Stakeholder Requirements for Institutional Portals : Nobody Wants the Weather

1. Stakeholder Requirements for Institutional Portals: Nobody Wants the Weather Paul Miller & Liz Pearce 10 June 2003

2. Outline • Some background… • The institutional portal • Surfacing external content • Understanding Stakeholders • Understanding real use • Conclusions

3. Some background…

4. Where we’re coming from… UK Westminster, CO See www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/

5. Post-16 education in the UK • 171 Universities and Colleges of Higher Education • Over 500 Colleges of Further Education • All (except one university) funded by Government • Higher Education Funding Councils in England, Scotland and Wales • Learning & Skills Council in England • Further Education Funding Council in Scotland • National Council for Education and Training for Wales • Department for Employment & Learning in Northern Ireland • Target for 50% of population to ‘experience HE’ • A lot of interest in ‘Lifelong Learning’.

6. The role of the JISC Joint Information Systems Committee • Funded by all of the UK’s Further and Higher Education Funding bodies • Funds • SuperJANET network • National Data Centres • A range of services, such as the Resource Discovery Network • Support/advice/strategy providers, such as UKOLN • Development programmes, through targeted calls. See www.jisc.ac.uk/

7. The ‘Information Environment’ Image by Andy Powell of UKOLN See www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/

8. The ‘Information Environment’ “The JISC’s Information Environment [IE] will provide a range of services, tools and mechanisms for colleges and universities to exploit fully the value of online resources and services. It will enable presentation, delivery and use of online resources in ways tailored to support individual and institutional requirements in learning, teaching and research.” • Underpinned by IE Architecture, developed by UKOLN • Set of shared standards and protocols to discover, access, use, and publish physical and electronic resources. See www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=ie_home

9. The Common IE • Work now underway to extend this beyond Further and Higher education • National Health Service • The UK e-Science Grid • Museums, Archives, Libraries • Culture Online See www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=wg_cie_home

10. JISC and portals • JISC Portals Programme primarily concerned with national portals • Subject portals • Media-type portals • Institutional portal developments largely taking place independently, or on the back of other JISC programmes. See www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_portals

11. The institutional portal

13. The Portal in Context “a [thin] layer which aggregates, integrates, personalises and presents information, transactions and applications to the user according to their role and preferences.” See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue30/portal/ See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue33/portals/

14. PORTAL project Presenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences Locally • Funded by the JISC’s FAIR Programme • 18 Month project, from September 2002 • University of Hull and UKOLN • Building upon Hull’s development of an institutional portal • Surfacing external content and services • Addressing content provider issues • Understanding user needs

15. Surfacing external content

16. See uk.jstor.org/

17. See www.rdn.ac.uk/

18. See ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/

19. See www.nelh.nhs.uk/

20. See www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/

21. See news.bbc.co.uk/

23. Using external content • A wealth of external content is available • Much of this is quality assured and of high value • Funders and policy makers such as the JISC spend significant sums on procurement, marketing, development and support • Yet awareness and use remain low

24. Understanding Stakeholders

25. User Requirements • Stakeholder Requirements for Institutional Portals - 3 Months - Generic ‘institutional portal’ issues - Further & Higher Education Community See www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/deliverables.html

26. Approach • Quantitative • How do I do this survey? • Qualitative • What’s a portal?

27. Quantitative • Survey of Institutional Portal Features • Set of Sample Features • Survey Development

28. Your Portal Priorities • Survey designed using Learning Object from the JISC-funded ICONEX repository See www.iconex.hull.ac.uk/

31. Your Portal Priorities • Survey designed using Learning Object from the JISC-funded ICONEX repository • Launched November 2002 • Closed 14 February 2003 • Generally very positive response See www.learndev.hull.ac.uk/portal_survey/

32. Results • 557 Participants • 265 Students • 264 HE Staff • Administrative • Research • Teaching • Support • 44 portal focused comments

33. Top Ten Features • Search favourite resources • Library administration • Access or update teaching materials • Personal information • Library and quality Internet resources alerts • Access your institutional email • Handbook • Deadline alerts • Access or update reading lists • Campus news

34. What users want… Admin Staff: Staff development Personal information Forms & documentation Search your favourite resources Access your institutional email Campus news Postgraduate Students: Library admin Search your favourite resources Deadline alerts Library & Internet resource alert Access reading lists Higher Education Undergrad: Deadline alerts Review marks Library admin Access teaching materials Search your favourite resources Faculty: Search your favourite resources Library & Internet resource alerts Library admin Personal information Update teaching materials

35. What users want… Admin Staff: Staff development Personal information Forms & documentation Search your favourite resources Access your institutional email Campus news Postgraduate Students: Library admin Search your favourite resources Deadline alerts Library & Internet resource alert Access reading lists Higher Education Undergrad: Deadline alerts Review marks Library admin Access teaching materials Search your favourite resources Faculty: Search your favourite resources Library & Internet resource alerts Library admin Personal information Update teaching materials

36. …and what they don’t û • The Weather ! • News • Catering Bookings • Salary Data • Voting in Student Elections

37. Interviews and Focus Groups • 5 Institutions around the UK • 53 Focus Group participants • 27 Interviewees

38. Additional Features • Single Sign On • Internal • External • Accessible • Targeted Announcements • Remote Access • Reliable!

39. Issues Raised • Enthusiasm (with caveats!) • Internal & External • Overcoming email overload • Who is managing information? • Scale of customization

40. Issues Raised • Information separated from context • Exam results (pastoral support) • External Resources (learning objectives) • Technology Rich / Technology Poor • Who’s driving all this?

41. External Content in Portals? Issues to address • Dynamic learning / teaching / researching space • Highly valued if relevant • Letting go of content • Conformance to standards See www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/deliverables.html

42. Understanding real use

43. Evaluation Is what users say they want really what they want? • Move beyond abstraction to look at practice • Identify half a dozen real implementations • In the UK and beyond • Work with institutions over Summer to draw up mutually beneficial evaluation framework • Revised web Survey tool • Focus Groups (early 2004?) • Reports for participating institutions, and overarching report for the community • Delivered March/April 2004. Contact p.miller@ukoln.ac.uk

44. Conclusions

45. Conclusions • Portals are everywhere • JISC, like everyone else, is in a portal-building frenzy • Institutional portals have an advantage • Knowledge of users • Familiarity to users • Ability to surface relevant content and services • User requirements matter • Don’t give it to them just because you can • Changing roles changes requirements • Talk to your users…

46. …and keep talking to them…! (because they’re fickle, and their needs change)

47. PORTALPresenting natiOnal Resources To Audiences Locally p.miller@ukoln.ac.uk e.pearce@hull.ac.uk See www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/