Learning Portals as New Academic Spaces

Abstract

Many functional definitions emphasize a portal as an integrated system providing a gateway to organized data (c.f., Batson, 2000; Copeland, 2001; Eisler, 2001; Looney & Lyman, 2000). However, a learning portal may go beyond the information management function to provide important mechanisms for reaching out to new populations of learners and engaging them in new ways to facilitate learning and development. Beyond serving as a gateway and an organizer, a portal can provide access to a broader range of contemporary information and learning resources (experts, teachers, researchers, mentors), encourage enriched interaction with those resources and with other learners anywhere in the world, and support new models of teaching, learning and research. Ultimately, a collaborative, community-based process of designing and implementing a portal may support institutions in reorienting towards a user-centered learning community.