Today's college web sites are largely collections of static pages that present the same information to each individual. Each person must then click through layers of web pages to reach the topics of specific personal interest.

Consider a campus website that fully integrates with the administrative and academic information systems. When students click to "my Skidmore", the home page:

• Displays links to each of the student's courses along with the latest instructor announcements for each one.
• Lists announcements for campus events that match the student's personal interests profile.
• Offers dynamic links to the services most frequently accessed by each student at each point in the semester. For example, course registration links appear when needed, along links to degree audit and email links to the individual's faculty advisor.

Gettysburg College has recently implemented a locally-developed information portal.
UCLA has a highly developed portal known as "My UCLA".

Several companies are developing commercial portals that are offered to colleges at reduced cost in exchange for the opportunity to market products and services to the students. Some examples include:

Campus Pipeline, whose services link closely to SCT's Banner administrative system.
Mascot.com offers a higher education portal service that is free of advertisements.