Research Proposal a Study on Web Portals - Essay Example

? Research Proposal a Study on Web Portals The introduction of web portals has significantly changedthe Internet in a huge way. Businesses, schools, governments and other organizations have adopted this trend and are making use of web portals. Web portals enable people to connect with each other on the internet and share ideas, access useful information and other resources online. Portals are usually available throughout and can be accessed at any time by users. The databases are often updated regularly with the latest information. This study seeks to find out more information about web portals, their use and role in education and business as well as their impact on human communication. A Study on Web Portals Introduction The World Wide Web has been experiencing unprecedented growth since its inception and has been reinvented regularly to meet new demands and requirements of the business and social life making it to become the leading internet application (Erl, 2005). To many people, the World Wide Web has even become synonymous with the internet. One of the biggest reinventions of the World Wide Web is the introduction of web portals. Web portals have had a huge impact on creation of web pages for both corporate businesses and education institutions such as universities and colleges (Hazra, 2002). Web portals have also greatly altered the way people access information on the internet through the web pages. There are various types of web portals, each serving a different purpose. The most common types of web portals include corporate portals, vertical and horizontal portals, regional and government portals, hosted and domain specific portals. Horizontal portals are those that cover a wide area while vertical portals are only based on one functional area. Regional portals are used for accessing local information about a place such as the weather forecast. Government portals on the other hand are used for storing government records Businesses can use web portals to interact with their clients and customers, or let their customers interact with one another, sharing information about available products. Clients and customers can easily access the businesses website and make enquiries about products and services, place orders or make recommendations to the business (Erl, 2005). This has made online businesses easier to manage and helps corporate organizations interact with the outside world. The fact that web portals are available on the internet gives businesses an edge in that their customers and clients will still be able to access business information beyond working hours. The government can also use the web portal to keep its records and make them available to the public, especially in this era of democracy where people feel the urge to access government information. Government records can safely be stored online and accessed by interested individuals. Another area where Web portals have had a huge impact is in education. Web portals are very effective tools for inculcating scientific knowledge and other information in schools. Users can connect with one another on web portals to form learning communities where they can access relevant information, resources and expert knowledge and assistance. Web portals also allow users to share and exchange ideas, engage in useful discussions and conduct activities that promote their learning. Online libraries and catalogues are often regularly updated with the latest information. Web portals have made simulation of education in real life much easier as compared to other types of web pages. A web portal can serve as scientific as well as an educational tool for its uses. It provides a platform whereby resources, information, and experts in science can meet and exchange ideas. Moreover, it will create an online opportunity for researchers to further their fieldwork and establish a bridge between class work and field work. The web portal is aimed at enriching its information through accepting contributions from people visiting the site like the inclusion of a video blog, data collection, equipment operation and different observations from site visitors. The portal will form a basis of scientific research and verification of data through engaging in discussions and other activities that enhance awareness. Web portals can be used to host research findings, lesson plans, and online coursework, monitor student outcomes, and satisfy the reporting standards established. Scientific projects and other important group engagements on web portals require people to establish common grounds through which they can share knowledge and join efforts to solve problems. The areas of interest include information management and ensuring information accessibility to both the researchers and to those visiting the web portal. Statement of the Problem/ Research Question Web portals have gained wide popularity in the development of web pages for both businesses and education institutions. Web portals for businesses mainly deal with the information about the products and services of the business organizations and how the customers and other users can access and share such information. Web portals for schools on the other hand often require a lot of research, huge databases, regular updates and good management. This is because of the importance of the information for learners, researchers, scientists as well as non scientists. Significant amounts of research have already been carried out in web portals for businesses, government agencies and other organizations. This study aims at finding out more about development of web portals for schools and other educational institutions. This study focuses on providing a description of involvement of users in the web portal to be developed, the equipment to be used, the importance of research and how the web portal will affect the improvement on science and research. Through the analysis, the portal can be developed using basic technologies and helps in the achievement of tasks like development of online communities, administrators and science experts. Properly designed portals can act as effective communication tools that can enhance the adoption of best practices. Availability of the science documents online enables constant updating on the latest research (Hazra, 2002). The portal will also serve an educational purpose in giving scientists a platform to offer explanations of changes. The data management system will ensure that the source was flexible, economic and the project objectives were achieved. The databases will rely on the available technology to enhance diversity and authenticity of the information provided. The web portal will also enable non-scientists to access the information and become part of the experiments and the science projects. The participation will attract learners to visit sites of interest to share their lessons learnt and observations through the web portal. Research Objectives The main aim of this study is to find out the best way in which the portal can be used by the community of users, who will include both scientists and non scientific people. The portal has to be used by all the people who may want to access and share information on various subjects and hold meaningful discussions with each other. This requires the portal to be very well built and to take in to account the needs of all the users while at the same time trying to figure out the levels of interaction among the users. The information in the portal has to be updated on a regular basis, hence the need to address issues about research in the portal. Researchers are expected to be professionals in their respective fields and will be expected to make great use of a wide range of materials in their literature review to make information in the portal reliable. The objectives of this study can therefore be summaries as follows; This study aims at finding the best way in which data on the portal will be collected, analyzed and shared among the users of the portal, who include students, researchers and non-scientist users. The other objective for this study it to address how the portal will handle the huge, diverse and very fast data outputs which will be necessitated by the improvements in technology. The study will also seek to respond to the questions regarding to how the research will be conducted. Literature Review A significant amount of research has been conducted and documented about web portals. This study focuses of identifying specific issues regarding construction of an academic portal that can be used by both scientists and non scientists (Gleason, 2002). Previous research done in this area will be of great importance to this study especially in providing information about how both scientists and non scientists will interact in this new system. In developing new portals, it is important to research, observe and analyze various analyses that have been done on existing portals so as to ensure that the new web portal addresses the hiccups experienced in the existing portals (Jafari, Ali and Mark Sheehan, 2003). The new web portal should focus on covering issues that have not been addressed by current portals. This will ensure the new web portal is better than the existing one and will provide users with great options. A web portal can only be considered successful if it supports its users with the latest information that meets their needs and allows them to share the information with others (Basefsky, 2003). Web portals basically have eight main functionality areas that need to be considered during development. These include content management, workflow and task management, search and navigation, personalization, collaboration and groupware, notifications, and the integration of the applications with business and academic intelligence as well as the infrastructure (Mischo, 2001) Methodology This study will rely on both primary and secondary methods of data collection. Primary methods of data collections employed in this research are the use of questionnaires and interviews. Secondary sources of data such as library books, journals, periodicals journals as well as relevant internet sources will also be very helpful. The sample size to be studied includes learners, scientists and non scientists who are interested in research and educational materials. The sample size will be selected using random sampling from among university students, lecturers and professors. The target sample size represents an academic population that is actively engaged in research, scientific or otherwise. Some of the selected individuals will be given questionnaires to fill in while interviews will be conducted for a few other people to find out their expectations about the web portal, and how they will use it. Questionnaires will require respondents to fill in certain details that will be relevant to this study. Some questionnaires will be sent to respondents via email, while a majority of them will be delivered personally to respondents. The respondents will have up to two days to fill in the questionnaire after which I will collect them back for analysis. The main aim of using questionnaires is to get useful information from respondents regarding web portals and their expectations about academic web portals including the one about to be built. The questionnaires will be simply structured with various sections so as to maximize the return rates from respondents. Some of the questions that the respondents will be required to fill in include: 1. What do you understand a web portal to be? 2. What kind of information would you want to access from a web portal? 3. How often would you like the web portal to be updated? I will also use personal interviews with a few selected people to find out their understanding of web portals and how they intend to benefit from the web portal. This will be an open ended interview with structured questions that will guide me throughout the interview process. Among some of the questions that will be asked to interviewees include; 1. How do you intend to benefit from a web portal as a scientist? 2. To what extent do you think the information in the web portal is well researched? 3. How important is a web portal in your research? Data Analysis The data collected will be carefully analyzed so as to develop a more reliable report with significant findings. Data collected is qualitative and will require qualitative methods of data collection. The stages of data analysis will be data cleaning, sorting the data, analyzing the quality of the data, initial analysis and the final analysis report. The questionnaires will be well analyzed during the data cleaning process to determine which questions were fully responded to and if the respondents filled in the right details. The interviews will also be analyzed to only remain with relevant information for this research. After the cleaning the data, I will sort them fine data out in terms of the quality of the information contained in them with regard to this research. I will then conduct initial analysis and proceed to write the final report. Expected Findings/Outcome of the research At the end of this research, I hope to have gained insights about the expectations of people with regard to the web portal, their requirements and the best ways in which users can access the information in the portal. I will also find important information regarding how to develop a portal, update the information, conducting necessary research and marinating the whole system. References Salas, J., Perez-Sorrosal, F., Patino-Martinez, M., & Jimenez-Peris, R. (2006). Proceedings of the 15th international conference on World Wide Web: WS-replication: a framework for highly available web services (pp. 357-366). New York: ACM Press. Basefsky, S. M. (2003). "The Why? Behind Web Research Portals. Information Outlook, 7:4, 36-39. Erl, T. (2005). Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Concepts, Technology, and Design. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Gleason, B. W. (2002). "Web Services in Higher Education: Hype, Reality, Opportunities." EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 28:3, 11-13. Hazra, T. K. (2002). Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Software Engineering: Building Enterprise Portals: Principles to Practice (pp. 623-633). New York: ACM Press. Jafari, A and Mark S. eds. (2003). Designing Portals: Opportunities and Challenges. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing. Mischo, W. H. (2001). "Library Portals, Simultaneous Search, and Full-Text Linking Technologies. Science & Technology Libraries, 20:2/3, 133-47. Sadeh, T and Jeny, W. (2003). "Library Portals: Toward the Semantic. Web." New Library World, 104:1/2, 11-19. Read More