AN E-LEARNING WEB PORTAL WITH SYSTEM

INTEGRATION FACILITIES

Alina Andreica, Florina Covaci, Daniel Stuparu and Gabriel Pop

IT Department, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Keywords: Web Portal, System Integration, Database Synchronization, Academic Information Systems.

Abstract: The present paper focuses on means of integrating dedicated information systems based on various

technologies (php / postgresql, asp / MS sql) into a global web portal, based on MS technology. The portal

provides as well learning management content and e-learning facilities for various user categories.

1 INTRODUCTION

The present paper aims at describing the design of a

system integration framework that is based on MS

technology and integrates various information

systems, based on different technologies (php /

postgresql, asp / MS sql). In this respect, we

describe an integrated architecture based on ILM

Microsoft server, and additional interface modules,

used in order to integrate the dedicated information

systems into a web portal that also provides e-

learning facilities, based on SharePoint Portal

functionalities

. Based on the principles regarding

the way in which data types are structured in

organizations’ databases and used by different

components of integrated software systems, ILM can

synchronize and optimize data access and delegate

processing means to the appropriate dedicated

software components.

Section 2 describes the information systems that

are integrated, while section 3 focuses on the web

portal and its assessment from the administrating

point of view. The integration principles that we

have designed and are in train of being implemented

are presented in section 4.

2 THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

AcademicInfo is an integrated information system

dedicated to managing educational information, with

dedicated processing facilities for secretariats,

specific access facilities for students and teachers

and relevant synthesis regarding the educational

process. The system models educational processes at

BBU level, ensuring course selection from all

faculties’ curricula in study agreements, models in a

flexible manner various types of educational

activities at all study levels (BA, MA, PhD,

continuous education, specific curricula), ensures

multilingual support in processing and reporting,

integrates various types of facilities, fee

management, student documents and requests, on-

line course evaluation.

ManageAsist system is the integrated software

system for administrative management that has been

developed for our university. The system can be

viewed as an ERP system; within its design and

implementation, we integrated systematic efficiency

principles in software design: multi-layer

architecture and layer autonomy (Micromax

Information Services Ltd., 1999) , (Hoganson,

Guimaraes, 2003), advanced object oriented design

based on systematic abstraction principles (Gregory

M. Bowen), design patterns (Gamma, Helm,

Johnson, Vlissides, 2002), flexibility in module

integration and communication, systematic

workflow management, efficient database access

and design (Stuparu, Andreica, Mantu, 2005), (Berry

and Linoff 2000).

The present work is supported by the EU funded grant, within

the European Fund for Regional Development, “CCE

124/323/31.08.2009 SMIS 4424 - Sistem electronic aplicativ

integrat de educaţie al Universităţii Babes-Bolyai” – Integrated

applied electronic system for education of Babes-Bolyai

University - BBU, contracted

y BBU with the Romanian

Ministry of Communication and Information Society, the

Intermediary Organism for Promoting the Information Society,

during 31-08-2009 – 31-08-2011

131

Bianca Andreica A., Covaci F., Stuparu D. and Pop G.

AN E-LEARNING WEB PORTAL WITH SYSTEM INTEGRATION FACILITIES.

DOI: 10.5220/0002856301310136

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technology (WEBIST 2010), page

ISBN: 978-989-674-025-2

ManageAsist’s principles and facilities are adapted

for high education institutions; the system contains

the following modules: Document management,

Assets, Warehouse, Cashier, Finance, Accountancy,

Grants, Human Resources and Acquisitions, and

decision assistance facilities. The first 7 modules are

already in use; their implementation has pursued

systematic and efficient principles (Andreica, 2005).

Each module contains management reports for the

corresponding compartment. Relevant synthesis

from each compartment will be integrated, together

with global management tools into a decision

support module.

In (Andreica., Stuparu, Ghetie 2009) we address

the advantages of pursuing advanced design

principles in the implementation stages of the

system, and in designing a flexible framework for

efficiently integrating the system’s modules. We

also deal with means of managing hierarchical data

structures, together with efficiency issues in respect

with processing them. Each module includes levels

(Andreica., Stuparu, Ghetie 2009) for specific

document processing, operational facilities and

reporting, level that provides management assistance

information for the corresponding compartment.

Research Management System. Within our

university we developed and implemented a

dedicated software system for managing Babes-

Bolyai University’s (BBU) research activities, by

offering accessible and user-friendly means of

collecting specific information, and automatically

performing quantitative analyses, syntheses and

evaluations based on the collected information. The

system may be viewed as a tool for quantitative

research evaluation, its more general aim being to

ensure proficient management of the research

activity within BBU and supporting the design of

competitive strategies in the field by means of this

dedicated software system.

The design and implementation principles of the

Research Management software system, its

architecture features and its impact in research

activity management for the members of the

academic & research staff, but especially for

research management levels: chairs, institutes,

departments, faculties, university are described in

(Andreica and Agachi, 2008). The implementation

of the system complied structured efficiency

principles and stages (Andreica, 2005), (Andreica,

2006) in order to ensure best design and impact

features.

3 WEB PORTAL ASSESSMENT

The web portal that we have implemented in order to

provide e-learning and web integration facilities is

based on a SharePoint solution, which has proven to

be very convenient in flexible administration and

integration purposes.

3.1 Assessing e-Learning Portal

Functionalities

Regarding the system assessment, we developed

dedicated questionnaires for administrators, students

and teachers, in order to obtain a general feed-back

regarding existing facilities, platform functionalities

and to ensure future developments

The questionnaire has been created and

interpreted using the survey functionality built-un in

the platform (Share Point Portal); we underline in

this respect the flexibility of the platform’s tools.

We further discuss the results obtained

consequent to monitoring the administrators’ survey

(Andreica., 2009), since administration facilities are

relevant for the portal capabilities. Regarding user

feed-back, preliminary results reveal that users a not

fully aware of the platform functionalities and we

still have to organize more trainings in this respect.

Administrators were requested to evaluate, on a 1

– 5 scale (1=very weak, 2=weak, 3=moderate,

4=good, 5=very good), the following platform

characteristics: administration functionalities - the

average weighted grade was 4.14; communication

functionalities - the average weighted grade was

3.86; functionalities for administering educational

content - the average weighted grade was 4;

functionalities for developing educational content -

the average weighted grade was 3.43; functionalities

for platform development - the average weighted

grade was 4.43; platform adaptability / flexibility

characteristics - the average weighted grade was

3.57; reporting facilities - the average weighted

grade was 4. We can notice that all characteristics

are positively rated, most of them being qualified

above ‘good’ (weighted grades >=4).

Administrators were also requested to evaluate

the percentage of teachers who requested / were

granted permissions for administering their courses /

educational resources – results are displayed in

figure 4: we can notice that most of the faculties

(86%) did not grant for more than 50% of their

teachers permissions for administering their own

educational content, which reveals the fact that users

are still in initial phases of platform use. Regarding

the experience of our administrator respondents,

WEBIST 2010 - 6th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

132

most of them - 57% didn’t have the experience of

using other platforms

We further discuss some of the most relevant

responses in respect with the platform

characteristics: administration functionalities and

functionalities for developing educational content

are well rated: 29% very good, 57% good, 14%

moderate – see figures 1,2; functionalities for

platform development are very well rated: 43% very

good, 57% good – see figure 3

We may conclude that the adaptability and

flexibility characteristics of the platform that were

mainly aimed are actually implemented and we have

a very good feed-back in this respect.

Administration functionalities

0%0%

14%

57%

29%

very weak

weak

moderate

good

very good

Figure 1: Administration functionalities.

Functionalities for administering educational content

0%0%

29%

42%

29%

very weak

weak

moderate

good

very good

Figure 2: Administering educational content.

We also note that guided e-learning facilities are still

being developed and further have to be evaluated.

We shall continue monitoring the system and

completing the survey evaluations in order to ensure

its most appropriate use and development; in this

respect, we are confident that our prerequisites

regarding adaptability specifications in system

upgrades will also prove to be very useful in future

developments.

Functionalities for platform development

0%0%0%

57%

43%

very weak

weak

moderate

good

very good

Figure 3: Functionalities for platform development.

Percentage of teachers who requested / were

granted permissions for administering their courses

43%

29%

14%

<5%

[5%-25%)

[25-50%)

[50%-75%)

[75%-100%]

Figure 4: Percentage of teachers who administer their

courses.

3.2 System Overview and Perspectives

E-learning systems (Horton, William, Horton,

Katherine, 2003) may be viewed as advanced tools

which assist teachers in creating a cooperative,

multidisciplinary and explorative learning

environment and students in accessing these learning

facilities and developing learning interactions within

this environment. The implementation of e-learning

facilities strongly contributed to the development of

the student and goal centered learning model (Allen,

2002).

E-learning implementations should pursue the

same principles and stages as for other dedicated

software systems (Andreica, 2005), (Andreica,

2006) - the user involvement within the stages of

system requirements, verification and

implementation are of outmost importance for a

successful implementation. Though e-learning

facilities are fairly standardized, it is important to

take into account future upgrades of the

implemented system

The implementation of the e-learning system

within “Babes-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca

(Andreica, 2007), Romania systematically applied

the above described principles. The flexibility

AN E-LEARNING WEB PORTAL WITH SYSTEM INTEGRATION FACILITIES

133

system requirements and de-centralized system

administration that were pursued are expected to

prove their efficiency in future developments

4 THE INTEGRATION

FRAMEWORK AND

PRINCIPLES

We have designed an advanced system integration

framework, in order to ensure the integration of the

e-learning portal (see 3) with BBU’s dedicated

information systems (see 2) AcademicInfo,

ManageAsist, Research Management System.

Integration principles are based on an integrated

authentication solution, which maps facilities from

the dedicated information systems into the portal, for

each user category (Andreica., 2009). The

authentication server associates, to each user group,

the facilities that correspond to their permissions in

each of the dedicated information systems

AcademicInfo, ManageAsist, Research Management

System, in order to make them available within the

portal – see figure 5.

Figure 5: Framework for advanced system integration.

The MS architecture managed by an ILM type

server is used in order to ensure single sign- on

capabilities and uniform interface to the dedicated

information systems. In this respect, we are in train

of designing interface modules in order to map the

portal authentication into each dedicated system.

A global synchronized database is in train of

being created, the most important common

information being the human resource &

organization chart ones, retained in the dedicated

tables:

User[userid, account, password, unitid]

Unit[unitid, unitname, …]

Organization_chart[unitid, superior_id, horiz_id]

This common database, used by the ILM server, will

also contain user and group authentication

information, together with dedicated permissions in

each of the information systems, in order to ensure

access to corresponding permissions in

AcademicInfo, ManageAsist, Research Management

Systems.

The integration solution is also designed to

ensure database synchronisation among

AcademicInfo, ManageAsist, Research Management

System and Portal databases based on matching the

following data (Andreica., 2009):

◊ portal – AcademicInfo: users (all categories),

curricula, study contracts, grades, fees

◊ portal – AcademicInfo – ManageAsist:

organisation chart, units, human resources,

managers, financial information

◊ portal – AcademicInfo – Research Management

System: research activities, PhD Students

◊ portal – ManageAsist – Research Management

System: organisation chart, units, human resources,

grants & corresponding financial information

Figure 6: Synchronization scheme.

A major issue in the implementation of the global

database synchronization is that the applications use

2 database management systems (PostgreSQL for

ManageAsist and Research Management System and

MS SQL Server for AcademicInfo), while the

synchronization scheme is a multi-master one, each

of the databases requiring bi-directional

synchronization with the master database – see

figure 6

On the other hand, this solution ensures

significant autonomy functional advantages for

information systems, compared to a direct Active

Directory integration & mapping.

The MS SQL - PostgreSQL synchronization has

been tackled in literature, see (

PostgreSQL Team) for

example. Although a certified multi-master

ILM DB

(SQL

Server

)

AcademicInfo

(SQL Server)

ManageAsist

(PostgreSQL)

Research MS

(PostgreSQL)

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synchronization is fairly complex, in our case, the

information that has to be synchronized / replicated

between all databases is reduced to a few tables (see

the description above for details): users, organization

chart, units, people, with a fairly low modification

rate, and therefore inducing a moderate network load

We are in train of implementing a synchronous

database replication, in order to obtain real time

synchronization. Since such a process is quite

resource demanding, we also intend to explore some

asynchronous mixed solutions if the run time of the

global synchronizing & monitoring system tends to

increase over a reasonable limit. The asynchronous

solution transfers the whole database, having a

larger data load, but the moment in time will be

chosen in respect with the applications’ low

workload or even stand-by state.

In order to implement the authentication server

we use MS Identity Lifecycle Management server,

which has advanced integration facilities with our e-

learning portal, and we are in train of configuring

the necessary permission mappings from the

dedicated information systems into the

authentication server in order to complete the

integration facilities.

The proposed integration solution may be

applied in different organizations, for integrating

their dedicated information systems

5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

WORK

The paper focuses on information system

development and implementation as tools for

increasing organization competitiveness, and means

of designing a system integration framework in this

respect. Organizations face nowadays the phase of

system integration, in order to ensure advanced

management facilities at a global organization level

and integrated IT facilities for various user

categories. The universities’ case is quite complex,

since their activity covers a wide range of areas:

education and learning, research, administration.

We describe an efficient integration solution by

implementing a single authentication server and

mapping specific facilities from the dedicated

information systems, using different database

management systems, into the portal, for each user

category. This architecture is based on a global

integrated database and a permission mapping

scheme for ensuring appropriate access into the

dedicated information systems. User identities that

access the portal are further redirected in

authentication modules that ensure the interface

between the portal and each dedicated system. We

are in train of defining the necessary permission

mappings in order to fulfill the implementation.

This solution has a good extensibility degree and

may be applied in various organization cases.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank to the whole development team in our IT

department for their contribution to developing

ManageAsist, AcademicInfo, Research management

information systems and to administering the e-

learning portal: Florentina Tufiş, Călin Miu, Simona

Nemeş, A. Bara, D. Petreuş, M. Bojan. We are in

train of registering the intellectual property rights of

the information systems for the whole

implementation team

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