Portal and Learning Systems Integration Jim Farmer As presented at the Jefferson Overseas Schools Technology Institute June 20, 2006 | Fairfax, Virginia USA

What is a portal?

With portlets Portlet B Portlet A uPortal Framework Portlet C Portlet D uPortal database

The original “portal”

The original “portal”

Denison University

Jon’s Sakai-like layout

Role-based presentations

CalPoly San Luis Obispo

CalPoly San Luis Obispo

Student view of grades

Teacher view of grades

In the U.S. for students under 18 or with student permission Parent view of grades In the U.S. for students under 18 or with student permission

Historical progression of use Aggregation of publicly available information + Integration with administrative systems (as portlets) Integration with library systems (as portlets) Integration with learning systems ?

The enterprise portal

The e-Framework VLE/LMS MIS General Logistics Library Support Portal WSRP Enrollment VLE/LMS MIS Results General Logistics Library Support Portal Scott Wilson, Joint Information Systems Council, 18 Nov 2002

Enterprise information services Administration (ERP) Directory Authentication Authorization Virtual Learning Environment (Learning Management System) Library Portal Interface

The enterprise portal Enterprise Portal (aggregation and presentation) Finance Learning and Research Environment Administration Security Workflow Enterprise Integration Bus

The integration project: Moodle and uPortal Basic integration has been accomplished by the ESUP Portail group in France for 50 universities, school districts, and agencies. This integration is available now; a Help Desk is also available.

Integrated Moodle

Integrated Moodle

Course outline view

Course introduction view

The Georgetown project Shibboleth federated authentication and authorization (standard for publishers) + Moodle authentication/authorization Link to Moodle (without additional signon) from the portal Link back to uPortal Moodle in a uPortal page

Beyond integration Bibliography, citations, and e-publication access via portlets using Shibboleth authentication. SIFA and PESC administration portlets for students and teachers Additional Moodle “blocks”

Available portlets

Streaming Audio and Video RSS version 1.0 channel In-line HTML Streaming Audio and Video

Library search portlets – Roles The interface changes according to the ‘role’ of the current account. Student Faculty

uPortal and MIT Open Courseware

Why uPortal? Differentiation for higher education Cost/performance Industry and higher education (JISC), services Multimedia-rich portlets Internationalization of portal and content Distributed, aggregated layout (with priorities) Definition and implementation of portlet “context” Cost/performance

The end jxf@immagic.com jxf@Georgetown.edu

Credits This presentation is based on materials developed for Georgetown University, the UK Joint Information Systems Committee, and Oxford University. im+m’s Jon Allen provided graphical design and graphics, and suggestions on presentation.

Permissions im+m publications are in the public domain and can be freely reproduced. Information in this presentation was taken from public sources or with permission and can be redistributed. The presentation itself can be reproduced and redistributed provided there are no changes made to the content and it is reproduced in its entirety.

Supplementary material

Enterprise portals

Denison University

University of British Columbia

Jon’s view – Dynamic layout

Available portlets

College announcements With portlets WSRP Regional library College announcements Portal Framework Administration Learning system Portal database JSR 168

uPortal and MIT Open Courseware

uPortal and MIT Open Courseware

Select Transcript View

eTranscript

Or Build Custom View

Architecture

Directory standards EDUCAUSE EduPerson Objects + “Best practices” representations Explicit in OASIS xNAL, xAL, xCIL, xCRL Implicit in Common Record, SEVIS, Meteor, and CommonLine; PESC transcript and admissions Explicit in HR-XML (implementation confirmed by key ERP vendors) Implicit in IMS Enterprise Implicit in SIF (K-12)

Use of SAML Assertions Internet 2 Shibboleth (journal access) Meteor (student loan data) eTranscript (student records) Liberty Alliance (federated authentication) Shouldn’t the assertions be standardized for higher education?

SAML Assertion