Development open sessions• Dissemination activities


Conclusion

• The portal aggregates, integrates, personalises and presents– Nothing more!

• Content Management and reconsidered back-end processes are key

• Users need to be involved• Stakeholders need to be brought on board• We need to avoid repeating the mess,

misinformation, duplication and multiple interfaces of the Web in the portal.


PORTALPresenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences

Locally

[email protected]

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Institutional Portals and the PORTAL project

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