Proposal for Ellingsburg
University Campus Portal
Presented By:
Nichole M. Fest
Michael A.
Freyaldenhoven II
Brian M. Glick
Kasi L. Jones
University of
Central Arkansas
Abstract
Ellingsburg University needs a campus system upgrade. In
order to attract more students to utilize the normal
university web presence, we would like to introduce the
idea of the Campus Portal concept. A portal is a single
place to which the user can log on and be presented with a
wide variety of information. Portals can also be
customized to the users’ preferences. The users will
consist of students, faculty, staff, alumni, prospective
students, and visitors.
Inception of the
Campus Portal
• Pioneered by UCLA in 1999.
• Followed by University of Washington and University of
Buffalo.
• Created as an entry point for a college or university.
• Provided a centralized source of information and services
for any end user of the university.
• “5% of universities currently have campus portals. 80% of
US. Colleges with enrollments of more than 1,000 students
will have a portal by 2005.” (Moskowitz, 2001)
Web Presence vs.
Campus Portal
• University websites have a “viewbook” look as the front page.
• Portals allow users to create a front page that is user-friendly and
quickly provide them with the information they need.
• Having a web presence will contain pointers to other websites and
may provide a difficult time for obtaining information.
• Portals allow for information to be customized and personalized so
users can have it at their fingertips.
• Websites serve as a reference.
• A portal is a destination site that aims to attract and retain users to
create a virtual lifelong community.
• Websites allow users to communicate only through email.
• Portals allow users to communicate through chat, instant
messenger, and email. This will encourage more communication
between students, faculty and the rest of the campus community.
Web Presence vs.
Campus Portal
• Provide a channel for targeted information dissemination.
• Help build a sense of campus community.
• Lower the cost of delivering student services by leveraging the
time and effort of users to complete forms online for automated
processing.
• Gives the ability to serve the campus better by providing the
users with the relevant information they need and not the extra
stuff.
“We believe that the value of a portal to a campus is that it can be
used to engage constituent groups, empower them with access to
information resources and communication tools, and ultimately
retain them by providing a more encompassing sense of
membership in an academic community.”
(Looney and Lyman, 2000)
The Need For A
Campus Portal at EU
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project
report, Internet Goes to College: How students are living in
the future with today’s technology:
• 86% of college students have gone online.
• 85% of college students own their own computer.
• 79% agree that Internet use has had a positive impact on
their college academic experience.
The Need For A
Campus Portal at EU
• Provide the majority of students who go online with a website
they can personalize and call “MyEU.”
• Increase the positive impact the Internet has on a student’s
college academic experience by providing information they need
immediately through customizing the “MyEU” site.
• Keep the university in competition with the other 80% of
colleges planning to have a portal by 2005.
• Provide access to all information and services through single
sign-on.
• Obtain authentication and authorization to all information
resources and applications.
• Provide single location where users of the university community
can perform all business transactions.
• Present information and access to services on an individual basis
in personalized manner.
Campus Portal
Best Practices
• Provide access to all information and services through single
sign-on.
• Obtain authentication and authorization to all information
resources and applications.
• Provide single location where users of the university
community can perform all business transactions.
• Present information and access to services on an individual
basis in personalized manner.
• Grant the university experts full control and self-management of
appearance and content.
• Be free of commercialization.
• Be flexible and able to absorb new technology advances and
new applications.
• Be available to all users 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Campus Portal
Design
• According to the article “A River Runs Through It:
Considerations and Issues when Evaluating Student Portals” by
Kyle Johnson, a portal design is based on 4 criteria:
– Quality of Content – Content needs to be constantly updated
and provide users with what they need. If it is not then users
will quit using the portal. Having content experts could solve
this problem. Content experts are people who know most
about a certain area and can manage the content for that area.
– Quality of Interface – Users need to be able to easily interact
with the portal. Along with content experts, we can have
interface experts, who will manage the interface of the site.
Campus Portal
Design
• According to the article “A River Runs Through It:
Considerations and Issues when Evaluating Student Portals” by
Kyle Johnson, a portal design is based on 4 criteria:
– Quality of Infrastructure – Need to make sure that the portal
is able to respond to requests and always available. The
issues we will need to consider are: bandwidth and
throughput, stability, scalability, and location of
infrastructure.
– Degree of Coupling – Want a loosely coupled system so that
parts of the portal can be changed or replaced without
necessitating wholesale changes to the entire system. This
will allow the experts to work independently on their issues.
Developing
MyEU
In developing the MyEU, we need to look at the following
questions:
• Who should be on the MyEU Task Force?
• Should EU buy a personalized, commercially made portal,
or should EU design and build their own portal?
• How should users log onto MyEU?
• Determining the security requirements?
• How many channels should there be and what should they
consist of?
• How will we obtain feedback from MyEU?
• How should the portal be organized?
MyEU
Task Force Members
The Task Force should consist of:
• Director of Residence Life (Student Affairs Representative)
(user and collaborator)
• Office of Communications Representative (collaborator)
• President of the Faculty Senate (user and collaborator)
• Undergraduate Student (user)
• University Web Administrator (expert)
• Financial Aid Officer (user and collaborator)
• Representative from Ellingsburg Chamber of Commerce
(user)
• Ex-officio – Technology Director (service provider)
MyEU
Technology Systems
The portal will act as a junction allowing the servers which
hold the individual data records to be accessed through a
central point, while providing the appropriate mask based
on a users’ access level. This can be achieved by utilizing
products such as PeopleSoft or SCT Luminis.
Users will log onto MyEU through a Single sign-on. A single
sign-on allows the user to sign on once for multiple tasks
at one sitting. This will eliminate users from logging onto
multiple systems. In addition, a single sign-on
authenticates the user to the system.
MyEU
Single Sign-On
What you need to consider with single sign-on?:
• How long should users have access to the portal and what should
they have access to? – For example, once students graduate, how
long should they have access to items like grades and viewing a
financial aid award.
• Definitions for how long a service will be made available and to
whom – Departments need to determine what services they want
to offer, how long the service should be available and to what
type of user.
• Determining licensing agreements with vendors – An agreement
with the library could often mean only current students have
access to it’s resources. Do you want the other users like Alumni
to have the same privileges?
• Session management and appropriate timeout periods – If there is
no user activity for a certain amount of time, should services like
email and financial aid remain active or be logged out
immediately.
MyEU
Security
Campus portals can face the same risks as a campus network.
Therefore they must address the following issues:
• Authentication – implementing the single sign-on.
• Authorization – users be given permission to access
protected information and services.
• Data Confidentiality and Integrity – providing access
controls and the protection of transmitted data through
encryption techniques.
MyEU
Channels
Channel
Links to
• Student Accounts
• Course Registration, Tuition and
Fees, Financial Aid Awards,
Transcripts
• Health and Safety
• Health Center Appointments,
Signing Up for Counseling,
Parking Issues
• My Academics
• Class Sites, Grades, Bookstore,
Course Announcements,
Submitting Assignments
MyEU
Channels
Channel
Links to
• Campus Life
Services
• Campus Events, Student Affairs
Sites, Athletic Schedules, Dining
Menus, Student Newspaper
• Online Services
• Email, Message Boards, Search
Engine, Online Chat
• Local/National
Services
• Weather, Streamed Content
(ABC & ESPN), Bookmarks,
Classifieds, Online Shopping
MyEU
Channel Benefits
• Categorizes services into main areas (i.e. tuition and fees
under Student Accounts).
• Allows for growth as other services can be easily added to
the six main headings.
• Invites users to create their own personalized site by
highlighting information most relevant to them.
• Provides a connection between the university and
community.
• Allows communication and collaboration to increase
between all users.
• Delivers information in a more effective and efficient
manner.
• Make the university more productive and responsive.
MyEU
Feedback
Feedback may be obtained through one of three different
areas: top, middle, and bottom of the pages:
• Floating Survey – Slide across the top of the screen with a
daily question for users to answer.
• Comments – Have a comments window on middle left of
the page where users can make any comments about the
portal.
• How’s my portal? – Have a link at the bottom of the page
centered with a contact number for users who wish to talk
to someone immediately.
MyEU
Organization
• Have main portal site come up as a default page,
however it will be customizable for users
according to their preferences.
• Have channels across the top of the screen with
pull down menus for quick and easy access.
• Provide the date, news, weather, and sports below
the channels.
• Attached is a sample campus portal design after
the user logs in (this example will be a student log
in).
Campus Portal
University Examples
For examples of actual campus portals, visit the following websites:
• University of California, Los Angeles (MyUCLA)
http://my.ucla.edu/
• University of Washington (MyUW) http://myuw.washington.edu/
• University of Buffalo (MyUB) http://www.buffalo.edu/aboutmyub/
• George Washington University (MyGW) http://my.gwu.edu/
• Arizona State University (MyASU) https://my.asu.edu/
• Rowan University (Student Campus Portal) http://cp.rowan.edu/cp/
• University of Georgia (MyUGA) https://my.uga.edu
• University of Southern California (MyUSC) https://my.usc.edu/
Campus Portal
Ellingsburg University has the capability to be a liberal arts
focused institutional leader. By implementing this Campus
Portal concept, you are providing enhanced services and
building strong relationships amongst the university
community.
MyEU is a new concept that will continue developing daily
through absorbing new technologies. If you need further
information or clarification about our campus portal proposal,
please do not hesitate to call us! We appreciate your
undivided attention and we look forward to implementing
this new and exciting concept.
Best Wishes!
Campus Portal
References
Aiken, M. & Sullivan D. (2002). Best Practices in Enterprise Information Portal Adoption:
5 Key Drivers. DM Review. Retrieved February 27, 2005. from the World Wide Web:
http://dmreview.com/editorial/dmreview/print_action.cfm?articleID5963
Eisler, D. (2003). Campus Portal Security: Access, Risks, and Rewards. Campus
Technology Retrieved, February 13, 2005. from the World Wide Web:
http://www.campus-technology.com/print.asp?ID=7625
Geith, C. & Wagner, C. (2000). Preparing for Campus Portals. Campus Technology.
Retrieved February 13, 2005. from the World Wide Web: http://www.campustechnology.com/techtalks/events/000330preparing.asp
Gleason, B. (2000). Boston College University-Wide Information Portal Concepts and
Recommended Course of Action. Retrieved February 17, 2005. from:
http://www.mis2.udel.edu/ja-sig/whitepaper.html
Is a Campus Portal in UVM’s Future?. (2004). Retrieved February 13, 2005. from the
World Wide Web: http://www.uvm.edu/cit/ITnews/200409/planning/Portal.html?tp=true
Jackson, J. (2001). Uniting The Campus Through An OnlineCommunity: One Example.
StudentAffairs Online. Retrieved February 13, 2005. from the World Wide Web:
http://studentaffairs.com/ejounal /Winter_2001/portals2.htm
Johnson, K. (2001). A River Runs Through It: Considerations and Issues When Evaluating
Student Portals. StudentAffairs Online. Retrieved February 13, 2005. from the World
Wide Web: http://studentaffairs.com/ejounal /Winter_2001/river.html
Campus Portal
References
Jones, S. (2002). The Internet Goes to College: How students are living in the future with
today’s technology. Pew Internet and American Life Project. September 2002.
Looney, M. & Lyman P. (2000). Portals in Higher Education. EDUCAUSE Review.
July/August 2000, pp 29-36
Mickool, R. (2004). The Challenge of Single Sign-On. Campus Technology. Retrieved
February 13, 2005. from http://syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9194
Moskowitz, R. (2001). Campus Portals: come to higher education: these everything-inone-place websites can streamline administrative and student services and could save
institutions money. Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education. June, 2001.
Retrieved February 13, 2005. from the World Wide Web:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles.mi)m0HJE/is_3_2/ai_79961317/print
Olsen, F. (2002). The Power of Portals More colleges create Web services that can be
customized to help students and professors. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
August 9, 2002. (48) A32
Technical Background- Portal- IS – The University of Nottingham. (n.d.). Retrieved
February 13, 2005. from the World Wide Web:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/is/gateway/portal/background.phtml
What’s a Portal?. Retrieved, February 13, 2005. from the World Wide Web:
http://faculty.Weber.edu/portals/What.htm