Project Title:  Portal Producer for Patrons

Department/organizational unit(s):  eGranary Digital Library / WiderNet Project

 

Mentor Name(s):  Cliff Missen

 

Brief project description:  Pulling a large amount of digital resources together to make up a syllabus or training program is a time-honored task of teachers and librarians.  Many eGranary patrons have little or no experience in these matters.  This project will involve identifying, adopting, and creating tools for patrons to easily build portals that draw upon resources in the eGranary Digitlal Library.  For example: a current effort involves using an HTML version of the Ugandan Secondary School National Curriculum as an interface that leads teachers to resources they can use to teach the lessons outlined in the curriculum.  Another portal provides access to water development resources for a myriad of stakeholders from well drillers to policy makers.

Examples of key activities:

• Identify existing tools to create user-editable portals
• Create/adopt a standard for the eGranary
• Assist Web database developers in the design of the system
• Recruit area experts to build portals using the system
• Consult with patrons to assess and improve the system

 Number of students that can be accommodated: 2 persons

 

Duration: Fall 07 and beyond

 

Training:

Prerequisite skills: Basic computer and database skills.  Some Web design preferred.  Good communication and attention to detail.

Acquired skills: Working knowledge of the complexity of course/portal design; course development skills; Web design and Web database skills, research and writing skills.

 

Software/Hardware Involved:  Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Access, MySQL/PHP, ASP, Confluence (wiki), SharePoint, threaded discussion, listservs

 

Tangible end product, if any:   A procedure for volunteers and patrons to create and share custom portals.