"We expect that the presence of the portals will encourage Houses and departments to keep their pages up-to-date," Steen said.

But Martin noted that the portal pages were not developed to force Web sites to maintain their content.

"We're not in the business of telling people to update their Web pages," he said. "The important thing is to enable people to get the information that is there."

The benefits of portal pages will not be limited to students, Martin said. The system will make it possible for course heads to access updated versions of class lists, assisting them at the beginning of the semester when students frequently add and drop courses.

Alpert said systems much like the proposed portal pages are already in use elsewhere.

A similar system is already in use at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA.) At Harvard Business School (HBS) a "Course Platform" on the Intranet makes all course assignments and other information available to students through their computers.

Head of Technology Development at HBS James A. Farley said their system has worked well.

"We've received very positive feedback on the Intranet in general, and the Course Platform specifically," he said. "The Intranet has absolutely increased student usage of the web for day-to-day information gathering and communication."