uPortal and UNICON “ Using open-source uPortal technology to create a comprehensive online environment for your campus” Copyright UNICON This work is the intellectual property of UNICON. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Introduction Founded in 1993, Unicon has a strong history of delivering educational and community technology for corporations and institutions world-wide. Core competencies: Designing, implementing and supporting enterprise portal, learning and integration technology for higher education institutions Specializing in Enterprise Information Portals (EIP), Advanced Learning, and Content Technology. The leading commercial supporter of the uPortal open source initiative Jason C. Lacy Senior Sales Consultant (480) office Presenter Information: Corporate Information: Dr. Harry Koehnemann Associate Professor, ASU (480)

Agenda Introduction Agenda Review Chapter 1 – “Portals” * Why do I need a portal? * How do I decide what portal to use? * What should be in my portal? * Is Open-Source a real solution? Chapter 2 – “uPortal” * Background / Future * Advantages * Success Stories * Support Services Chapter 3 – “Academus” * Difference from uPortal * Advantages * Key functionality * Success Stories Chapter 4 – “Question and Answer”

Chapter 1 – “Portals”

First Things First – What is a Portal? Portal - A doorway, entrance, or gate, especially one that is large and imposing. Portal TypeDefinitionExamples Consumer PortalOne-stop websites providing customized, personalized information myYahoo Community PortalInformation aggregated, edited, and organized around a topic of interest iSavixx Vertical PortalCommunity portal with a specialized business theme E*Trade Enterprise PortalAssists users in being more productive by using centralized access to needed data and application services Academus Portal Enterprise Portal – A server used by institutions to build a gateway, providing access to and interaction with relevant information, applications and processes for select targeted audiences, delivered in a highly personalized manner.

Why do I need a Portal? IT Challenges: Increasing number of sources of information Increasing competition for users “eyes” – users not seeing important information Increasing number of services requiring authorization Complexity of providing secure login to all systems Staff and budgets are being tightened to support these systems Constituent Expectations: Users expect systems to be easier to use, even in the face of increased complexity Users expect more services to be offered via the web Users expect greater personalization

Admin. StaffFacultyStudents Prospective Students Alumni Problem - Current System of Information Delivery Student Record System Human Resource System Collaborative User Tools Library Campus Information Electronic Mail Course Management Tools Public Information Intranet / Internet

Aggregates content –XML feeds (RSS) –Legacy system An Interactive Application –Native application –Notifications, Elections, … An Integration Adapter –Legacy and ERP applications – , Calendaring, etc. –Integration point for SSO Unicon believes that the evolution of the Web as an application platform, coupled with maturing of security, XML, Web services, and related standards converges at Enterprise Portals to deliver on the integration requirements facing IT Delivering through the Portal…

Portal Solution - Improved Information Delivery Admin. StaffFacultyStudents Prospective Students Alumni Student Record System Human Resource System Collaborative User Tools Library Campus Information Electronic Mail Course Management Tools Public Information Intranet / Internet Financial Tools Bookstore

Does the portal provides a single point of access and single sign on (SSO) to information and web services? Does the portal increase visibility of selected information? Does the Portal provide each constituent a way of accessing the campus portal as their individual relationship dictates? Does the portal provide your own integration environment to interconnect different web services? Does the portal provides a model for managing all the groups on the campus by delegating authority to appropriate parties? Will the Portal overly tax the IT staff? Does the Portal provide positive cost advantages by removing redundant work? How do I decide what Portal to use?

What should be in my portal? Personal Info/Management – Creates Stickiness! Reg, Classes and Grades – “A must” demanded by students

What should be in my portal? Student Recruiting – Differentiator Student Elections – Generates usage

General Information – Casual Usage News, Classifieds, Announ. – Promotes Stickiness What should be in my portal?

Is Open Source a Real Solution? Common Disadvantages with Open Source: General Advantages of Open Source: Lack of Documentation Lack of Commercial Support Unstable Code Base Unknown Future Cost Adaptability Community Availability uPortal complements these advantages while UNICON mitigates open- source disadvantages with its support services!

Chapter 2 – “What is uPortal?”

uPortal is a free, sharable portal under development by institutions of higher-education. Project run by the JASIG organization (Java Architectures Special Interest Group) Version 1 released in July 2000 Currently over 120 institutions have implemented uPortal Rapid growth anticipated over the next year Currently, over 25 institutions and several commercial entities contribute to the uPortal project uPortal is the foundation of the Academus product suite uPortal Background

Enterprise Portal - Open-source - Flexible - Single Sign-On - Best practices - Customization/Personalizati on - Publish and Subscribe Channel Model - J2EE, SOAP - Integration Services LDAP SIS Library Calendar uPortal Framework Browsing Devices People Channels Content Apps Adaptor What is uPortal Technology?

Internationalization Aggregated Layouts Enhanced Groups & Permissions …and a whole lot more Sample group structure –defined by each institution during deployment Recent uPortal Advancements

Unicon Columbia UBC im&m Cornell Delaware Yale Cal Poly Rutgers Princeton MUN SCT Other Delaware 4.6% Yale 3.0% Cal Poly 2.9% Other 0.4% SCT 0.5% MUN 2.3% Princeton 2.4% Rutgers 2.8% Cornell 4.7% im&m 6.1% UBC 10.5% Columbia 13.5% 46.2% uPortal Contributions to Date

The Future of uPortal - Sakai “The University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, Stanford, the uPortal Consortium, and the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) are joining forces to integrate and synchronize their considerable educational software into a modular, pre-integrated collection of open source tools.” Enterprise Services-based Portal (uPortal) Course Management System with sophisticated Assessment Tools Research Support Collaboration System Tool Portability Profile $2.4 million grant from Mellon Foundation $2.0 million committed by Sakai member institutions

JSR-168 support uPortal 2.3: Channel adapter to provide portlet support uPortal 3.0: Native portlet support Portlet adapter for legacy channels uPortal 3.0 Framework uPortal 2.3 Pluto Portlet Pluto Portlet Adapter Chan Portlet Framework PortletChan Adapter Chan uPortal Releases thru Sakai

uPortal Advantages Open Source means reduced cost of ownership Developed by/for Higher Education Growing community of users / Broad adoption Standards Based Development Platform vs. Proprietary Solution – vast customization Database and Authentication System independent Platform / OS Independent Backed by commercial entities to ensure stability and continued future support UNICON provides all support services - Training, mentoring, customization, conversion, etc. Continued funding

uPortal Success Stories (Arizona State University) Initial role out Fall 2003 Attract 15,000 visitors per day Currently supports the following channels GeneralStudentsFaculty Directory SearchMy GradesPayroll Library Catalog SearchAccounts Receivable Dictionary/ThesaurusAcademic/Financial Links Faculty/Staff Links Outlook mail clientBb Courses/Groups ASU WebmailStudent Fees Spam filter

Custom integration with campus services ASU uPortal Instance

Integration with campus records system

ASU uPortal Instance Integration with Blackboard and campus application

uPortal Success Stories (Illinois State University) - - Calendaring - Campus Elections - Registration - Campus Maps - Redbird Card - Class Schedules - Student Grades - Textbook Info. - Financial Aid Status - Scholarship Status - GPA Estimation - Academic Status - General Administration - General Info.

uPortal Support Services From UNICON Assessment Education Services –uPortal Fundamentals Training –uPortal Advanced Training Implementation Project Management Architecture and Design Capacity Planning Installation and Configuration Central Authentication Service (CAS) Mentoring Development and Test Environment Setup Integration Custom Channel Development Upgrade and Conversion Technical Support

uPortal Expertise – UNICON’s uPortal Services Customers US Higher Education Customers University of Delaware Illinois St. University University of Minnesota University of Chicago Iowa St. University Syracuse University Texas Christian University University of New Mexico Cornell University Villanova University Rutgers University University of Kansas Northern Arizona University Santa Barbara City College Columbia University University of Utah Salve Regina University Virginia Commonwealth University Yale School of Management International Customers University of British Columbia Kwantlen University College University of Nottingham French Ministry Deakin University Umea Universitet Universite De Geneve Guelph University * Partial Listing of Customers

uPortal Expertise – UNICON’s uPortal Training U.S. Georgia Tech University Dowling College Miami University Texas Tech University Heidelberg College Loyola University Chicago Roanoke College Ashland University Millersville College Cedarville University California Polytechnic State University California State University, Hayward Tufts University Arizona State University International University of Bristol University of Nottingham Stolkholms Universitet University of Saskatchewan Chalmers University of Technology Selwyn College Cambridge DeMontford University John Moores University Lund University * Partial Listing of Customers

Chapter 3 – “Academus”

UNICON Academus is an enterprise solution built on open source technology with integration services that easily pull together the mission- critical components for higher education institutions.

UNICON A CADEMUS TM Enterprise Portal Support, Training and Mentoring PORTAL CHANNELS COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM LCMS CLI Virtuoso ® Academus Full Suite is an online campus that integrates: Portal Course Management Learning Content Management 3 rd Party Applications Support/Maintenance

–Functional Channels - Collaborative Tools/Information Services –Enhanced Technology –CSCR –SuperChannel –Scalability –Best Practices Academus Portal is a cost- effective Enterprise Information Portal built on the open-source uPortal Framework. A CADEMUS Portal Adds Value

Three Calendar Channels Campus Announcements Notification Channel Bookmarks Briefcase Address Book My Notes Campus News Classifieds Discussion Forums Discussion Forums Administration Group Chat Group Chat Administration WebMail Survey Poll Survey Author User Admin A CADEMUS Technology - Functional Channels Academus Portal provides use of the following eighteen channels as part of its licensing costs.

Academus Customers Roanoke College – Portal El Camino Community College – Portal Trinity University – Portal Marietta College – Portal Lambton College – Portal Lethbridge Community College – Portal Champlain College - Portal San Joaquin Valley College – Full Suite Randolph-Macon Woman’s College – Portal New Teacher UC Santa Cruz – Full Suite Brooklyn College – Portal University of California, Merced – Full Suite Western Kentucky University – Portal The Rockefeller University – Portal Yuba College – Portal Saint Leo University - Portal A CADEMUS Customers

Success Stories – Roanoke College No additional full time personnel. Three student part time programmers during the year and full time during the summer Integrated WebAdvisor, Blackboard, Webmail, Corporate Time, management, Print Quota Management, and Announcement System Utilized existing LDAP, IMAP mail, and SQLServer database servers Recently ran entire registration process through the portal Students/Faculty/Alumni have all given positive feedback

Success Stories - continued El Camino Community College: Recently registered over 10,000 students through the Portal Deep links into a variety of legacy applications Randolph-Macon Woman’s College: “Academus is a genuinely well-designed collection of applications, and its implementation at Randolph-Macon Woman's College was quite painless. I'm looking forward to enhancing our current web offerings and creating new solutions for our students, faculty and staff.” - Brian Hudson, Systems Administrator

Campus portals can be very complex. For their success many things must be considered: -Do I want an open, expandable system or simply a packaged system? -What is the primary role of the portal? -What systems do I want to integrate with and how? -Do I plan to push users to the portal and how? -Who will be the first user groups? -What information do I want the users to access? -How much customization by the user do I want to allow and maintain? -How do I push new channels to the users? -Are their certain channels I don’t want the user to remove? -On what OS do I want to implement? -What application server do I want to use? -What portal database server do I want to use? -How will I handle older browsers? -What will it cost to implement? -What will be the on going cost? Devil in the Details… UNICON can help you make these decisions!

Chapter 4 – “Question and Answer”