The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Taking portals to users ALT-C 2004 September Jill Armstrong, HE Academy Tom Franklin, Franklin Consulting

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Session aims For you –Understand our thinking / vision on portals and provision –portal provision is a leap of faith For us –Sanity check on our vision –Better understanding of your needs

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting "A web page does not a portal make" Strauss A portal is not a website A portal is more than bringing information together on a web page A portal is not only about access to information

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting What is a portal (2) Changing work practices Supporting work flows Bringing people together Bringing tools and information together as needed Integrating resources

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Reaching users Get people to come to your portal Take your service to them

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Portals of choice "Too many Portals of choice" Slater Users will use their institutional portal Or their learned society / subject home? How to get users to use your portal

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Getting the users to come to the portal Define the audience Market to them Provide everything that they need better than the competitors

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Taking services to the user Channels within portals Embedded in institutional portals Work with institutional portal providers to deliver services

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Developing a set of learning and teaching portal services: –Funding opportunities –Project finder –Organisation finder –Resources –Discussion forum  Embedded within web sites or portals

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Virtual organisations Jorum Repository FDTL materials resources CETLs resources JISC projects’ materials HE Academy resources Other repositories Aggregator (Metadata) RDN HubsOther sites HE Academy Portal HEI/FEI Portals Web-sites ChannelSearch Channel WP Subject Centre Liaison Group VLEs Connect: Learning and Teaching Portal Services L&T Organisations Service Resources & materials Project finder Service Community tools Funding opps. Service Employability Network Subject Centres databases

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Taking portal services to users Come to Connect web-site or – Create a link from your institutional site Create a customised link Embed our services

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Connect web site Advantages –no development effort by institutions –same for everyone wherever they are Disadvantages –have to know it is there –have to consciously go to it –different "look and feel"

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Link from a web page Advantages –quick –easy –anyone can do it –provider keeps all control Disadvantages –providers look and feel –no customisation –no integration - a bunch of stand alone services

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Link from a web page with customisation Advantages –simple –offers similar look and feel to rest of web site / portal Disadvantages –not fully integrated –requires some technical knowledge –limited customisation

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Embedding Advantages –fully integrated with portal –wholly customised Disadvantages –Technically complex –Looks and behaves differently depending on where you are –Rapidly changing technology / standards –Service looses control

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Portal embedding project Standards and environment JSR168 and WSRP and RLLOMAP WSRP4J, Java SOAP See

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Portal reality check Does your institution have a portal? Or maybe more than one portal already! When will your institution have portal technologies that will enable you to personalise the services that reach your desk-top?

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting User reality check How do you see yourself working with services like these? Are we pursuing a workable model that meets user needs? What type of services should we provide centrally?

The Higher Education Academy Franklin Consulting Taking portals to users Jill Armstrong, HE Academy Tom Franklin, Franklin Consulting