Abstract This article considers both the technical and philosophical aspects of building an Intranet for the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds. The primary aim of the project was to enhance the provision of learning support material and improve access to Intranet-hosted information, in particular locally produced Learning Resources, Student and Staff Information. In achieving this aim, the project also prompted an unexpected and very positive acceptance of Intranet technology across the full range of departmental teaching and research activities.
Keywords Intranet architecture; networking technology
The introduction of Intranets in higher education has been gradual.1-3 They are now establishing themselves as a means to providing Internet-based, local information dissemination and document hosting in much the same way as has happened in commercial establishments.4 An Intranet can be defined as `any network which provides similar services within an organisation to those provided by the Internet outside it but which is not necessarily connected to the Internet'. Hong et al.5 provide a readable account of the networking technology that underpins the Internet and Intranets. Whereas the Internet provides mechanisms for making information available outside an organisation for public dissemination, an Intranet provides mechanisms for making information available within, and only within, an organisation for use locally by members of that organisation. In essence, an Intranet provides everything an Internet does, but with improved security designed to guarantee only authorised access and appropriate content management aimed at enhancing document maintenance and productivity.
The main thrust of this project was to improve the visibility of and access to information produced by and for staff and students who are members of the department. In achieving this, it has been necessary to develop simple and workable mechanisms for managing a wide range of documents.
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It is worth underlining at this point that the aim of this project was not to replace paper, but to provide a focus and organising centre for the numerous different types of electronic information produced locally. It was realised early on in this project that it would not be realistic to restrict ourselves to one particular document format. In addition it was recognised that there was a reluctance to produce documents in pure Hypertext Mark-up Language, HTML, the language that underpins most of what we see on the Web today. Inevitably, there is a need to cater for many different file formats. These include HTML and raw Text; the ubiquitous office formats for example Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, WordPerfect; typeset documents such as LaTex and even the Adobe PostScript and Portable Document Formats.
Categories of information
In setting up the Intranet two categories of information were identified: Student Information and Staff Information. Identifying these categories from the outset provided a clear partitioning of information based on intended audience and assisted in the definition of appropriate levels of security.
Course information, including Learning Resources, Class Lists, Photos, Email Addresses, etc., is categorised as Student Information. Physically, these resources are located on network drives on our own department's student server, such that only registered students and staff are allowed access to this area within our Intranet.
It is worth noting that the philosophy behind the provision of the on-line learning resources is that they are provided as support material. The intention is that they should be used to enhance the delivery of courses, the majority of which still rely on traditional lecture- and tutorial-based teaching.
Other information such as Student Data, Research Data, Support Information, etc., is categorised as Staff Information. This is restricted in nature and as such must not be publicly available. This information is kept on our separate staff server that is only accessible to machines located physically within our own private staff network. As such only members of staff are allowed access to this area within our Intranet.
Student Information
Student Information is of relevance to students and staff within the department. The following types of information typically reside under this heading,
Administrative Data
This includes timetable and project information and various lists. These include numerous class lists, e-mail address lists, photo pages, project descriptions, tutor and tutee lists, etc.
Learning Resources
This includes details on the Programmes of Study and Module Syllabuses the BEng, MEng and MSc courses, booklists and on-line Learning Resources specific to particular modules. The latter includes course booklets, lecture notes and overhead transparencies, tutorial worksheets and laboratory briefing notes. This type of information makes up by far the majority of material on our site and is continually expanding. Learning Resources are owned and maintained directly by the individual staff members who contribute to over 60 modules that comprise the BEng, MEng and MSc programmes of study offered in the Electronic, Electrical, Computer, Communications and Power Engineering degree schemes at Leeds.
