Student Web Portal Gives Users Control Of The Internet

November 29, 2001
University Park, Pa. – These days, virtually every antique store, karate studio or psychic advisor has a Web site. But Penn State is now offering students – and soon, faculty and staff – a new tool to filter some of the clutter of today’s World Wide Web and focus on bringing all the Penn State information they want and need to their desktop.

The new Penn State student portal (http://portal.psu.edu/) empowers users – currently anyone with a Penn State access account – to personalize and customize their web content and display, letting them pick and choose the information that’s most important to them. This portal project is the first of many steps aimed at enabling Web users to control an often bewildering volume of information.

“The portal allows us to address a fundamental challenge of the Web at Penn State,” says project leader Jim Leous of Penn State’s Center for Academic Computing. “There is simply no way for one Web site design to fit everyone’s needs. There is too much information to make that a practical consideration, and each individual has specific needs and goals that no web developer can entirely anticipate. We now have technology good enough to allow us, for the first time, to empower people, to essentially just get out of their way.”

The portal project complements the University’s traditional home page – http://www.psu.edu/ – which will evolve into a “front door” primarily for external audiences. The home page will remain a place for prospective students and their parents and others to learn about the University, access services, search for people or departments, or gather information.

In fact, the core functions of the overall existing Web site will change little, giving the general public, and government, business and industry many ways to interact and work with the institution.

The real difference will be for the enrolled student. Through the portal, each user selects the kind of information he or she wishes to see upon visiting the site while filtering out other information options. In the works are plans to also integrate the portal with eLion, the students’ online academic resource.

Among the comprehensive and still-growing menu options are: academic news and information; career planning links; weather; technology sites; calendars; Web email; news and information sites; facts about Penn State; Web camera views; and links to frequently used services. Built into the design is the ability to easily add or subtract these information “channels” at will.

The portal infrastructure allows users to log into a personalized Web viewer from any PC, Unix machine or Mac, anywhere in the world and retrieve the same lineup of personal content they selected for themselves. No special software is required other than a standard Web browser.

“The portal stands the ordinary Web application on its head,” says Leous. We’ve designed a program where the end user can easily personalize his or her view of information. Rather than the ‘old school’ where the Web designer knows best, the ‘new school’ says the end user can determine how he or she wants that information presented.

“We believe the portal allows the World Wide Web at Penn State to become a self-service information application.”

Although plans are under way for a faculty- and staff-oriented portal, anyone with a valid Penn State access account can currently use the student portal, provide feedback and suggestions and join the ranks of portal content providers. Comments and questions can be directed to portal-feedback@psu.edu.

Contact:  Tysen Kendig, Department of Public Information, (814) 865-7517 or tysen@psu.edu.