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Stakeholder Requirements for Institutional Portals:

Nobody Wants the Weather

Paul Miller & Liz Pearce

10 June 2003


Outline

• Some background…• The institutional portal• Surfacing external content• Understanding Stakeholders• Understanding real use• Conclusions


Some background…


Where we’re coming from…

UK

Westminster, COWestminster, CO

See www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/See www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/


Post-16 education in the UK

– 171 Universities and Colleges of Higher Education– Over 500 Colleges of Further Education– All (except one university) funded by Government

• Higher Education Funding Councils in England, Scotland and Wales

• Learning & Skills Council in England• Further Education Funding Council in Scotland• National Council for Education and Training for Wales• Department for Employment & Learning in Northern

Ireland

– Target for 50% of population to ‘experience HE’– A lot of interest in ‘Lifelong Learning’.


The role of the JISC

Joint Information Systems Committee– Funded by all of the UK’s Further and Higher

Education Funding bodies

– Funds • SuperJANET network• National Data Centres• A range of services, such as the Resource Discovery

Network• Support/advice/strategy providers, such as UKOLN• Development programmes, through targeted calls.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/See www.jisc.ac.uk/


The ‘Information Environment’

Image by Andy Powell of UKOLN

See www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/


The ‘Information Environment’“The JISC’s Information Environment [IE] will provide a

range of services, tools and mechanisms for colleges and universities to exploit fully the value of online resources and services. It will enable presentation, delivery and use of online resources in ways tailored to support individual and institutional requirements in learning, teaching and research.”

• Underpinned by IE Architecture, developed by UKOLN– Set of shared standards and protocols to discover, access,

use, and publish physical and electronic resources.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=ie_homeSee www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=ie_home


The Common IE

• Work now underway to extend this beyond Further and Higher education– National Health Service– The UK e-Science Grid– Museums, Archives, Libraries– Culture Online

See www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=wg_cie_homeSee www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=wg_cie_home


JISC and portals

• JISC Portals Programme primarily concerned with national portals– Subject portals– Media-type portals

• Institutional portal developments largely taking place independently, or on the back of other JISC programmes.

See www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_portalsSee www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_portals


The institutional portal



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/


PORTAL project

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

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

– Building upon Hull’s development of an institutional portal

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


Surfacing external content

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

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

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

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

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/See www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/See www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/

www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/See news.bbc.co.uk/See news.bbc.co.uk/



Using external content

• A wealth of external content is available– Much of this is quality assured and

of high value

• Funders and policy makers such as the JISC spend significant sums on procurement, marketing, development and support– Yet awareness and use remain low


Understanding Stakeholders


User Requirements

• Stakeholder Requirements for Institutional Portals

- 3 Months- Generic ‘institutional portal’ issues- Further & Higher Education

Community

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


Approach

• Quantitative– How do I do this survey?

• Qualitative– What’s a portal?


Quantitative

• Survey of Institutional Portal Features

• Set of Sample Features

• Survey Development


Your Portal Priorities

• Survey designed using Learning Object from the JISC-funded ICONEX repository

See www.iconex.hull.ac.uk/See www.iconex.hull.ac.uk/




Your Portal Priorities

• Survey designed using Learning Object from the JISC-funded ICONEX repository

• Launched November 2002• Closed 14 February 2003• Generally very positive response

See www.learndev.hull.ac.uk/portal_survey/See www.learndev.hull.ac.uk/portal_survey/


Results

• 557 Participants• 265 Students • 264 HE Staff

– Administrative– Research– Teaching– Support

• 44 portal focused comments


Top Ten Features

• Search favourite resources • Library administration • Access or update teaching materials • Personal information • Library and quality Internet resources alerts • Access your institutional email • Handbook • Deadline alerts • Access or update reading lists • Campus news


What users want…

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

Higher Education Undergrad:Deadline alerts Review marksLibrary adminAccess teaching materialsSearch your favourite resources

Admin Staff:Staff development Personal informationForms & documentationSearch your favourite resourcesAccess your institutional emailCampus news

Faculty:Search your favourite resourcesLibrary & Internet resource alerts Library adminPersonal informationUpdate teaching materials


What users want…

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

Higher Education Undergrad:Deadline alerts Review marksLibrary adminAccess teaching materialsSearch your favourite resources

Admin Staff:Staff development Personal informationForms & documentationSearch your favourite resourcesAccess your institutional emailCampus news

Faculty:Search your favourite resourcesLibrary & Internet resource alerts Library adminPersonal informationUpdate teaching materials


…and what they don’t

• The Weather !• News• Catering Bookings• Salary Data• Voting in Student

Elections


Interviews and Focus Groups

• 5 Institutions around the UK

• 53 Focus Group participants

• 27 Interviewees


Additional Features

• Single Sign On– Internal – External

• Accessible • Targeted Announcements• Remote Access• Reliable!


Issues Raised

• Enthusiasm (with caveats!)• Internal & External• Overcoming email overload• Who is managing information?• Scale of customization


Issues Raised

• Information separated from context– Exam results (pastoral support)

– External Resources (learning objectives)

• Technology Rich / Technology Poor– Who’s driving all this?


External Content in Portals?

Issues to address• Dynamic learning / teaching /

researching space• Highly valued if relevant• Letting go of content • Conformance to standards

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


Understanding real use


Evaluation

Is what users say they want really what they want?– Move beyond abstraction to look at practice– Identify half a dozen real implementations

• In the UK and beyond– Work with institutions over Summer to draw up mutually

beneficial evaluation framework• Revised web Survey tool• Focus Groups (early 2004?)

– Reports for participating institutions, and overarching report for the community

• Delivered March/April 2004.

Contact [email protected] Contact [email protected]


Conclusions


Conclusions

• Portals are everywhere– JISC, like everyone else, is in a portal-building frenzy

• Institutional portals have an advantage– Knowledge of users– Familiarity to users– Ability to surface relevant content and services

• User requirements matter– Don’t give it to them just because you can– Changing roles changes requirements

• Talk to your users…


……and keep talking to and keep talking to them…!them…!

(because they’re fickle, and their needs change)


PORTALPresenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences

Locally

[email protected]

[email protected]

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

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