Institutional Portals and the PORTAL project

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Institutional Portals and the PORTAL project

• Paul Miller
• 25 April 2003

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Institutional Background

• Hulls 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/
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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)

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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/issue33/portals/
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The Portal in Context 2

• Aggregating and Integrating
• Core corporate data
• The institutions web space (with CMS help!)
• Web based mail
• Library Systems
• Existing Staff Intranet
• Virtual Learning Environments
• JISCs Information Environment (with PORTAL)
• New Services for a New Organisation

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• REMEMBER
• A portal is not the only way in!

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PORTAL

• Presenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences
  Locally
• Funded by the JISCs 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

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National Content and Services

• 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 ?

J
J
L
L
J/L
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See uk.jstor.org/
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See www.rdn.ac.uk/
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See ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/
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See www.nelh.nhs.uk/
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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 lets just
  Google it

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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
• Dont just point to someone elses web site.

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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?.

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Understanding User Needs

• Ongoing process
• Online survey, focus groups, interviews

See www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/deliverables.html
now
See www.ariadne.ac.uk/ around the end of April!
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What users want
Further Education Students Review marks Library
admin Deadline alerts Careers info Teaching
materials
Postgraduate Students Library admin Search
favourite resources Deadline alerts Library
Internet resource alert Access reading lists
Higher Education Undergrad Deadline alerts
Review marks Library admin Teaching
materials Search favourite resources
HE Staff Search favourite resources Personal
information 2nd Library admin 2nd University
e-mail Library Internet resource alert Forms
documentation
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and what they dont
û

• The weather !

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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!
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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.

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Risks

• Dont like it, wont 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

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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.

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PORTALPresenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences
Locally

• p.miller_at_ukoln.ac.uk