Slide 1:Building Campus Communitythrough Portal Technology

Virtual Case Study Competition 2005 StudentAffairs.com Bucknell University Amy Forbes, Molly Pavlechko, Laraine Purcell, & Annie Zinkavich

Slide 2:The Millennial Generation

“You can understand how today’s kids are on track to become a powerhouse generation, full of technology planners, community shapers, institution builders, and world leaders, perhaps destined to dominate the twenty-first century like today’s fading and ennobled G.I. Generation dominated the twentieth.” -Howe and Strauss, Millennial Rising, p. 4-5

Slide 3: According to Howe and Strauss, current college students share a “fascination for and mastery of technology” (p.10) that sets them apart from the generations before. Today’s Millennial generation uses information technology (IT) in every facet of their lives. They spend more time in front of a computer shopping, Instant Messaging, surfing the net, and preparing schoolwork than they do watching television. Today’s technology savvy students research and apply to colleges online, and naturally, they expect their education to occur both in the physical and virtual classroom.

Generation Tech

Slide 4: In order to accommodate today’s students, colleges and universities should incorporate IT into all aspects of university life. During this time of tremendous technological growth and development, universities have a responsibility to provide their students with a working knowledge of the latest technologies that will compliment their overall educational experience.

Better Latte than Never

Slide 5: As Greg Baroni states:

Better Latte than Never “the debate is not about portals. It’s about modernizing education leveraging possibilities, and securing a successful future for your university in a radically different environment” (Katz and Rudy, “Information technology in higher education: Assessing its impact and planning for the future.”, p.9).

Slide 6:Portal Power vs. Infoglut

Portals simplify an increasingly complex university environment. They are one stop access to campus and online services. Portals provide greater efficiency through linked and automated transactions. Portal technology also allows users to select and customize information and services to meet their individual needs. Web pages utilize push technology, which leads to infoglut. University web pages are geared to an external audience, where portals are designed with the campus community in mind. “Portals gather a variety of useful information resources into a single, ‘one stop’ Web page, helping the user to avoid being Overwhelmed by ‘infoglut’ or feeling lost on the Web.” -Looney and Lyman, “Portals in Higher Education”

Slide 7:Choosing Channels: Personalizing your Portal

Millennials have emerged as the most culturally, ethnically, and racially diverse generation to date. This increased diversity has placed greater demand for additional university services to accommodate students with varied backgrounds, disabilities and needs. Portal technology provides higher education institutions the greatest flexibility to meet students growing demand for services. By allowing their students the flexibility to personalize their portals, colleges and universities are providing access to campus services in an innovative and interesting way.

Slide 8:Choosing Channels

We plan to use a Student Activities Interest Questionnaire for assessing our students patterns of interest and their co-curricular involvement on Ellingsburg’s campus. This assessment tool can be utilized to produce a customized portal page for each student based on their interests and activities. In addition to loading mandatory or “fixed” channels such as campus alerts, additional channels will be automatically loaded to their portal based on the results of the questionnaire. Students may continue to customize their portal by adding or deleting channels from those made available by the university. This questionnaire will enable both the technology challenged as well as the seasoned IT veteran the ability to create a portal unique for them.

Slide 9:Personalizing your Portal…

A first semester freshmen can register for classes, tabulate her grades with the GPA calculator and receive select emails from her sorority, the Student Government and English Department. An African-American student interested in establishing a group that plans multi-cultural events on campus customizes her portal with a chat room that allows her to disseminate information quickly. Using the portal’s community tab, a political science major creates a campus-wide survey to poll students’ voting preferences in an upcoming election for class discussion.

Slide 10:Channel Surfing

Structure and Organization: The portal can be personalized to meet individual needs. In addition to your main page, a portal can contain Student, Campus, Administrative, Faculty, Staff, Personnel, Alumni, and Groups/Activites tabs. Portions of the portal, such as channels and tabs are customizable: Role Based configuration for mandatory or “fixed” channels SAIQ to add selected channels

Slide 11:Main Portal Page

News Tickers Campus Announcements Weather Webmail Banner Web Blackboard Instant Messaging Calendar Online Campus Directory Reminders Web search Groups The main portal page serves as a home base for the portal experience. It is the first page viewed and contains the most frequently used applications and channels, such as:

Slide 12:Academics Tab

Grades/Schedules GPA Calculator Blackboard/Courseware: course syllabi assignments, class calendars lecture notes exams, etc. The academics tab is designed to contain channels and information pertinent to academic aspects of student life, such as: Library catalog Research databases Mentoring and academic advising Registration Tuition payments Hold clearance Department pages

Slide 13:Campus Tab

Voting for student government Campus Radio Broadcasts Campus publications Services (Counseling, Financial Aid, Career Development, Residential life) Campus webcam Policies Campus information Campus directory The campus tab is designed to provide information and channels pertinent to campus events, services and information, such as:

Slide 14:Additional Tabs

Activities Tab Chat rooms, groups, events, schedules Personnel Tab Centralized account management system, time reporting system, job listings, employee training Faculty Tab Research databases, department groups, publications, banner, online forums Alumni Tab Updated contact information, campus events and news, online forums and message board, news about classmates External Tabs Google, CNN, Amazon, Apple, etc.

Slide 15:TechnOasis

Interactive horizontal portal with single sign-on for each individual regardless of his/her campus role with access to vertical portals. One stop sign-on for: Blackboard Webmail Banner Web Instant Messaging Syncing compatibility with Bluetooth or WiFi enabled PDAs and cell phones

Slide 18:3-Deeming Qualities

The following University Portals served as useful models for myEburg: George Washington University myGW (http://my.gwu.edu/) Penn State University Penn State Portal (https://portal.psu.edu/) Bucknell University myBucknell (http://www.bucknell.edu/myBucknell_login.html) These portals exemplify key qualities we want to implement in our own portal, such as: single sign-on, 3 click access, and innovative and useful channels and tabs.

Slide 19:Advice Squad

The following launch groups are instumental to introducing and implementing the new portal technology on campus: Residence Life Student Government Faculty Senate Administration Team Technology Team Each team was chosen with three factors in mind: who the members of the team are, how they can influence the success of the portal, and how they can benefit from using the portal.

Slide 20:Residence Life

Who’s on the team: Residential Life staff, including Central Staff, Residence Directors, and Residence Assistants Why they were chosen: RAs are often the first line of communication between administration and students Portal will gain greater exposure through RAs usage and dissemination of information to residents How they can use the portal: Online form filing, such as incident or information reports, online activities forms, etc. Personalized message boards, announcements, and duty logs Individual groups for staffs, buildings, and halls

Slide 21:Student Government

Who’s on the team: Elected student officials – voice of students Why they were chosen: Portal gains popularity and credibility with student body if seen as a student product As primary users, student-run launch group is key to effective feedback and improvements How they can use the portal: Announcements to disseminate information to students Online message board for discussion of university policies and procedures Individualized groups for different aspects of student government Online minutes of ESG meetings

Slide 22:Faculty Senate

Who’s on the team: Professors who are scholars within their disciplines and leaders among the faculty community Why they were chosen: To engage pivotal advocates with new technology and motivate colleagues to incorporate portal usage into their curriculum How they can use the portal: Access to databases and scholarly materials Announcements, message boards, and chat rooms to communicate with colleagues in order to discuss curriculum development, learning evaluation, etc. Cross disciplinary access to groups and discussion forums Online minutes of senate meetings

Slide 23:Administration Team

Who’s on the team: VP finance, Director of Communications, Associate VP Governance, Director of Institutional Planning and Research Why they were chosen: To ensure sustainability and support of new technology To create a university brand identity to be used as a valuable marketing assets for students, parents, and alumni How they can use the portal: Address policies, procedures and utilize polling data generated for future institutional planning and development Online discussion forums, announcements and messages Stay abreast of current campus events and climate Online minutes of administrative meetings

Slide 24:Technology Team

Who’s on the team: Information technology team Why they were chosen: The IT team builds the institutional technical framework into which the portal will fit, and creates and enforces the rules for integration provide leadership to the rest of the development community in the use and deployment of new technologies and directions How they can use the portal: IT launch group Online feedback and improvements Troubleshooting and tech support

Slide 25:Feedback as Fuel: It’s an E thing

Collecting feedback and troubleshooting should be Easy, Efficient, and Effective Methods for collection include: On-line surveys Feedback forum Live techAid chat sessions Formal assessment tools Student Activities Interest Questionnaire Evaluation forms Hit trackers on each page

Slide 26:Clicks to Bricks

Currently, campus communities are flourishing under existing portal systems that have served to centralize information while appeal, overwhelmingly, to an individual's singular interests. Interdependency among students, faculty, and administration under the portal system is positive and enhances the best attributes of a small liberal arts institution like Ellingsburg University.

Slide 27:In the End…

Howe and Strauss (2000) report a common confidence in technological efficiency that has had a progressive effect on Millennials everywhere, while Grasha and Yangar-Hicks warn eager university administrators to critically consider how and why they utilize available technology. “In other words, technology should not be used for its own sake but rather only if it enhances teaching and learning” (Coomes and DeBard, "Serving the Millennial Generation”, p.66).

Slide 28:Final Thought

"Faculty and student affairs staff need to develop settings in which students feel they have license to voice unpopular opinions, be supportively challenged, and articulate the rationale for their positions. Use of technology can facilitate this...” (Coomes and DeBard, “Serving the Millennial Generation”, p. 82).

Slide 29:References

Barratt, W. (2000). Technology and student affairs: An unlikely pair. Student Affairs Online, 1,1. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Spring_2000/article4.html Barratt, W. (2000). Four elements of information technology in student affairs, Student Affairs Online, 1,3. Retrieved February 17, 2005, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2000/art7.html. Barratt, W. (2001). Models of evaluating student affairs websites. Student Affairs Online, 2,2. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal.Spring_2001/will1.html. Boulais, N. & Sturgis, T. (2003). Changing the channel: Using technology effectively in student affairs. Student Affairs Online, 4,4. Retrieved February 17, 2005, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2003/ChangingtheChannel.html. Chickering, A. W. & Ehrmann, S. C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. AAHE Bulletin, October, p. 3-6. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html. Coomes, M. D., DeBard, R., (2004). Serving the Millennial Generation. New direction for student services, Number 104. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Slide 30:References

Conway, J. & Hubbard, B. (2003). From bricks to bytes: building an online activities environment. Student Affairs Online, 4,3. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Summer_2003/Bricks-to-Bytes.html. de Leo, F. (2002). Gweb Enterprise Portal. Retrieved February 16, 2005 from the Educause web site: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=CMR0210. Gilbert, S. W. (2000). Portal decisions demand collaboration-Can portals support it? TLT Group, Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.tltgroup.org/gilbert/SyllabusCol2.htm. Howe, N. & Strauss, W., (2000). Millennials rising: The next great generation. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Johnson, K. (2001). A river runs through it: considerations and issues when evaluating student portals, Student Affairs Online, 2,1. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Winter_2001/river.html. Katz, R. N. & Rudy, J. A. (1999). Information technology in higher education: Assessing its impact and planning for the future. New Directions For Institutional Research, no. 102 Volume XXVI, Number 2. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Slide 31:References

Katz, R. N. & Associates (2002). Web portals and higher education: Making IT personal. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kuh, G. D., Schuh, J. H., Whitt, E. J. & Associates, (1991). Involving colleges: Successful approaches to fostering student learning and development outside the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Kvavik, R. B. (2002). Requirements for an ROI on ERP and portal implementations. Retrieved February 16, 2005 from the Educause web site: http://www.educause.edu?LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=CMR0212. Looney, M. & Lyman, P. (2003). Portals in Higher Education. Educause. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/er m00/articles004/looney.pdf. Martys, M. & Wilson, W. (2001). Learning from experience: Points to ponder about portals. Syllabus. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=4137. Peroco, J. & Thompson, W. G. (2004). Roadmap to my Rutgers: A university portal. Retrieved February 16, 2005 from the Educause web site: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=CMR0210.

Slide 32:References

Selly, D., Troester, M. & Williams, D.B. (2003). Web portal development with Uportal or .net: Platforms and processes for limited budgets. Retrieved February 16, 2005 from the Educause web site: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=MWR0318. Strauss, W. & Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The history of America's future, 1584 to 2069. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc. Upcraft, M. L., Terenzini, P. T. & Kruger, K. (1998). Looking beyond the horizon: Trends shaping student affairs: technology. ACPA Senior Scholars Conference Presentation. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.acpa.nche.edu/seniorscholars/trends/trends5.html. Van Dusen, G. C. (1997). The virtual campus: Technology and reform in higher education. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education, Report Volume 25, Number 5. Washington: The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Wallace, H. (2000). Campus ecology theory and websites: One example of applying traditional student affairs theory to technology. Student Affairs Online. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2000/wallace.htm. Young, J. (2002, February 8). Designer of course-management tools asks, what makes a good web site. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 48, 2. A36.