Assessing the need for a digital learning space
The Client
The Indiana Learning Portal Partnership is a diverse group of organizations with technology-based education and information services. They all believe the effort to establish a statewide Learning Portal is the right idea at the right time.
The Challenge
The Indiana Learning Portal Partnership (ILPP) is responding to learner needs by building a portal to a Web-based digital learning space. The Indiana Learning Portal will provide learners and students a seamless and personalized source of information and educational opportunities—available in Indiana and throughout the world. The digital learning space will provide educational and community building tools to enhance learning. It will serve people across the full spectrum of the learner lifecycle—from preschool through elementary, secondary through high school, into higher education, and on to lifelong adult learning—a goal that no other state has accomplished.
The Partnership received a grant to begin preliminary planning which included the following:
- Needs assessment
- Functional and technical requirements
- Request for Information from vendors
- Request for proposal for the implementation
- Prototype to demonstrate the portal concepts
- Proposed development to fund the implementation and sustainable operation of the Indiana Learning Portal
The Haverstick Approach
Our methodology segmented the project into manageable pieces, developing specific deliverables and checkpoints for each phase to evaluate progress, risk, and business drivers. This project was divided into six segments which are inherently iterative and incremental, where each segment builds upon the work done in the prior segment and drills deeper into the details. The six segments of our approach were:
- Strategy definition
- Business architecture
- Solution design
- RFI issuance
- Prototype development
- Request for funding development
The Solution
During the strategy definition segment, we documented and confirmed the ILPP’s goals and expectations for the Portal and clearly defined the intended uses of the Portal across various stakeholders.
During the business architecture segment, we assessed the various audience and stakeholder needs and began to define how the Portal will operate in the future. To accomplish these tasks, Haverstick Consulting conducted numerous interviews with the ILPP members, led over 13 focus-group sessions with potential portal users of all ages and backgrounds, and conducted market research. Deliverables from this segment included a needs matrix, functional and technical requirements, current state processes, gap analysis, organizational impact analysis and a portal architecture blueprint.
In the solution design segment, Haverstick utilized our experience in developing learning and portal solutions to identify the best practices for running a learning portal and synthesize those into key, high-level supporting processes. We translated the outcomes of the strategy and business architecture segments into an application architecture. Deliverables for this segment included solution design, portal processes and portal application architecture.
Haverstick developed and issued a request for information (RFI) to over 80 vendors during the RFI issuance segment. The RFI included the conceptual, functional, and technical requirements developed in the solution design. The objective of the RFI was to create awareness with potential vendors and gather information about functionality and tools that currently exist or are in development that could be simulated for the prototype.
The objective of the prototype development segment was to create a compelling prototype that more clearly demonstrates the Portal concept, reduces its abstract nature, and incorporates as much functionality as is feasible. The prototype is role-based and demonstrates how the portal can be adapted to meet the needs of every learner—from preschool through adult learner. The prototype is intended to be demonstrated to a designated audience to gather feedback and secure funding.
During the final segment, request for funding development, Haverstick assisted the ILPP in creating a grant request document that the ILPP is using to market the learning Portal and to obtain funding for its development.
The Result
The Indiana Learning Portal Partnership is currently using the results of this portal strategy to garner additional funding and attract new business partners to the initiative. In particular, Haverstick Consulting was able to provide the ILPP:
- A demonstrated need for a learning portal for Indiana learners through a needs analysis
- A demonstrated readiness for a digital learning space through a readiness assessment
- A full-featured, compelling prototype that illustrates the portal concepts through learner-based scenarios
- High-level business and technical requirements to establish an implementation approach
- An organizational impact analysis so member partners can begin appropriate resource planning
- A well-defined application, network, organization and process architectures for the Portal
- A funding request document that, in conjunction with the prototype, can be used to garner foundation, business, and partner support for the implementation effort
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