Web Portals for Online Learning

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Web Portals for Online Learning

• Mohamed Alharthi
• John Bourne
• Martine Dawant
• Frank Mayadas

6th International Conference on ALN Sunday,
November 5, 2000
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What Is A Portal?

• a main guide that includes a search engine,
  plus additional content (such as current news,
  entertainment info, etc.), designed to keep you
  at the portal for as long as possible.
  www.mainportals .com
• We might define an ALN portal as an Internet
  gateway that helps prospective online learners
  find information about online programs/courses
  and directs them to right places (homepage
  address, etc.). The portal would add value by
  providing knowledge about online learning
  possibilities including financial aid, quality
  assessment, etc.

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Review of Current Educational Portals

• Commercial Sites (dot-coms)
• non-educational - - not education provider
• collection of education providers and others
  (e.g., Fathom)
• Non-profit sites
• virtual universities (dot-edu - - e.g., WGU)
• groups of universities (dot-org - - e.g.,
  Sloan-C, SREB)
• Portal growth among independent commercial
  portals appears to be much faster than in the
  non-profit segment.

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Types of Information Typically Found

• Course listings
• Degree listings
• Undergraduate
• Graduate
• Community college
• Continuing Education
• Certificates

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Major Portals

• Embark
• CyberU
• College Degree
• Click2learn
• PBS (Adult Learning)
• Petersons Guide

• E-college
• Hungry Minds
• Mind Edge (New Promise)
• Western Governors University (WGU)
• Fathom
• Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)

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Portal Features Common
1. Search features

• By keywords
• By categories (e.g., engineering - bachelor)
• List all programs

• Search tips
• Search from the first page
• Search entire Internet!!

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Common Features (contd)

• 2. Search results - the heart of portals
• Matching query
• exact matches
• best matches
• all matches
• no matches
• Categorized results
• important info first
• drill down to obtain details

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Portal Features (contd)

• 3. Links
• To external sites
• more info
• register
• preview
• No links
• Information only poor
• Addresses
• grad/undergrad school
• emails

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Unique Features Specific Results

• Search
• Cost
• search within a price range (e.g., Mindedge.com)
• Specific components search (e.,g., Hungryminds)
• streaming audio/video
• textbook
• tutorials
• video/audio tape
• Time of offering
• starting and finishing dates (e.g., SREB)
• Members search (e.g., e-college)

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Unique Features (contd)

• Current information
• class open/closed
• Be notified when the course opens (e.g.,
  Mindedge)
• Contact me from now until.(e.g., Embark)
• Enroll now
• register for the course at the portal (e.g., wgu)
• Accreditation information (e.g., SREB)
• Quality measures (e.g. click2learn)
• review program/course
• rate program/course

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What Other Things Can a Portal Provide?

• Helpful knowledge
• Financial aid
• Academic advice
• Related articles
• Conferences

• Commercial opportunities
• Related books (new/used) - - from Amazon and
  others
• Related sites
• CD ROMs
• Travel opportunities
• Scholarship
• Internship
• Career advices
• Jobs
• Open an online bank account

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The Sloan-C Web Page

• The www.sloan-c.org site is a portal for
  information about online degree and certificate
  programs.
• Objectives
• Provide a listing of information about the
  programs offered by the Sloan Consortium members
  for any prospective learner
• Be able to gauge progress in our field by
  studying the database of information (so-called
  ALN indicators)

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Who Are The Customers For Sloan-C Portal?

• Higher education
• Full-time learners
• Part time learners
• Adult education
• Continuing education

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Sloan-C Catalog Competitive Features

• 1. ALN criteria
• Each course in an ALN program is instructor-led
  and organized into learning cohorts
• An ALN program should not require physical
  presence on campus
• An ALN program engages a distributed learning
  cohort
• All courses in an ALN program should be
  accessible without special purpose equipment
• ALN Program must be available for registration
  and offer a degree or certificate at the time of
  inclusion in the catalog

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Sloan-C Catalog Competitive Features

• 2. Program directors
• Directly involved
• Add programs by themselves
• Change and update information
• Online access
• 3. Peer review
• Experts review programs before approval
• 4. Partners
• 60 Sloan institution
• Open partnership

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Sloan-C Catalog Competitive Features

• 5. Programs listed free of charge
• No payment is made by any institution to be
  listed in the Sloan-C Catalog

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Sloan-C Catalog Search

• Browse the catalog for programs sorted
• By discipline area
• By credential (degree or certificate)
• By institution
• Customize your search (any combination of the
  items below may be selected)
• School
• Discipline Area
• Degree
• Keyword

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Sloan-C Catalog Search Results

• Categorized
• All categories
• By discipline area
• By credential (degree or certificate)
• By institution
• Drill down for more information

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Sloan-C Catalog Search Results (contd)

• Program page includes
• Links
• Program information
• Course listing
• Course information

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Sloan-C Catalog Program Page

• 1. Links
• School website
• Program website
• Financial aid
• Career services
• Contact for more info (email)

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Sloan-C Catalog Program Page
2. Program information

• Program name
• Discipline (e.g., business)
• Tuition per credit hour
• More detail about tuition (per year)
• Requirements for enrollment
• Policy regarding transfer credit
• Special software requirements
• Residency
• Accreditation

• Contact for more information
• Year program started
• Type of degree
• Number of credit hours required to complete
  program
• Number of courses offered online
• Typical class size
• Smallest class size
• Largest class size

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Sloan-C Catalog Program Page

• 3. Course Listing
• Sample list of courses in the program
• 4. Course information
• Examples of courses in the program
• Course name
• Time of year course is offered
• Description of course

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Educational Portals General Issues

• US Market VS International market
• Mainly for US market
• UK, Australia (some schools are listed, Fathom is
  a joint venture between UK and US institutions)
• Quality of online education
• No classification/ranking for online schools
• Who judges quality of education
• in some portals students can rank courses but
  still empty - - biased ranking!! maybe)
• No standards for listing
• Sloan-C has standards

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General Issues (contd)

• How to measure activities and benefits of portal
  listing?
• Who updates information?
• Someone else is providing your information
• Portals have lots of other information
• Who takes care of expired courses (not offered
  any more)
• Feedback

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The Shakeout

• Number of portals is increasing, too.
• Who will survive/lead? Why?
• What can Sloan-C provide that others cant easily
  do and why?
• Free listing
• Research on information in directory
• Collaboration network
• Quality of education
• Sloan-C criteria

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Success Keys for Portals

• Stay current (continuous updating)
• Stronger relationship between portal and
  education providers/program directors
• Each program has to supervise/update its info
• Reputation and history of providers

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Success Keys (contd)

• Effective/relevant search results
• Feedback
• Customer
• Education providers
• Marketing strategies

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Join Sloan-C

• Become a partner www.sloan-c.org