Outputs and Results

The SUNIWE software will be available for download from the project web site together with guidance for setting up the portal system using the supporting applications. The software is comprised of the uPortal channels and IMS Enterprise Web services which allow the realization of 2 use cases

uPortal Channels

Two uPortal channels were developed to support the two main SUNIWE use cases:

1. View and Change Personal Information

2. View Module List, Module Information And e-Resources

The two channels are shown running side by side in uPortal below.

Figure 1: SUNIWE uPortal channels

View and Change Personal Information Channel

Figure 2: View and Change Personal Information Screen Flow

The View and Change Personal Information Channel allows the learner to view personal information the institution holds about them and submit a request to change the information if it is incorrect.

Personal Information View screen

Figure 3: Personal Information View screen

The Personal Information View screen displays personal information from the institutions student records database. The channel calls the IMS Person Management Service Web service to provide the data. If any of the information is incorrect the learner can select the change button to proceed to the editing screen.

Personal Information Edit screen

Figure 4: Personal Information Edit screen

The Personal Information Edit screen allows the learner to edit the personal information and submit a request for it to be updated. The OK button submits a request via email to appropriate staff at the institution. The cancel button takes the learner back to the Personal Information View screen.

Personal Information Confirm screen

Figure 5: Personal Information Confirm screen

The Personal Information Confirm screen displays a message to the learner upon submission of the update request. The message tells the learner that the request feeds into a manual process and that the information will be updated within a certain period of time. The OK button takes the learner back to the Personal Information View screen.

View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources Channel

Figure 6: View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources screen flow

The View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources channel allows the learner to view a list of awards and modules they are taking together with their current status on each module or award and results and credit values where available. More detailed module information can be viewed and modules supported by the COSE VLE can be launched in the portal.

Module List View screen

Figure 7: Module List View screen

The Module List View screen shows a summary list of awards and modules the learner is taking. Transcript style information is shown for each module (e.g. cats credits, module status, result). Clicking on the title of the module shows more detailed module information in the Module Information View screen. A launch link is displayed for modules that have a corresponding VLE component. Clicking the launch link launches the VLE in the portal. The Module List View calls all of the implemented Web services to get the data it needs for display on screen.

Module Information View screen

Figure 8: Module Information View screen

The module information view screen displays the descriptor for the selected module. The module descriptors are available on the University web site so the links from the Module List View screen are to the pages on the web site. The information appears within the channel.

VLE screen

Figure 9: VLE screen

The launch links on the Module List View screen launch the COSE VLE in the channel. All the functionality of the VLE is available. The only difference from launching the VLE manually is the screen size available. The amount of room for the VLE is constrained by being inside the uPortal channel. The links from the Module List View screen could be made to launch in a new window but this would sacrifice the user interface consistency of having everything running in the same portal.

Services

A small subset of IMS Enterprise Web Services were implemented sufficient to support the uPortal channels. The service operations were:

1. Person Management Service

   1. readPerson

1. Group Management Service

   1. readGroups

1. Membership Management Service

   1. readMembershipsForPerson

The View and Change Personal Information channel called the readPerson operation to get personal information about the learner for display.

The View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources channel called the readPerson operation to get personal information about the learner, the readMembershipsForPerson operation to get the award and module transcript-style information and the readGroups operation to get details of the awards and modules (title, etc).

The data protection agreement is the product of extended and significant, not to mention costly, collaboration between experts from the legal, technical and operational sides of the project. It covers the essential aspects requiring agreement for the running of a cross-institutional portal supported by Web services and would be a good starting point for any projects embarking on implementing a similar agreement. The data protection agreement is available from the download area.

The Shibboleth findings are summarized in the Shibboleth section of the Web site and can be downloaded in PDF form by clicking on the PDF link on the Shibboleth page. It is hoped this document will act as a guide to the scope of Shibboleth and allow similar projects to determine whether Shibboleth is an appropriate solution to their problem.

The SUNIWE final report includes the full story of the process followed and decisions made in developing the system and managing the project. It is hoped the experience captured in this report will allow other projects with similar aims or similar make-up to benefit from the lessons learned in SUNIWE. The final report is availabe from the download area.

This Web site and the final report include details of the process, practices and tools used in the development of the portal which will be useful to any projects embarking on Web application or portal-related development, especially for a JISC project.