Portal Decisions Demand Collaboration

– Can Portals Support It?

Steven W. Gilbert

August 17, 2000

 © 2000, The TLT Group. All Rights Reserved.

 

New forms of collaboration in higher education are essential.  Some of the new applications of information technology with the greatest potential for enabling the improvement of teaching and learning can only be achieved through the combined efforts of faculty, students, and academic support service professionals – and industry.  Deciding whether or not to have an institution-wide portal system, and successfully implementing one require effective inter-departmental participation and commitment.  The process begins by getting the right people to address the right questions.

 

In David Eisler's article on "Campus Portals" in Syllabus Magazine, September, 2000, he describes portals as Web-based "...gateways to information, points of access for constituent groups and community/learning hubs."  Many college and university leaders feel pressed by competitive pressure to make decisions about:

- developing or purchasing these portal systems

- selecting the options to be available to users

- defining the categories of information to be included

- the extent of services to be offered

- how fully the portal system will be integrated with other campus information services and administrative processes

- who will control what the users can see and access.

 

A college or university must make a significant investment of money, staff, and time to develop and implement a campus portal system.  A major change to one of these large, complex information and communication systems will be difficult and expensive;  so the first portal investment decision is for high stakes and will have ramifications throughout the institution – both administratively and academically.  Ideally, the decision should be made at the top of the institution (the president, chief academic officer, chief information officer, and chief financial/administrative officer) based on input and a collaborative recommendation representing the best thinking and planning of all key groups and services. 

 

Many different campus constituencies can contribute to the successful use of the portal and benefit from it.  But each will also need to make changes in operations to accommodate and fit into the new system, and to take full advantage of new options for communication and information distribution.  Consequently, each group should be engaged as early and as effectively as possible in the decision and implementation process.  [An ongoing Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable is ideal for this purpose and for providing advice to institutional leaders about similarly challenging resource allocation decisions and related policies.]

 

Each group or department also needs to make recommendation about access to its information.  Does the group want to be able to require that some portal users will be presented with certain information?  E.g., would the Biology Department like to ensure that all students who major in biology automatically receive information about course sequence requirements?  Does the group want to prevent some categories of portal users from having access to some information?  E.g., would the personnel department like to ensure that students not have access to information about faculty members' promotion and tenure progress?

 

Here is a list of questions to help key constituencies develop recommendations about campus portal systems – this is only a beginning!

 

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS

Can a portal system support and extend active participation and communication throughout our community (applicants, students, faculty, alumni, funders, ...)?  How rapidly are our peer-competitor institutions adopting portal systems?  What are they gaining?  What will be the competitive disadvantage of our delaying or avoiding such a system?  Of our trying and failing to implement an effective campus portal system?  What if we build it and "they don't come" – if it has little impact?

 

How much will it cost to develop and launch?  To maintain?  How will it effect staffing needs?  Do we have the capacity – expertise and availability of key staff to direct and supervise such an operation?  What kind of advisory or governance structure can best oversee the portal system?  What kinds of E-Commerce should we permit, encourage, or support?

 

FACULTY

How can our portal system improve faculty communication with our students?  How much course material can be delivered to students through their portals?  Should access to Web-based information about a student's courses appear automatically on the student's first screen?  How can our portal system improve communication within our own faculty?  Improve communication between our faculty members and their colleagues at other institutions?  To what extent and to whom will the agendas, deliberations, results of meetings of the faculty governance organization be made accessible through the portal? 

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

How can we prepare and support the faculty to meet the rising expectations of students to use portals for course-related learning?  How can we use the portals to offer training programs directly to faculty and professional staff?  How can we use the portal system to deliver timely announcements of training opportunities to those who need them?

 

STUDENTS

Should access to Web-based information about a student's courses appear automatically on the student's first screen?  How much should our students be able to control the appearance and content of the first screen they see each day?  What forms of advertising, if any, should we display to students?  What guidelines should we suggest (and what rules can we enforce) about students' "appropriate use" of the portal system?

 

STUDENT AFFAIRS

What kinds of information will enable our students to participate more frequently and effectively in campus activities?  How can student organizations best use the portal system?  What kinds of products and services should students be able to buy through the portal system?  How can the portal system support student participation in local community volunteer activities?

 

LIBRARY

How can our portal system enable more people to use the library's resources more effectively and conveniently?  How can we help people recognize which of their information needs can be met online and which will be better served by materials only available within the library?  How can librarians (and others) use the portal system to promote information literacy? 

 

TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT

What are the technical capacities of the portal system most important to our users?  What portal features can our current technology infrastructure support?  What kinds and levels of technical staff support will be required to develop, launch, and maintain our portal system?  What will it cost, and how long will it take to build the technological infrastructure necessary to support the kind of portal system we want?

 

DISABILITIES SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS

To what extent is our portal system compliant with ADA and similar regulations?  In what ways can our portal system support more complete participation in all of our activities by those within our community who have disabilities?

 

ALUMNI

What features (information about current campus events, continuing education options, news about classmates,...) will make our alumni most likely to use our portal system?  In what ways do we want them more involved?

 

REGISTRAR

How much work will be required to make course registration, grades, and related information available through the portal system?  How can we ensure appropriate levels of privacy, confidentiality, and data reliability

?

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

How can the portal system facilitate better articulated and coordinated course offerings within academic departments?  Better communication and cooperation for curriculum development and other departmental responsibilities?

 

ASSESSMENT

How can we use the portal system to collect information that will enable it to serve each constituency more effectively?  How can we use – but not overuse -- the portal system to collect data and conduct studies about our own programs (including but not limited to individual courses)?

 

Can you suggest additional categories or questions important to your institution?  If you would like to see more questions, offer some answers, or exchange some comments, send your ideas to GILBERT@TLTGROUP.ORG and watch the AAHESGIT Listserv for more on this topic!

 

Once each of the groups listed above has developed recommendations in response to these and other questions, how will a combined recommendation be made?  Who will make the final decision?  How will an implementation plan be developed? 

 

Ultimately, can a campus portal system become a tool for the kind of communication and collaboration that will make major decisions like this one even easier?  Can the portal system support the more efficient, effective, timely development of intra- and inter-departmental recommendations and decisions?  [Can a portal system support the operation of a Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable? ... and, consequently, the decision-making process of college and university leaders?]