“In your pursuit for high quality education,
the only thing missing is EU”
Web Portal Development Project
Phillip “Flapp” Cockrell
Murillo S. Soranso
Janice Spann-Givens
Korrin Stanek
Florida International University
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Allow the university to deliver its services utilizing
advanced technology methods.
Provide users with a secure, one stop access to online
university programs and services that is personalized
for each individual.
Provide a filter for web content, which would be a
place where users can locate all the web resources
such as personalized bookmarks for web sites,
calendars, and email that they usually need.
Allow for the promotion of data sharing between various
departments at the university.
Allow users global access to their information from
anywhere in the world.
Provide the student with the ability to communicate with
other people, use powerful research tools and mange
their university information with a single login via an
integrated Website.
Allows the university to implement a successful
knowledge management system (portal), providing
access to targeted information based on individual
roles and responsibilities within the university.
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Allows user control by being able to
subscribe/unsubscribe to channels and alerts;
create/edit profiles; add/remove links, etc.
Expose users to an advanced technological information
retrieval system.
Provide a university-wide seamless integration of
information important to students (prospective and
current); faculty/staff and administrators.
Allow the university to be more efficient by connecting the
universities’ special cohorts to be directed to specific
information, i.e. alumni, prospective students, current
students, faculty, staff and donors.
Afford the university the opportunity to serve the
students in a convenient and cost effective manner
making the university a more accessible and user
friendly place.
In summary, a well-structured customized portal would
provide what a university web presence cannot which is
not only simple access to data, but also the search,
navigation, analytical and communication tools specific
to each user. This would provide the university with an
efficient means of providing vital information to its
users.
We recommend that representatives from the following departments and offices are included in the
web portal development project:
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Office of the President
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Division of Student Affairs
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Faculty Senate
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Student Government Association
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University Technology Services
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Residence Hall Association
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University Webmaster
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Residential Life
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Public Relations/Marketing
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Disability Services
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Athletics
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Dining Services
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Alumni Affairs
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Enrollment Services
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Library
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Registrar
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Institutional Research
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Financial Aid
Sponsor Team
Vice President for Finance and Administration, Vice
President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for
University Advancement, VicePresident for Student
Affairs, Alumni Affairs, Athletics
Charge: Oversee the development of the portal
system to ensure feasibility/content/services to benefit
the university community.
Technology Services Team
University Technology Services, University Webmaster,
Institutional Research, Disability Services, Library
Charge: Provide guidance, vision, and establish
objectives for portal system.
Communications Team
Vice President for University Advancement, Public
Relations/Marketing, University Webmaster, University
Technology Services, Student Body President, Residence
Hall Association President, Faculty Senate President,
Alumni Affairs
Charge: Communicate portal objectives, progress,
and information to committee and university
community.
Administration Team
University Administrators, Director of University Technology
Services, University Webmaster
Charge: Ensure the portal team meets objectives and
complete established timelines.
Design Team
University Webmaster, University Technology Services, Public
Relations/Marketing, Disability Services, Student Body President,
Residence Hall Association President, Faculty\Senate
Chairperson, Enrollment Services, Athletics, Alumni Affairs
Charge: Design and build portal that will be efficient,
standard, feasible, and inclusive of students, faculty, staff,
alumni, administrators, and the university community to reflect
established objectives.
Content Development Team
Director of University Technology Services, University
Webmaster, Student Body President, Residence Hall Association
President, Residence Life, Student Affairs, Alumni Affairs,
Athletics, Faculty Senate, Enrollment Services, Financial Aid,
Registrar, Disability Services, Library, Public Relations/Marketing,
Dining Services
Charge: Develop portal content.
Given our small school setting, we are lucky to be able to engage our entire community in dialogue
on what goes in the portal and how it should be organized. This is our proposal to get this task
accomplished:
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Focus groups will be established throughout the
university to ascertain needs for the new portal
system (myBURG.edu). Representatives from the
focus groups will have an opportunity to view
different institutions portal systems to learn
about the advantages and disadvantages of
having a portal system.
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After information is complied, a link to the information will
be posted on the university’s website for university
community review. Information will also be available in
print at the Lunsford-Bonanno Library. Viewers will have
an opportunity to submit feedback via portals@burg.edu.
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The focus groups will be charged with
researching different portal systems and
providing the Content Development and Design
teams with a one-page document on the
architecture and content of the propose portal
system. The teams will then submit the
documents to the President, University
Administrators, and Content Development and
Design teams for approval.
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Information about focus groups will be available via
flyers, university website, and university campus email,
which is campus@lists.burg.edu. This is a listserv that all
university employees and students are a member of and
have access to. This is currently the main source of
communication to the university community about
general updates, important announcements, and
deadlines.
Students
Alumni
Representatives from off campus, the residence
halls, student government association, nontraditional students, disability students, and campus
organizations will have an opportunity to attend the
Student Government Association Open Forums on
Monday, February 28, 2005 and Monday, March 7,
2005 at 8:00 p.m. in the Spann-Givens Soranso
Senate Chambers located on the 2nd Floor of the
Ellison Student Center. Dinner will be provided by
Flapp’s Chicken and Fixins.
Alumni will have an opportunity to attend the Town Hall Meetings
on Wednesday, March 2, 2005 and Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at
6:00 p.m. in the Akens Alumni House located on 348 Ellingsburg
Drive. Dinner will be provided by The Grove. A listserv
(alumni@lists.burg.edu) will be established for alumni members
who are unable to attend the Town Hall Meeting.
Faculty/Staff
Representatives from each academic department
and campus office will have an opportunity to attend
the Faculty Senate Meetings on Tuesday, March 1,
2005 and Tuesday, March 8, 2005 at 12pm in the
Stanek Administration Building Conference Room.
Lunch will be provided by Mama Italiana.
EU students, faculty, staff, and alumni
working hard to develop the new web portal
system. – Picture by Kwesi Yankowich
Based on literature, best practices, and the
work of the numerous committees involved in
this project, it was concluded that as a small,
residential, liberal arts institution, the
channels for different community members
should be as follow:
Student Channels
• Welcome: important dates, customized news and today’s campus events, campus newspaper, dining
menus, off-campus events, my appointments, and a calendar.
• E-mail Access: display university’s webmail system.
• Resident Services: display residential life management system (i.e. RMS). Allow students to manage
their residence hall accounts, request work orders, and sign up for housing. This tab is only displayed if
student is a resident student.
• Student Services: display current student system (i.e. PeopleSoft). Allow students to change personal
information, register for classes, view class schedule, request transcripts, apply for financial aid, transfer
funds from account to BURGpass and much more.
• Campus Life: residential life (my hall, favorite halls, events), my clubs and organizations (add a club,
post an event, role in club), athletic events (schedule of games, sign-up for intramurals), library services
(renew items, check account status), my contacts (departments and people), university directory (student,
faculty, staff, department, clubs/organizations).
• Help/Tutorial: FAQ, tutorials on “how do I…?”, and customization.
Faculty/Staff Channels
• Welcome: important dates, customized news and today’s campus events, campus newspaper, dining
menus, off-campus events, my appointments, and a calendar.
• E-mail Access: display university’s webmail system.
• Faculty/Staff Services: display employee information system (i.e. PeopleSoft). Allow faculty/staff to
manage their personal information, payment information (set up direct deposit), university benefits (signup/change), tax services (W-2 online, withholdings), transfer funds from account to BURGpass, student
information retrieval, faculty/staff program budget management, and much more.
• Campus Life: residential life (my hall, favorite halls, events), my clubs and organizations (add a club,
post an event, role in club), my contacts (departments and people), university directory (student, faculty,
staff, department, clubs/organizations).
• Help/Tutorial: FAQ, tutorials on “how do I…?”, and customization.
Alumni Channels
• Welcome: important dates, customized news and today’s campus events, campus newspaper, dining
menus, off-campus events, my appointments, and a calendar.
• E-mail Access: display university’s webmail system.
• Alumni Services: display alumni information system (i.e. PeopleSoft). Allow alumni to manage their
personal information, request official transcripts, print unofficial transcripts, and much more.
• Campus Life: residential life (my hall, favorite halls, events), my clubs and organizations (add a club,
post an event, role in club), my contacts (departments and people), university directory (student, faculty,
staff, department, clubs/organizations).
• Help/Tutorial: FAQ, tutorials on “how do I…?”, and customization.
•In order to create a truly customized experience to all users, communication with all other units
must be unified and simplified.
•Through single sign-on on login page, user will be able to have access to all services through the
portal. Best practices have shown that single sign-on is the most efficient way to provide
customized services through portals.
•We would have to ensure that all current systems are able to communicate via this system. Giving
our small size as a community and many systems that are already under this type of technology, we
foresee single sign-on to be both cost effective and deliver the best experience to our community.
•Current systems that would need to communicate with the portal:
–Student Information System (i.e. PeopleSoft, Banner);
–Housing Management System (i.e. RMS);
–University Webmail;
–Payroll Office (i.e. PeopleSoft);
–Any other proposed systems by focus groups and community members.
Without further ado, we would like to present you with
myBURG.
In the next few slides, the committee has organized how
myBURG could potentially look like and function. However, it
is imperative to stress that this is by no means the final
product. A substantial part of this process is the feedback from
student, faculty, staff and alumni to decide the final product.
This is merely a starting point for myBURG.
From www.yourdictionary.com
burg
1.Informal. A city or town: “We can find anything we want in this burg.”
BURGpass
password
Submit
Forgot your password?
Click here for a tutorial
This is the sign-on screen. Click to start a student demo!
Welcome
E-mail (2)
Resident Services
Welcome Johnny S. (Student Sample)
Student Services
Campus Life
Help/Tutorial
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 25°
Log out
(weather)
News
Today’s Schedule
EU receives large grant (read more);
Multicultural Center gets new leadership (read more);
EU students to help with Tsunami relief (read more);
Michael Jackson is found innocent (read more);
EU Times (read paper);
New York Times Online (read paper);
9:00am-9:55am – English 101
12:00pm-1:15pm – Lunch w/ Kate – The Grove
2:00pm-2:55pm – Calculus I
Today’s events
What’s cooking?
Daily Poll
Flapp’s Chicken and Fixins
(see menu)
The Oscar for Best Actor goes
to…
The Grove
(see menu)
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by event
by time
(view your calendar)
(add new appointment)
by location
Dance Marathon – Faculty/Staff Talent Show - 2/25/2005 –
7:00pm – Ballrooms (add to calendar);
Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” (get tickets);
Student Government Meeting - 2/22/05 – 2:30pm – Union
Boardroom (add to calendar)
Mama Italiana
(see menu)
Don Cheadle
Johnny Depp
Leonardo diCaprio
Clint Eastwood
Jamie Foxx
Welcome
E-mail (2)
Resident Services
Johnny S. (Student Sample)
Student Services
Campus Life
Help/Tutorial
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 25°
Log out
(weather)
Welcome
E-mail (2)
Resident Services
Johnny S. (Student Sample)
Student Services
Campus Life
Help/Tutorial
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 25°
Log out
(weather)
Welcome
E-mail (2)
Resident Services
Johnny S. (Student Sample)
Student Services
Campus Life
Help/Tutorial
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 25°
Log out
(weather)
Welcome
E-mail (2)
Resident Services
Johnny S. (Student Sample)
Student Services
Campus Life
Help/Tutorial
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 25°
Residential Life
Clubs & Organization
My Hall (Travis Hall)
My Clubs
see events
post events
Message board
post message
Student Government Association (Vice-President)
Drama Club (member)
Rainbow Coalition (Secretary)
Gospel Choir (groupie)
(add club)
Favorite Halls (Ellison Hall, Homer Apartments)
add Hall
Other Halls (see events)
My Contacts
University Directory
People
Departments
Shakira (e-mail)
Sidney Bristow (e-mail)
Homer Simpson (e-mail)
Res Life (e-mail)
International Office (e-mail)
Bursars (e-mail)
simpson
search
RESULTS
MARGE SIMPSON (view add to contacts)
BART SIMPSON (view add to contacts)
LISA SIMPSON (view add to contacts)
Log out
(weather)
Welcome
E-mail (2)
Resident Services
Student Services
Welcome Johnny S. (Student Sample)
How do I…
What is myBURG?
What is a portal?
What is a channel? A sub-channel?
Why is this efficient?
Who can I contact if I have a problem with
myBURG?
How
How
How
How
How
How
How
Change my website appearance (skin change)
Remove sub-channels
Add sub-channels
Change my picture
Change font
Help/Tutorial
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - 25°
FAQ
Customization
Campus Life
do
do
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do
do
do
do
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customize sections?
add a club?
add a contact?
request a transcript?
view all events on campus?
view all events for a given day?
apply for financial aid?
Log out
(weather)
From www.yourdictionary.com
burg
1.Informal A city or town: “We can find anything we want in this burg.”
BURGpass
password
Submit
Forgot your password?
Click here for a tutorial
You have successfully logged out. Remember to close this window.
• Demo reflects a student’s view of the system. Faculty, staff and alumni would have their own
personalized portal.
• We are recommending that the portal communicates with existing technologies in the university
(Student Information System, University Webmail, and so on). This is cost effective and a better
fit to our needs as a small, liberal arts, residential college.
• We value our community input. Therefore, we plan to establish focus groups (including student,
faculty, staff, and alumni) to provide feeback on myBURG’s organization and content.
• We are all very excited with the task we have been assigned. We hope the President’s Executive
Staff strongly considers our recommendations and give us the approval to move forward with our
plan.
Thank you!
Another production by FIU.
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Education, 13(2), 4-24.
Centre for Research in Library and Information Management. (2002). Portals in higher and further education (Report No.
EDNER-5). Manchester, England: Manchester Metropolitan University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED
470054)
Connolly, C. G. (1999). A dynamic and individualized web system. Long Beach, CA: Educause. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 450701)
Cook, D., Evans, S. W., & Stanfield, V. S. (2002). Transforming online services into a web portal. In D. J. Burnett & D. G.
Oblinger (Eds.), Innovation in student services: Planning for models blending high touch/high tech (pp. 209-219). (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 471746)
Gilbert, S. W. (2000, August 17). Portal decisions demand collaboration – Can portals support it? Retrieved February 20,
2005, from The TLT (Teaching, Learning, and Technology) Group Web site:
http://www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/SyllabusCol2.htm
Harr, G. L. (2002). Connections: A comprehensive student portal. Jacksonville, FL: Florida Community College at Jacksonville.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 474411)
Henry, D. (2002, Spring). University portal project. IT for UM. Retrieved February 20, 2005, from
http://www.oit.umd.edu/ITforUM/2002/Spring/portal/
Jafari, A., & Sheehan, M. (2003). Designing portals: Opportunities and challenges. Hershey, PA: Information Science
Publishing.
Katz, Richard. (2002). Web portals and higher education: Technologies to make IT personal. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kennedy, D., Webster, L., Benson, R., James, D., & Bailey, N. (2001). The Monash portal: More than just a virtual gateway.
Melbourne, Australia: Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 467949)
Little, J. R. (2001). A librarian’s perspective on portals. Educause Quarterly, 24(2), 52-54.
Looney, M., Lyman, P. (2000). Portals in higher education: What are they, and what is their potential? [Electronic version].
Educause Review, 35(4), 28-36.
Olsen, F. (2002, April 11). U. of Michigan cancels a closely watched portal project. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Retrieved February 20, 2005, from http://chronicle.com
Pickett, R. A., & Hamre, W. B. (2002). Building portals for higher education. New Directions for Institutional Research, (113),
37-55.
Serban, A. M., & Fleming, S. (2002). Evaluation of campus pipeline. Santa Barbara City College, CA: Office of Institutional
Assessment, Research and Planning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 476335)
University Web Developers. (2002, February 13). My university portals FAQ. Retrieved February 20, 2005, from
http://www.usask.ca/web_project/uwebd/ portals_faq.html#portals_2
Wright, R. M., Gorman, J., & Bernstein, R. (2002). MyUB: A personalized service portal. In D. J. Burnett & D. G. Oblinger
(Eds.), Innovation in student services: Planning for models blending high touch/high tech (pp. 223-234). (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 471746)
WSU’s MyWSU portal project. (n.d.) Retrieved February 20, 2005, from http://www.wsu.edu/ portal-project/index.html
University of Wisconsin – Student Demo http://my-demo.doit.wisc.edu/portal/index.jsp
• Comprehensive content
• User friendly format
Denison University – Guest Demo http://my.denison.edu/render.userLayoutRootNode.uP
• Fun customizable features
• Easy to use
George Washington University - http://my.gwu.edu/
• Unique layout and links
• Multimedia features
Bowling Green State - https://my.bgsu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
• Readable layout
• Fewer tabs highlight most important information
Williams College - http://wso.williams.edu/
• Casual look
• Unique links like Facebook, Rideboard, etc.