ioPortal

ioPortal is free open source software available under the GPL 3 software license.

ioPortal is a java web application which can be installed on a web application server such as Apache Tomcat.

ioPortal has been under development for a number of years and greatly benefited from being used by a number of University led research and development projects funded by JISC in the United Kingdom.

Thus to date it has been mostly used by education institutions. Primary use case have included a course search engine, a learner record search engine and a web portal for recording or promoting an individual or a groups, skills, achievements, capabilities and so on (This is sometimes known as PDP but the acronym is often debated).

ioPortal has most recently been used in CourseExchange networks for the exchange of course related information with emerging open standards like XCRI. Currently an example of this can be seen as used by the Yorkshire and Humberside East Lifelong Learning Network YHELLN.

Amongst the PDP aspects of ioPortal are tools and wizards known as PDP Activities for things such as building a cv, eportfolio, a personal website and personal Journal creation tools.

Usually used in conjunction with an Ionetworknode web application, ioPortals may be linked to create opportunities for inter institutional collaboration such as research groups, software development groups and special interest groups. However there are no rules. Although the product is relatively in its infancy, it has much potential as an open source product with a special history in the UK education sector.

The web application was written using java, struts, hibernate and XHTML with a postgres database underneath. Hibernate means that choice of database is possible.

ioPortal is licensed under the GPL3 license and can be obtained here via the developers section.

ioPortal - interoperability portal.

ioPortal is a web application which provides a collection of web based services for:

• personal development [PDP]
• professional development [CPD]
• pdp activities [planning, resume / cv builder etc]
• activity management
• activity design
• file repository
• record management [Learning, Transcript or any other...]
• WYSIWYG development of personal web sites and portfolios [e-portfolio]
• personal journals [blogs]
• interoperability standard [xml, RSS and IMS standards]

A range of very specific activities has been designed for e-learning and distributed e-learning systems.

Phosphorix have worked in partnership with a number of higher education pilots and projects;

• SHELL
  • University of Plymouth, Cornwall College, Somerset College of Art & Technology, Exeter College, North Devon College, Weymouth College, Yeovil College
• The Learning Matrix
  • JMU - Liverpool John Moores University, LHU - Liverpool Hope University, EHU - Edge Hill University, St Helens College, West Cheshire College
• EELLS
  • University of Hertfordshire, University of Luton], PDP4LIFE [University of Bournemouth, Yeovil College, Dartington College, Weymouth College
• ICEBOX
  • Liverpool Hope University] and most recently CoL CPD Noticeboard [UOL - University of Liverpool, JMU, EHU, JMU

Phosphorix will continue to develop and improve the quality of ioPortal with the SOLVS, ioNW, PDP4XL, ICEBOX Live, openPDD as well as a number of the UK LLNs [Lifelong Learning Networks].