1.1 Portal columns and major functions

Following is a comparative analysis of the portal pages of the 30 representative platforms and a summary of the columns on the portal pages. Using grounded theory methods, columns with similar functions are then coded and the portal modules and functions are summarized, as shown in Table 2.

As a whole, portal websites have three kinds of functions: recruitment and publicity that is geared to the public, comprehensive campus services geared to learners, and an access channel for the internal platform. The portal reflects popular features oriented to the public and learners. It has 9 specific page modules. See the first level codes in Table 2 for details.

Table 2  Statistical Summary of Portal Function Columns

1.2 Analysis of commonly used portal columns

In this paper, columns found in 10 or more platforms (one-third of the total) are regarded as commonly used columns, and those found in 20 or more platforms (two-thirds of the total as core columns. The following can be seen from Table 2:

(1) Specific columns: The core portal columns are recruitment and enrollment, introduction to college, learning centre, college news, academic affairs notices, technical support, help, and personal space login. Qualitatively, the learning centre is generally regarded not as an independent column but as a part of recruitment and enrollment since it facilitates student contact and enrollment for each learning centre.

(2) Portal modules: Aside from the special columns, the corresponding numbers for all the portal modules are around 20. This shows that domestic platforms are very similar in the construction of their overall functions and major modules, and they differ significantly only in the specific columns.

(3) Portal functions: There are 6, 7 and 2 commonly used columns related to recruitment & publicity, campus services and access channel, respectively. This shows that portal websites currently emphasize construction of functions related to recruitment & publicity and campus services. As for access channel, the portal mainly offers personal space login and special systems as the two commonly used columns since content related to online learning activities is mostly integrated into the students’ personal space.

1.3 Portal column structure

This paper further analyzes the column structures of the portal pages, and finds there are two major types of structures: the three-column structure and the two-column structure. Not counting the two distance learning and management platforms that do not have portals, there are 15 portals with the three-column structure and 13 portals with the two-column structure. The combined qualitative analysis shows that, for a few portals, there are two problems: One is vague logic in dividing portal content. Similar content is not integrated, leading to confusion in content layout. The other is great repetition in content, with the same function columns appearing several times in the portal.

Based on the above analysis of the portal's function columns, the author holds that the three-column structure is preferable for the portal page. From left to right, the order would be recruitment & publicity, campus services and access channel content. There are three advantages to this format. The first is the reflection of the process from recruitment and enrollment to campus services to entrance into learning. The second is the classification and arrangement of similar functions into columns, which reduces redundant construction of function columns, makes the portal content clearer and simpler, and improves portal usability. The third is that making campus services the central focus of the portal helps promote a campus atmosphere and highlights a service-oriented philosophy.

2. Functions and structure of personal space

2.1 Functions of personal space

The personal space is a studio for the individual student’s learning, exchange and management, and its contents are organized around individual students. It encapsulates the platform’s support for the students’ online learning activities. The statistical summary of the home page functions of the personal space of the 30 platforms is shown in Table 3.

As further summary and coding of the functions of the portal, personal space and course space of the entire learning system appears later in this paper, no in-depth summary is given here.

Table 3  Statistics and Summary of the Functions of Student Personal Space