1. Student Portal University of Twente
History, use and experiences
Carmen Olde Scholtenhuis, Project Manager ICT Service Center

2. Websites & Portals Universiteit Twente
Agenda
Framework
Motive
Starting point Student portal
Project
Demo
Experiences so far
What’s next?
Questions
Websites & Portals Universiteit Twente 2

3. Framework
Part of a program for the redevelopment of the internet pages and applications of the University of Twente:
New homepage including a new CMS
New search & index
New target portal for students (pilot) including a new CMS

4. Why a new portal? Information for students was hard to find:
Too many places with the same info
Too many search hits, where to start?
Many information outdated (sometimes years…)

5. Background The desire to transfer information!
(But do we know the information desires of our target groups?)
Because of that: too many web pages (> !)
Contain all sorts of information for the different target groups, but not well structured and because of that, not very accessible
Multiple information (content) systems
Overall control almost possible due to decentralized redaction and too many web publishers (>1000)

6. Ideas at the beginning of the Student portal
Strategic communication goal: the perspective of the target group is leading
Let’s start with the most important target group: the students!
Every target group needs an entrance for all the relevant information
What is relevant? Ask the target group!
Information can be offered, but the individual at the end of the line decides for him/herself whether it is relevant
A small part of the organizational information has to be pushed (changes in schedules, important messages)

7. Starting points (1) Technique follows functional requirements!
The user at the end of the line decides for him/herself wat he/she sees, technology has to deal with this
Easy to use for everybody (including administrators)
If possible, use open source/ open standards (UT policy)
Has to fit in the information architecture of the University of Twente (simple interfaces with source systems)

8. Starting points (2)
Take into account the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) of the W3C
Solution has to be future proof
‘The shop needs to stay open’
All this with limited budget…

9. Project Student portal
Started with a target group research: what do the students want?
One entrance with all the relevant information where they can do all the business
Decide for themselves which information they see
As few as possible clicks
Entrance to administration, schedules, digital learning environment

10. Project steps Student portal
Start in October 2008
Define functionalities based on the target group research
Functional design
Interaction design
Architecture design
Find supplier: Xopus/Q42
Development and testing
Live since March 1st 2010

11. Websites & Portals Universiteit Twente
Results?
A Student portal that can be customized:
Some information gadgets, including a feedback gadget: student can give input for improvements of portal
Some gadgets interfacing backoffice systems
A small amount of gadgets cannot be customized
Login via Surf federation, customize, store
Demo my.utwente.nl
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12. Technology Apache Shindig platform (Open Social Container)
Mark Logic XML database
Xopus Editor

13. Why not use iGoogle?
UT wants to control content, interface and administration
UT wants to transfer all the relevant information from other systems via the portal, and control this (including security)

14. Experiences so far Mostly positive!
Students value the initiative and use the portal
Many suggestions for improvement, mostly about the absence of SSO
Editor is easy to use
Stable technology
But…
It’s still a beta version, it contains a lot of small errors
System administration is not fully equipped
New development needed!

15. Websites & Portals Universiteit Twente
What’s next? (1)
Continue to develop the Student portal to a mature communication channel
Improved user interface
Improved CMS/ editor tool
Use of Single Sign On
English version of the portal
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16. Websites & Portals Universiteit Twente
What’s next? (2)
Development of web services to access the information of the relevant backoffice systems
Users don’t need to know the name of the backoffice system, only the name of the transaction
Improved organization of the system and content administration
(Re)development of other target portals: for employees, prospective bachelors and masters, alumni
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17. Questions?