Designing Portals: Opportunities and Challenges

Portals present unique strategic challenges in the academic environment. Their conceptualization and design requires the input of campus constituents who seldom interact and whose interests are often opposite. The implementation of a portal requires a coordination of applications and databases controlled by different campus units at a level that may never before have been attempted at the institution. Building a portal is as much about constructing intra-campus bridges as it is about user interfaces and content. Designing Portals: Opportunities and Challenges discusses the current status of portals in higher education by providing insight into the role portals play in an institution's business and educational strategy, by taking the reader through the processes of conceptualization, design, and implementation of the portals (in different stages of development) at major universities and by offering insight from three producers of portal software systems in use at institutions of higher learning and elsewhere.

Explores approaches to developing better user interfaces and Internet portal systems that intelligently filter and provide mass customization of information and resources to serve learners on demand. The 13 chapters provide insight into the role portals play in an institution's business and educational strategy, case studies of portal design at four universities, and the perspective of three producers of portal software systems in use at institutions of higher learning. Topics include the technology expectations of college students and faculty, Indiana University's enterprise portal as a service delivery framework, and building a virtual campus at Montana State University. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR