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PROBLEM
For students at Baylor University, the advising process is very annoying and
unorganized. Not only for Baylor students, but faculty and staff as well. Some of the
issues facing the student body are unclear advice in their field of study, unclear advice as
to how to register and transfer in summer school credits/courses, difficulty mapping out a
graduation plan and viewing a degree audit for possible majors, as well as registering for
classes in general due to system failure during registration times. The advising
departments in every different school of study are overworked and do not communicate
effectively. Consequently, student have become frustrated with classes either being made
up, class sequences are out of order, or graduation day becoming postponed. This affects
students from day one of freshman year (regular advising department) until graduation
day (school of study). Confusion also makes every advising office’s job harder. Since
the advising departments do not communicate effectively or all on the same system,
advisors are left cleaning the mess other advising departments have left the student with.
SOLUTION
The solution seemed apparent: there was a need to create a system more
sophisticated than BearWeb that was accessible to the entire student body, as well as the
faculty and staff. That is when the idea of Baylor University Advising Service (BUAS)
was created. This system simplifies the job of the advising department as well as the
aggravation for the students. The features include a filed system for course equivalency
documents from community colleges, easily accessible and hypothetical degree audits,
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uncomplicated registration processes and straightforward online advising, among many
other features. This will lessen the workload for the advising department, become easy to
maintain, and have easy accessibility and prompt solutions provided for students with
each semester mapped out tailored to each individual student’s strengths as well as
keeping in mind their weaknesses.
BUDGET
Costs
The budget is extremely reasonable; the entire system over the period of 5 years
would end up costing $108,000, which includes: system start up costs ($75,000 in year
one); BUAS maintenance ($2,000 per year in years 2, 3, 4, and 5); BUAS systems
training ($2,000 per year), and components ($1,000 per year). System start up costs
would be created the software and getting it up and running via Internet on Baylor
University’s network. BUAS maintenance would be required if there was system failure
or an outage of some sort. Also once a semester for updating which professors are
teaching which classes, etc. BUAS systems training would include training the advising
department how to use BUAS as well as other faculty and staff. Components would
include the additional Internet servers needed to run BUAS.
Benefits
There are multiple benefits to having the BUAS. The intangible benefits are
saving time for the students as well as faculty and staff, reduction in advising
appointments ultimately leading to a more satisfied advising department, and a reduction
in student confusion. Tangible benefits would be that students are not taking any
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unnecessary classes (estimated $1,860.67) as well as summer school alternatives ($1,500
per class difference). For an average student, this would save the entire student body an
average of $204,321,600.67. Subtract the cost of the system, and there is still
$204,213,600.67 money saved for students over the course of four years.
Planning
The advising process has come under fire from many students at Baylor
University and other universities nationwide. Our group has devised an online advising
system available for access to Baylor students and faculty that will layout a semester-by-
semester course schedule for each desired major. The Baylor University Advising
System (BUAS) will not completely do away with the old system. Instead it will work in
conjunction with the old system and help both students and faculty achieve a better end-
result.
The first step is determining how feasible the BUAS will be to create. This leads
our group to our first goal in the plan which is to gather information from Baylor
advisors, the IT department, and any other necessary people that might know what it
would take to create such a system. After discussing our plans with faculty, we will then
have an idea of all the resources needed to start the project. Once the resources have
been determined, then our budget can be created which will guide any expenditure related
to the system.
Analysis
In order for BUAS to be successful, it will need to benefit both students and
faculty. First, students want a system that will save them time and prevent stress while
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giving them an insight on the courses they will need to complete in future semesters. The
stress students go through related to the advising normally deals with inaccuracies.
BUAS must be constantly updated to provide students with accurate major requirements,
courses, etc. Also, most students want to minimize their time in college by taking the
right courses at the right times, and, if possible, prevent switching majors. The BUAS
needs to be able to paint a “realistic” picture for student to clearly see what courses they
are required to take for their desired major. Although the BUAS will be designed to help
lessen the number of major switches by students, they are bound to happen from time to
time. Katie Rasmussen, an advisor at Baylor University, suggested a “what-if” option,
which would allow students to see what courses they would need if they changed majors.
For advisors to accept the BUAS, it will need to be simple. The general
consensus among advisors on Baylor’s campus is the degree audits are confusing to
decipher and explain to students. Along with being confusing, the degree audits are not
always consistent with degree plans that several departments have listed online. The
BUAS will differ from this system by being both accurate and reliable, which will
facilitate advisors on their way towards helping more students.
Design
The design of the BUAS must be parallel to the needs of the user. The design
envisioned is a clean, straightforward online system similar to BearWeb. The first screen
of the BUAS will be the login page for students and faculty. The next screen will allow
the student to provide the following information such as their major and field of study as
well as a possible second major. Then the student will mark checkboxes for all of the
classes that they have previously taken, which will lead the system to generate their
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graduation plan. The following screens will show the student their graduation plan,
which will differ depend on whether the student takes summer school or on the student‘s
desired course load per semester. Other features will include the “what-if” option and
information on how to register/transfer summer school courses and credits. The screen
layouts can be seen in greater detail in Appendix .
Development
During the development phase, programmers will be working closely with
advisors to ensure the final product includes everything in the design. This will reduce
the risk of having to spend time going back and making changes once the program has
been completed. Also by including the advisors in the development of the software itself,
programmers are able make the layout of the program look exactly like the designs
prepared by advisors. Also during this phase, project leaders will develop the IT
infrastructure that supports the program and will consist of two parts: human resources
and technology. The human resources side of the infrastructure will outline how advisors
are trained to use the program and who is responsible for providing the technical support
when problems or malfunctions arise. The technology side of the infrastructure will set
up the database working behind the scenes of the program that is responsible for storing
all the course data and student plans. The program will be written onto software that can
then be installed onto any computer or loaded onto the BearWeb website allowing
anyone with a ID and password access.
Testing
As the program travels through development, each portion will be tested as
completed. This will make sure each part of the program functions correctly before
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moving on and reduce the amount of time needed to search for problems that arise after
the program has been fully written. Once the program is completed, programmers and
advisors will test the entire application to make sure everything functions as it’s intended
and that the whole program is connected to the database. During development and after
completion, the following test conditions must be met for the program to be
implemented:
Test
Condition
#
Test Condition Expected Result
1 Click on “Create Advising Plan” Student information page appears
2 Type in Student ID and password Correct student file opens
3 Click “Next” after choosing major Correct detailed listing of courses
appears
4 Leave certain required fields
empty and click “Next”
Error page appears
5 Select courses taken by clicking
the check boxes and hit “Next”
Summary page of all chosen course
correctly appears
6 Click “Show Graduation Plan” Graduation plan page appears and
correctly lists required courses in
chronological order
7 Click “Print” Graduation plan page sent to printer
8 Click “Finish” Graduation plan page sent via email to
student’s correct advisor
9 Click “Edit” Redirected from page “Graduation
plan” to page “Select your major”
10 Let the open program idle for 15
minutes
ID and password page appears when
resuming use of program after 15
minutes of idle time
Implementation
The advising program will be implemented by combining the parallel and the
pilot implementation methods. The program will go live on June 1 and only be available
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on Baylor computers on campus in advising offices. By implementing the program
during the summer, only a small, controlled group of students will be able to use it and
advisors, along with the IT department will be able to monitor its progress much more
efficiently. By the end of the summer, incoming freshmen and transfer students will use
the program during orientation to create their profiles in the database and sign up for their
first semester of classes. The old system will still be in place throughout the summer and
the fall semester in case any problems arise with the new program. At the beginning of
the fall semester, the program will go live on the BearWeb website where every student
will be given access and required to create their profiles for the first time and enter their
information into their graduation plans. By implementing the program during the
summer and allowing access to only a small amount of people, advisors are able to
devote more of their time to learning the program and get the training they need on all the
new procedures.
Maintenance
The IT support department will be responsible for working with advisors to make
necessary changes, corrections, additions, and updates to the new advising program.
During the first year of implementation, the support department will be very busy making
changes and additions to the program to meet the needs of the advisors and students.
After the interface and appearance changes have been made and the program is working
exactly as it should be, the majority of the work required to maintain the program will
only involve updating the database to add and remove new and old courses for each
semester as graduation requirements change.
