Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

Situation Analysis Almost everything that we do everyday - transportation, business transactions, and most especially communications - depends on the modern technology available. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) takes the lead in modernizing the way of

communication in every possible way with its new devices and applications, whether a radio, television, mobile phone, computer network hardware and software, satellite system and so on. Services such as distance learning and real-time video call have been connected to these applications. Medium of communication is now digitized and interactions between colleagues continually transform into many different ways using the contemporary machines particularly the computer. The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly available worldwide system of interconnected computer networks. It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat and the interlinked web pages and other

2 documents of the World Wide Web. The Internet has been innovating to cater all kinds of users from the four corners of the world. According to Strauss (2002), the World Wide Web (WWW) continues to be the preeminent application on the Internet because it has regularly reinvented itself. In fact, for most people, the World Wide Web has become synonymous with the Internet. With the introduction of Web portals, the Web is in the process of reinventing itself once again. This change may prove to be more far-reaching than any other change to hit the Web, and it will change the way that university and corporate Web pages are built, the organizational structures used to build them, and the fundamental way that people use the Web. Portals are not a fad or a new name for something that weve been doing all along. They will turn the Web from an institution-centric repository of information and applications to a dynamic user-centric collection of everything useful to a particular person in a particular role. Instead of a single home page that proclaims identically to all who visit how grand the institution is, portals will give nearly every user a customized, personalizable, unique Web page. Web portal is very useful to many different organizations in the world. Prominent universities such as Harvard University, U.S.A., George Washington University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., Brigham Young University, Hawaii, U.S.A. and others have established their web portals. George Washington University had created myGW Portal as its

3 web portal in 1996. Organizations and departments within the University can post news and events on the myGW Portal and have the same content syndicated out to their own website on the University's main web server or any other web server. Over 18,000 students, faculty, staff, and alumni use the myGW Portal. The myGW Portal draws information from over 1,400 content providers both on- and offcampus. One of the ways that the University of South Asia in Bangladesh propagates information to students and all other potential clients is through its web portal. They offer online assistance on inquiries about their organization. Other universities in Asian country such as Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Tasmania, are using the WWW in addition to the services they offer. In the Philippines, different universities have developed userfriendly web portals to assist students, faculty, staffs, and other users. University of the East in Metro Manila has its web portal. Upon visiting the said website, we had this impression that it was established for all people who could best benefit in the said website especially for inquiring any information they could get from school. For example, when a student wants to know about academic services, different colleges, publications, and miscellaneous, he will just visit the said website and everything will be provided with just a click on the link provided.

4 Lorma Colleges in the City of San Fernando, La Union has its web portal provided for the faculty members, students, and to everybody who has its purpose of obtaining information about the college. College of Information Technology Student Web Portal (CITSWP) is the gateway for all students of the said college to be informed using the internet. It serves as information system, downloading site, and an online bulletin. Conceptual Framework Using the concepts and from web portal, online of information Information

dissemination,

e-government,

the

College

Technology Student Web Portal was made. Strauss (2002) described web portal as a Web supersite with a collection of link to popular Web services on the Internet. It is generally synonymous with gateway. The main concept is to present the user with a single web page that brings together or aggregates content from a number of other systems or servers. For portals that present application functionality to the user, the portal server is in reality the piece of a server configuration that includes some cone activity to the application server. The online portal technology has enabled the lot many advantages as it is faster, user friendly and easier to access various services. Not only this, portals have improved communication and response time as well. The usage of an efficient

5 web portal can add immensely to the overall productivity of the organization. Hence, portals are becoming very essential for

organizations of all sizes. Concept of web portal based from Pienaar (2003), aggregate an array of content and provides a variety of services including search engines, directories, news, e-mail and chat rooms. Portals are developed to support academics task performance that includes personal management of academic information and knowledge. The portal should maintain the training and research roles of academics. Using web portals by the CIT students, a lot of works for them has been made easier, such as downloading handouts and receiving instructions from the CIT administration and their teachers. Another concept in this study was the online dissemination of information. The dissemination of information according to Consul (2011) is a one-way process. The disseminated information flows down from the source to the target audience. There may or may not be any feedback from the public. It is the process of making information available to the persons concerned. Activities of the students are often disseminated through posted information on bulletin boards and verbal announcement. Others use internet to disseminate information. Online dissemination of information is the distribution of information to the public through internet or the World Wide Web. It is usually initiated or

6 sponsored by the government of a country or an agency authorized for the purpose of dissemination of information by any public sector unit. In line with CIT Student Web Portal, users can simply and easily access the portal with their corresponding account. With this, information dissemination using the internet will be more convenient to them. The third concept was the E-Government. According to Lallana (2002), e-government refers to the use by government agencies of information and communication technologies (ICT) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, government

employees, and other arms of government in the delivery of services. For the World Bank, it is the use of ICT to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of government. It is the use of electronic media in the facilitation of government processes. It covers a wide range of applications making use of multi-media broadcasting, radio networks, computer networks, mobile phone communication technologies, and other similar electronic devices. Similar to e-government, CITSWP has its functions also, that is, using electronic media and devices to facilitate and complete different processes specifically in disseminating information, giving instructions, and receiving feedback.

7 The above concepts and the situation analysis induced the researchers to conduct this study, whereby they were able to construct the paradigm of the research shown in Figure 1.

INPUT OUTPUT 1. Mode information dissemination. of

PROCESS

1. Checklist on the mode of information dissemination. 2. Conduct interviews. 3. Assessment of the usability of the system 3.1 Navigation 3.2 Functionality 3.3 Control 3.4 Feedback 3.5 Consistency 3.6 Error and Correction 3.7 Visual Clarity COLLEGE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDENT WEB PORTAL

2. Status of disseminating information along: 2.1 Performance; 2.2 Information (Output); 2.3 Information (Input); 2.4 Information (Stored Data); 2.5 Economy; 2.6 Control; 2.7 Efficiency; 2.8 Services

Feedback

Figure 1. The Research Paradigm

9 Statement of the Objectives This study aimed to develop a web portal for the students of the College of Information Technology of Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University Mid-La Union Campus. Specifically, this study: 1. Determined the mode of information dissemination in the CIT. 2. Determined the status of CIT in disseminating information along: 2.1 Performance; 2.2 Information (Output); 2.3 Information (Input); 2.4 Information (Stored data); 2.5 Economics; 2.6 Control; 2.7 Efficiency; 2.8 Services. 3. Developed the CIT Student Web Portal. 4. Assessed the level of usability of the system. Significance of the Study CIT Student Web Portal was created, developed and monitored for the benefit of the following: To the CIT faculty, it is looked forward that the findings of the study has provided support and direction for the easy way of disseminating information activities, seminars, plans and other affairs

10 of the students. This study helped them for easy way of disseminating information. To the students, the information that derived from this study provided an avenue in improving confidence and be more interested to read over the internet what is being featured about CIT activities and other concerns. This study inspired and encouraged other researchers to develop and analyze researches such web portal system for other organizations that will need web portal like this one. To the researchers, this study helped them enhance their ICT skills programming, documentation and databases. Definition of Terms College of Information Technology Student Web Portal. This refers to a web based system of the College of Information Technology student that provides different services including

information dissemination through posting of news and forums, files and template downloading. Information dissemination. Dissemination of information is defined as the process of making information available to the persons concerned. PIECES framework. This refers to a framework that helps to classify and identify the problems in an existing Information System (IS), each letter stands for a potential problem.

11 Performance. This refers to an IS problem that

addresses on how the system needs to perform for the user; it includes issues of throughput such as the amount of work performed over some period of time and response time which is the average delay between a transaction or user request and the response to that transaction or user request. Information. This refers to the problem of the existing system that provides basis for information of the systems needs to be maintain; it includes issues regarding input, output and storing information in the existing system. It also comprises if the user doesnt receive the right information in a usable format. Economics. This refers to an IS problem concerning project development and operational cost information along with any objectives that may relate to economy or savings associated with the system. Control. This refers to an IS problem in association with system control and security issues as well as the editing and controls regarding input and output data. Efficiency. This refers to the efficient way in deeming the systems operation, it primarily directed toward the impact that any solution must have on the environment. Services. This refers to problems regarding the operation of the system that addresses on how it produces accurate information for the organization. It includes IS implementation concerns such as ease of use and needed support for ongoing use of the

12 system, maintenance of the system, and training and

documentation requirements. Rapid Application Development (RAD). This refers to a

methodology that was used to develop a fully functional system. Requirements planning. This tackles the setting of goals for CIT Student web portal wherein it includes data gathering. User design. Blueprint or the overview of the system and it finds out the feature of the system. Construction. This refers to the system creation phase which includes issues about

programming language to be use and what database for storage. Cutover. This refers to the phase of the system development wherein issues of user testing are applied and the usability of the system was identified. Usability. This refers to the satisfaction of the users concerning its working features. Navigation. This refers to the feature providing an easy and simple access to the system regarding the location from one page to another. Functionality. This refers to the capabilities of the portal as connected to its functions and to support the needs of the organization. Control. This refers to the issues regarding the manipulation of the portal. Language. This refers to the simplicity of the language used in the portal in disseminating information. Feedback. This refers to the portal on how it is

13 going to get user inputs. Consistency. This refers to the portals behavior if its changes upon directing to the other page. It also includes the features of consistency from the homepage to the other page of the portal. Error Prevention and Correction. This refers on how often the system display error message and provides error checking upon registration. Web portal. This refers to a web based system that presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. It provides a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases.