Best Practice in Education Portals: Research Document Prepared for The Commonwealth of Learning and SchoolNet Africa

Abstract

A key feature of the ongoing growth of the Worldwide Web over the past five years has been a proliferation of web portals that focus on supporting school education. While many such sites require subscription and registration, there are large numbers that deliver services free of charge to anyone with Internet access. This research project has focused on identifying a representative sample of these sites, describing the services that they offer, and distilling an understanding of emerging best practice. In completing the latter task, we have not constrained ourselves to data gathered during this research project, although all of that data is attached as an annexure to this report. Thus, summary of the best ideas we have found - which is also informed by several prior years of research and experimentation by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) - is presented in this report