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Alina Andreica alina@staff.ubbcluj.ro

Academic Competitiveness and Integrated Information Systems. Implementing UBB-online. Alina Andreica alina@staff.ubbcluj.ro Project co-workers: Daniel Stuparu, Florina Covaci, Gabriel Pop, Arpad Imre IT Department, Chemistry Dpt, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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Alina Andreica alina@staff.ubbcluj.ro

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  1. Academic Competitiveness and Integrated Information Systems. Implementing UBB-online Alina Andreica alina@staff.ubbcluj.ro Project co-workers: Daniel Stuparu, Florina Covaci, Gabriel Pop, Arpad Imre IT Department, Chemistry Dpt, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania {dstuparu, fghetie, gabrielp}@staff.ubbcluj.ro , aimre@chem.ubbcluj.ro Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  2. Focus • IT and academic competitiveness • Advantages & necessity of information system integration for increasing competitiveness • System integration framework based on MS technology & an e-learning – content sharing portal implementation • The solution may be applied for various DBMS – supporting the information systems Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  3. Topics • Proficient IT Strategies • The Working Framework • System Integration Framework and Principles • Web Services & facilities • Web Portal Administration • Conclusions and Future Work • References Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  4. Organization objective & activity target field Management style & strategy Financial Resources Human Resources Policy IT Strategies • The larger the organization, its resources &investments, the more relevant are ICT “consequences” • IT strategy must be designed according to the organization’s goals & resources adjusted & approved by management levels Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  5. ICT Strategies • ICT implementations should be adapted to: • The aim of the organization & activity target field • different objectives and target fields impose specific characteristics on IT strategies • Financial resources / possibilities • the degree of willingness to invest in ICT depends on involvement & awareness of IT benefits Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  6. ICT Strategies • ICT implementations should be adapted to: • Human resources policy – in IT • create proper strategies within a plan of efficient ICT implementation • network admins, software developers, project managers • Management style and strategy – • Integrating IT strategy into the overall management strategy • awareness of IT efficiency Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  7. The Working Framework • Knowledge bases society - IT impact on learning & management processes • Integrated systems – condition for competitiveness • Information system integration - mainly studied for business and organizational processes • Hasselbring, W. ”Information System Integration”.ACM, 43 (6). 2000 and other work • Semantic points of view & metamodelling Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  8. The Working Framework • E-learning systems • pre-defined facilities: Blackboard or WebCT • - www.blackboard.com • - www.webct.com • Flexible facilities: MS Learning Gateway, moodle • http://www.microsoft.com/education/solutions/higheredportals.aspx • www.moodle.org • Organizational necessity of content sharing & communication tools Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  9. Info systems - EU educational institutions • Educational systems – • Developed in-house – (technical) Universities, • Acquired : U Campus, People Soft, etc. • Administrative management – ERP systems • Mainly acquired – for example SAP • Integration problems • Integration with the e-learning system • Integration with research systems / facilities Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  10. Proposed Solution of an integrated portal • the design of a system integration framework for providing web services into a global portal,including web-based facilities offered by dedicated information systems • Integration & synchronization of databases based on different technologies (php / postgresql, asp / MS sql) • An integrated architecture based on ILM Microsoft server, and additional interface modules • integrates the dedicated information systems into a web portal that also provides e-learning facilities, based on SharePoint Portal • ILM can be used to synchronize and optimize data access and delegate processing means to the appropriate dedicated software components – by specific interfaces • Adequacy to organizational IT strategy Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  11. Integration Framework And Principles • authentication solution - maps facilities from the dedicated information systems into the portal, for each user category - ILM type server • 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 – specific interface modules • A global synchronized database is in train of being created - human resource & organization chart • User[userid, account, password, unitid] • Unit[unitid, unitname, …] • Organization_chart[unitid, superior_id, horiz_id] Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  12. Integration Framework And Principles Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  13. Integration Framework And Principles - example • database synchronisation --> data warehouse • Example: AcademicInfo, ManageAsist, Research Management System and Portal databases • Basic data for organizational management: organisation chart, HR • Example: • 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:, units, human resources, grants & corresponding financial information Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  14. Integration Framework And Principles • Permission management • Configures portal content for each user category • Group based • User categories - example: • Students ( PhD students, international students): curricula content; specialization based groups • Teachers ( teacher assistants): content management; discipline based groups • Administrators: administration permissions; faculty based groups • other users: secretariats, alumni, partners, etc. Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  15. Integration Framework And Principles • 2 database management systems • PostgreSQL for ManageAsist and Research Management System and MS SQL Server for AcademicInfo • Global database; bi-directional synchronization • this solution ensures significant autonomy functional advantages for information systems, compared to a direct Active Directory integration & mapping • We are implementing a synchronous database replication, in order to obtain real time synchronization • Asynchronous methods are also explored if the run time of the global synchronizing tends to increase too much Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  16. Integration Framework And Principles • database synchronization • MS Identity Lifecycle Management server, has advanced integration facilities with our e-learning portal • we are configuring the necessary permission mappings from the dedicated information systems into the authentication server by means of dedicated interfaces which transfer credentials from the portal into each system AcademicInfo (SQL Server) the proposed integration solution may be applied indifferent organizations, for integrating their dedicated information systems ManageAsist (PostgreSQL) ILM DB (SQL Server) Research MS (PostgreSQL) Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  17. E-learning systems - 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 • development of the student and goal centered learning model • Information system implementation stages; user involvement in specification, testing, implementing • system flexibility requirements and de-centralized system administration that were pursued are expected to prove their efficiency in future developments Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  18. Web services - E-learning services • SharePoint built in facilities • content & schedule management and sharing • communication facilities (e-mail – OWA type, discussion lists, etc.) • evaluation tools and feed-back facilities; task management ; survey tools • blog and RSS tools • The system is also open to adding new web-parts, services or components Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  19. Web services - E-learning services Managing an educational resource (in design permissions) Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  20. Web Services – virtual labs • support learning in experimental sciences and sharing experimental knowledge by electronic means in fields like: process engineering, environmental engineering, physics, chemistry, biology • on-line virtual experiments and on-line labs; case studies based on mathematical modelling and simulation; recorded video sequences and on-line video streaming; posting material to be further processed with dedicated client Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  21. Web Services – virtual labs Example of simulation process Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  22. The Web Services http://academicinfo.ubbcluj.ro/Info • AcademicInfo is an integrated information system dedicated to managing educational information, with processing facilities for secretariats, specific access facilities for students and teachers and relevant synthesis regarding the educational process • models educational processes at BBU level, ensuring course selection from all faculties’ curricula in study agreements, manages 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 • various types of facilities: fee management, student documents and requests, on-line course evaluation Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  23. The Web Services – http://manageasist.ubbcluj.ro • ManageAsist system is the integrated software system for administrative management - an ERP system adapted for higher education institutions • designed on systematic principles • modules: Document management, Assets, Warehouse, Cashier, Finance, Accountancy, Grants, Human Resources and Acquisitions, and decision assistance facilities • Each module contains management reports for the corresponding compartment; global decision assistance facilities will be improved • Previous papers address: advanced design principles, means of processing hierarchical structures,module integration – see references Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  24. The Web Services http://infocercetare.ubbcluj.ro • Research Management System manages research activities, by offering accessible and user-friendly means of collecting specific information, automatically performing quantitative analyses, syntheses and evaluations • a tool for quantitative research evaluation; a tool for supporting the design of competitive research strategies at an institutional level • Facilities for • members of the academic & research staff, PhD students • research management levels: chairs, institutes, departments, faculties, university • See references for details Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  25. Web Services Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  26. Web Portal Administration • The web portal providing e-learning and web integration facilities is based on a SharePoint solution • it has proven to be very convenient in flexible administration and integration purposes • dedicated questionnaires for administrators, students and teachers - created and interpreted using the survey functionality built-un in the platform (Share Point Portal); • the administrators’ survey: https://portal.portalid.ubbcluj.ro • Respondents: 7 of 10 active administrators • Administration functionalities, functionalities for developing educational content and platform development were very well rated: >=4 on a scale 1-5 • The adaptability and flexibility platform features that were mainly aimed proved to have a good feed-back Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  27. Web Portal Administration • Administrators were requested to evaluate, on a 1 – 5 scale (1=very weak, 2=weak, 3=moderate, 4=good, 5=very good), the following characteristics • administration functionalities - average grade 4.14; • communication functionalities - average grade was 3.86; • functionalities for administering educational content - average grade 4; • functionalities for developing educational content - average grade 3.43; Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  28. Web Portal Administration • Administrators were requested to evaluate, on a 1 – 5 scale (1=very weak, 2=weak, 3=moderate, 4=good, 5=very good), the following characteristics • functionalities for platform development - average grade 4.43; • platform adaptability / flexibility characteristics - average grade 3.57; • reporting facilities - average grade was 4 • all characteristics are positively rated – most average >4 Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  29. Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  30. Web Portal Administration • 86% of administrators 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 • 57% didn’t have the experience of using other platform • administration functionalities and functionalities for developing educational content are well rated: 29% very good, 57% good, 14% moderate • functionalities for platform development are very well rated: 43% very good, 57% good • adaptability and flexibility characteristicshave a very good feed-back Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  31. Conclusions and Future Work • information system development and implementation as tools for increasing organization competitiveness + the importance of designing a system integration framework • Organizations face the phase of system integration • The universities’ case is quite complex, since their activity covers a wide range of areas: education and learning, research, administration • Integrated web services: learning facilities, virtual labs and dedicated information facilities • Solution generality: single log-on framework for providing learning, sharing & collaboration facilities + dedicated information system services • Extendibility in organizations; solution adaptability Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  32. Conclusions and Future Work • 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 • a global integrated database and a permission mapping scheme for ensuring appropriate access into the dedicated information systems & portal content • User identities that access the portal are further redirected in authentication modules which ensure dedicated access • good extensibility degree for various organization cases: single log-on framework for providing learning, sharing & collaboration facilities + dedicated information system services ; Solution adaptation to the specific organizational IT management strategy Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  33. Selected References • Andreica A. (2006), IT Strategies In Increasing Business Competitiveness, Studia Europaea, (p.139-148), LI, 3 • Andreica A. B., Stuparu D., Ghetie F. (2009), Design and Implementation of an Erp System for Universities, Proceedings of IADIS Information Systems 2009,(p 315-322), IADIS Press, Eds: M. Nunes, P. Isaias, P. Powell • Hasselbring, W. ”Information System Integration”. Communications of the ACM, 43 (6). pp. 32-36, 2000 • Hasselbring, Wilhelm and Pedersen, Susanne, “Metamodelling of Domain-Specific Standards for Semantic Interoperability”. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3782, pp. 557 – 559, 2005 Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

  34. Selected References • Andreica A. B. (2009), Integrated Software Framework for Academic Management , IADIS Multiconference on Computer Science and Information Systems - Informatics, Algarve Portugal, 17-23 June 2009, Proceedings of Informatics 2009 ,(p. 221-224), IADIS Press, Editor: Hans Weghorn, Jörg Roth, Pedro Isaias • Berry M., Linoff G. (2000), Mastering Data Mining, John Wiley & Sons • Hoganson, K., Guimaraes, M., (2003), “N-Tier Client/Server Course”, Consortium for Computing Sciences in College Conference, Dunwoody, Georgia • Horton, William, Horton, Katherine, (2003), E-learning Tools and Technologies: A consumer's guide for trainers, teachers, educators, and instructional designers, Wiley • PostgreSQL Team , “High Availability, Load Balancing, and Replication” http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/high-availability.html Ministerul Comunicaţiilor şi Societăţii Informaţionale Organismul Intermediar pentru Promovarea Societăţii Informaţionale Proiectul SMIS 4424: Sistem electronic aplicativ integrat de educatie al Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai

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