Educational Portal White Paper

Abstract

This white paper conceptualizes and discusses the design and application of a super web portal for state or nationwide educational applications. The term “Educational Portal” refers to a web gateway environment that allows users with varied educational interests to access educational resources and information. The Educational Portal provides a collaborative environment where educators can find peers who share educational knowledge and creativity. It is also a “profile-based” web environment portal that can be totally personalized according to each user’s needs and interests, providing each user with specialized “MyPortal” functionality. Many educational institutions are currently in the process of offering Web-based portals to their instructors and students. This might include services like course portal, library portal and campus portal. However, each of these portals offers services available within the institution only to the members of that institution. For instance, each portal can offer authenticated student and faculty access to courses, library materials and Student Information Systems in an institution. But there is no direct sharing of knowledge or resources between and among the members of various educational institutions. It now appears necessary to offer a state or nationwide single front door portal gateway where any and all learners, regardless of institutional affiliation, can gain access to educational and training information. It will provide an opportunity for educators and trainers to share resources, and information and to collaborate on the development, evaluation and sharing of educational modules. For instance, the gateway will include a portal environment where a teacher can share the use of a personally developed e-Learning module with other teachers in the same field and class rank at other schools, or with students and others who wish to use it in their learning environment.