Portals: Personal Pathways to College Services

1
Portals Personal Pathways to
College Services

• Scott Langhorst, Ph.D.Tidewater Community
  College

2
What is a portal?

• A metaphor for the purposeful organization of
  enterprise electronic resources into a web
  gateway that provides self-service information
  and transactions for users, based on their
  role(s) at the institution.
• Portals provide faculty and students with a
  customized, personalized, and adaptive web
  services interface that contributes to good
  customer relationship management.

3
What is a Portal?

• Portals represent a basic change in the way
  information is presented to users on the web.
  and the way in which they use the web.
• A portal will change the way a university
  (college) treats its data.
• A portal will change the way you build and
  manage web pages. (Howard Strauss Princeton
  University)

4
Portal issues?

• Portals represent a basic change in the way
  information is presented to users on the web.
  and the way in which they use the web.(How do
  users perceive and experience the college? Does
  the portal become the college?)
• A portal will change the way a university
  (college) treats its data. (Data ownership and
  management issues?)
• A portal will change the way you build and
  manage web pages. (Organizational identity of
  web / portal personnel?)
• (Howard Strauss Princeton University)

5
Characteristics of a portal

• Single sign-on (essential feature)
• Integration tool for enterprise applications
• Multiple, self-service transactions
• User-centric (customizable and personalized)
• Adaptable (knows and anticipates the
  user--different roles for different people)
• Tabs and modules layout
• Complex communication collaboration tool for
  various campus communities

6
Sample portal (William Mary)
7
Sample portal (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.)
8
Sample portal (ODU)
9
Sample portal (TCC)
10
Portal examples

• College of William Maryhttp//my.wm.edu/cp/home
  /loginf
• Virginia Commonwealth Universityhttp//my.vcu.edu
  /
• Old Dominion Universityhttps//my.odu.edu/portal/
  index.jsp
• Tidewater Community Collegehttp//www.tcc.edu/myT
  CC/

11
What a portal is not

• A portal is not just another web site
• A portal is not a glorified home page
• A portal is not simply the front-end of an
  enterprise application (e.g., BB community
  system?)
• A portal is not a proxy for a colleges
  back-office Intranet (i.e., dont really need
  one)
• A portal is not a simple project (multiple
  applications, systems, constituencies, and
  interfaces)

12
VCCS portal integration elements

• PeopleSoft SIS
• Blackboard
• VCCS student e-mail
• VCCS library system (Aleph) VIVA
• Campus-based e-mail systems
• Communication collaboration tools
• VCCS directories and databases
• Electronic commerce application(s)

13
TCC / VCCS portal content team

• Key personnel from TCC functional areas, plus
  faculty from each campus, students, as well as
  other VCCS college representatives (e.g., RCC,
  GCC, NVCC, VCCS)
• TCC personnel meeting since early 2005
• Discussions about portal principles (i.e., how
  do we decide to include or exclude content items)
  and development of preliminary content lists

14
TCC portal principles

• Is user friendly
• Meets real needs
• Connects users encourages learning
• Choice concept any module from any tab set
  may be a personal choice anywhere
• One button transactions immediate results for
  specific transactions within a module (no menus)

15
Preliminary content lists

• Faculty role tabs across top of portal page
  MyTCC SIS Blackboard Library Inside TCC
  Financials Get Help
• Student role tabs across top of portal page
  MyTCC SIS Blackboard Library Academic
  Services Support Student Life - Financials
  Get Help

16
Faculty role tabs

• MyTCC portlets email inbox ( link to full
  email), college announcements, my classes, my
  calendar, my favorites, IM, instant poll, weather
• SIS portlets class rosters, advising
  transcripts, grade input, student look-up, link
  to full SIS
• Blackboard portlets class announcements, my
  courses, link to full Blackboard
• Library portlets individual faculty record,
  catalog search, databases search, LRC live, link
  to full LRC site
• Inside TCC portlets TCC forms, FT PT faculty
  manuals, college calendar, testing centers
  schedule and scheduling, catalog,
  community/collaboration tools, enrollment
  analysis tools
• Financials portlets eVa, FRS, Payline, VRS,
  REDIVirginia, bookstore orders
• Get Help portlets TCC help desk (IM), TCC help
  (email), BB help, Portal help, email help, user
  manuals

17
Student role tabs

• MyTCC portlets email inbox (and link to full
  VCCS webmail), college announcements, my classes,
  my calendar, BB announcements, exam schedule, my
  favorites, IM, instant poll, weather
• SIS portlets my schedule, drop/add enroll
  transactions, personal transcript, my grades
• Blackboard portlets class announcements, my
  courses, link to full Blackboard
• Library portlets individual student record,
  catalog search, database search, LRC live,
  inter-library loans, link to full LRC
• Academic Services Support portlets online
  counseling advising, study skills,
  advising/tutoring help, job placement, testing
  centers schedules scheduling
• Student Life portlets textbooks listing,
  student activities, clubs/events, college
  calendar, my portfolio, community/collaboration
  tools
• Financials portlets tuition payment, library
  fines, financial aid, purchase events tickets,
  bookstore order and payment
• Get Help portlets TCC help desk (IM), TCC help
  (email), BB help, Portal help, VCCS webmail help,
  user manuals

18
BB community system ( and -)

• Access is roles-based ()
• Tabs and modules layout ()
• Some customization, personalization ()
• Single sign-on external to application (-)
• Very few transaction-based modules (-)
• Not all VCCS enterprise applications (-)
• Tab/module management problematic (-)(no
  partitioned system administration rights
  (virtual colleges), minimal customization of
  tabs/modules at the college level)

19
BB community system

• What has been your experience (so far) with the
  Blackboard Community System? i.e., what do you
  consider to be the positive and negative aspects
  of the BB portal?
• What do you think a portal should look like and
  be able to do? Why?

20
TCC approach for Fall 2005

• myTCC (branded version of VCCS Directory Services
  II with single sign-on)
• Customized TCC tabs and modules within Blackboard
  community system
• Some transaction modules and applications (e.g.,
  faculty/staff look-up)
• Continue the development of a true enterprise
  portal (e.g., vendor specifications)

21
TCC home page link
22
myTCC
23
(Directory Services II log-in)
24
(Directory Services II apps)
25
TCC community system (staff)
26
TCC community system (student)
27
Other portal vendors products

• Oracle (Lansing Community College - MI)
• IBM WebSphereCapability for partitioned system
  administration rights among multiple users, i.e.,
  virtual college portals within enterprise system
• uPortal (open source JA-SIG) (as packaged by
  commercial vendors)
• SCT/Campus Pipeline
• Unicon/Academus
• Vignette (ODU)

28
Other issues for consideration

• How much does the user control?
• i.e., can user eliminate critical functions
• i.e., what must be pushed to a user?
• Do we allow advertising on the portal?
• Is a single sign-on feasible within VCCS?
• Security and data protection
• Creation of new opportunities (e.g., PDA
  support, podcasts, wireless, etc.)
• If we build it, will they come? (Why?)

29
Portal resources

• Web Portals and Higher Education (2002) Richard
  Katz and Associates
• EDUCAUSEhttp//www.educause.edu/Portals/645?Pare
  nt_ID459
• Syllabushttp//www.campus-technology.com/topic.a
  sp?tPortals
• TLT Grouphttp//www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/CampusP
  ortalSystems.htm

30
Questions and comments?

• How would a true portal contribute to student and
  faculty life at your college?i.e., what are the
  value-added functions?
• How do we integrate a portal sensibility into
  the everyday college interactions of faculty,
  staff, and students?