Portal Project Evaluation Report Executive Summary - University of ...

The Student Portal­ Greenwich Gateway
Evaluation report of the first year of operation 2006­07
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Introduction
Greenwich Gateway­ the student portal for the University of Greenwich was launched
at the beginning of the 2006/2007 academic year. It was the first phase of the
University Portal project to deliver Portal facilities to support all members of the
University. The first phase objectives were to:
· Identify and prioritise user requirements
· Develop content to meet the requirements identified by users
· Consider and identify how existing services could be integrated in to the
Portal
· Develop and implement a student facing portal for the 2006/07 academic year
· Develop and implement a training programme that ensured successful
implementation
· Develop campus­wide policies regarding the use of the portal and its
associated technologies.
The project was overseen by a Portal Steering Group chaired by the Pro­Vice
Chancellor (Learning and Quality). Technical leadership was provided by Corporate
Information Systems (CIS) within the Office of Information and Library Services.
Clifton Kandler was seconded from the Business School to act as Project Manager.
The JISC guidelines for project management were used. Each School and Office was
invited to nominate a Portal Co­ordinator. They were critical in advising on and
providing content for the various information tabs and channels and communicating
on training needs. First line user support is provided by the OSCARS team within
Information and Library Services (ILS), backed up by Web Services and the technical
developers within
Part of the project management plan included an initial evaluation of the first phase of
the student portal project, which was carried out by means of an on­line survey of all
staff and students over a week in March 2007. The purpose of this was to get some
systematic across University feedback on the initial Student Portal to supplement and
enrich the data obtained from the feedback channel and on­line requests for help.
The results of the evaluation have already influenced further developments and a
significant number of the suggestions made have been acted upon.
Impact­ Usage
A total of 17984 individual students accessed the portal during the first year of
operation between October 2006 and August 2007­ representing some 71% of the
total potential user population­ including students studying out of country. The major
period of growth in use was in the first term of the year, but use (penetration)
continued to steadily increase throughout the year.
Snapshots of weekly patterns throughout the year showed a consistent pattern of
highest total use on a Monday, with relatively less use at the weekends. A typical
Greenwich Gateway Phase One Evaluation Report Executive Summary Version
7 th November
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