Lehigh UniversityLibrary & Technology Services

Selecting & Implementing a Campus Portal

Sherri Yerk-Zwickl

Overview of Lehigh

Founded in 18654700 undergraduates1200 graduate students400 Faculty1200 Staff4 Colleges ( Arts & Science, Engineering, Business & Education)

LTS Organizational Structure

Vice ProvostLibrary & Technology

Staff & ResourceDevelopment

Client Services,Collection Mgmt.

Library Systems

Technology Management

Administration &Advancement

Distance Education &Faculty Development

Enterprise Systems

Where Are We? Enterprise Systems

Currently using all Banner productsImplemented Web products 2000-2002

Banner StudentHuman Resources (payroll)Financial Information Systems

Banner id is social security number

Where Are We? Course Management Software

Running Blackboard Course Management SystemOver 430 Classes Trained over 250 faculty in its useMajor areas used: posting of syllabi, discussions, and email communicationsStudents loaded from BannerEverything authenticated with AFS

Where Are We? Need to replace legacy CWISCWIS – Campus-Wide Information System

Had email, calendaring, moderated discussion groups, bulletin boards, announcements, forms, survey generation

Developed in late 80’s & transitioned to Unix in early 90’sUnifying force on-campusTransition to web in mid 90’sEmail went to browser based mail clientsDevelopment stopped due to Information Services reorganization (Merged Libraries, Academic Computing, Administrative Computing, & Telecommunications)

NS login

NS categories

NS Message board

NS For Sale

NS Updated topics

Where Are We?

New Lehigh Web pages

In-house, outsourced, in-houseExternal web page and internal web pageFirst phase portal will replace Lehigh’s internal web pagesHope to use content management software to build and upgrade portal web pages

External web page

Internal Web page

Lehigh Live

Daily Jolt

Competing Portals

Lehigh Live 1

Lehigh Live 2

Lehigh Live 3

Lehigh Live

Daily Jolt

Competing Portals

Jolt 1

Jolt 2

Jolt 3

Portal Search

Two year review of portal implementationsDeveloped portal RFI and sent to 8 vendorsMet with campus constituents to define a portal Narrowed down to three choices

BB, Pipeline, & uPortal

How Lehigh Describes a portal

Web-based user interface

Personalized for each individualRequired by Lehigh Customized by user

Access to applications

Access, retrieve, and push information

Collaboration E-mailCalendaring and schedulingThreaded discussions with moderation

Application accessBanner (by user type)Blackboard

What Does a Portal Do?

Centralized management of primary functionsDistributed management of individual resourcesAbility to push broadcast messages to all usersPersonalization by user type (prescribed content)Customized by user

subscribed content

user interface Dynamic tracking & notification of content changes Customizable for Lehigh branding

Portal Features - Management

Centralized account creation and maintenanceSingle sign-on; user authentication via Kerberos through AFS distributed file system Credential mapping (passing sign-on information between applications)Multiple security levels based on roles or groupsEncryption of sensitive data (student, personnel) LDAP directory supportSupport digital certificates

Portal Features – Security

Electronic mail, calendaring, and schedulingDiscussion forums

moderated or un-moderated, with limited or open enrollment

Electronic commerceCustomizable text chat - based on areas of interest

Portal Features – Applications

BannerBlackboardOracle databasesWeb-based informationSupports publication of user Web content Provides accessibility to library resourcesIntegrated search engine for all portal content and for other institutional Web pages

Portal Features – Integration

Banner Web productsBlackboardLibrary DatabasesE-mailCalendarOther secure information

Portal Features – Single Sign-on

Build vs. Buy Decision

Recommendation to build our own involved hiring two Java/web developers and use uPortal framework

Decided to buy a supported framework for an open source platforms to allow the most flexibility and avoid development cost

Lehigh’s Portal Decision

Implement Campus Pipeline Portal Partnership with SCT BannerWorking closely with uPortal and the open standards initiativeOpen standards will allow best of breed integration of portal channelsLuminis Content Management Suite for easy creation and maintenance of portal web pagesiPlanet web-based mail and calendar solutions

4/14/2002 Begin portal implementation7/29/2002 Identify Pilot Groups10/15/2002 Begin portal campus pilot sessionsFall 2002 work with Pilot Groups & rest of campus to get feedback on channels & look and feel01/04/2003 Portal goes live

Implementation Timeline

Portal Implementation Groups (PIGS)

Technical, Content, Training/PilotGroup Membership

LibraryComputing (including Security Officer, groupware representative)Instructional TechnologyUniversity Communications

Purpose of the groupsComplete associated workImplement for campus community

Push time-sensitive, “breaking news” Filter irrelevant informationCampus web vs. campus portal

Rich vs. spare environmentAnticipating user needs vs. social engineeringPersonalize (relevant resources more visible)

Our vision for Lehigh’s Portal Content

Luminis Implementation

CustomizationOpt in, opt out, mandatory channelsUsers create their own tabs, delete tabs, move channels to different tabs, rename tabs, etc.Users can resize columns, add or remove columns, reorder columns, etc.

Multiple roles – more than we ever imaginedWeb and Portal Support

Can’t predict what a user’s interface will beImpact of adding tabs and channels

Issue: The Learning Curve

New Lexicon: channel, role, layout fragmentCreating new channels

How to prioritize

Broad vs. granular personalizationBroad – by user role, majorGranular – by personal interest (e.g., club membership)

New design environmentSpring-loaded layoutTabs versus channel debatesLots of channels versus few channels

Content Management

Thoughts on Documentum Approval chain managementVersion control Simplify creation of forms, Web layoutOur current license permits use in portal only

At this point…

Pilot Test

Goal – Gather FeedbackEase of use ContentFunctionality

Use feedbackGuide future trainingGuide content developmentGuide recommended enhancements

Conclusion

The portal will constantly evolve

Feedback will guide evolutionfrom students, faculty, staff

It’s going to be an interesting trip!

Contact: Sherri Yerk-Zwickl shy2@lehigh.edu

Questions?

Inline FrameWeb Pages

Springloadedlayout

Users add/remove most tabs,columns

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