ONLINE STUDENT INDIVIDUAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Johann Siau
School of Electronic, Communication and Electrical Engineering University of Hertfordshire
College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom J.Siau@herts.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
The online student individual project management system (OSIPMS) addresses current methodology used in managing the diversity of projects for undergraduate and postgraduate students, ranging from the start of a project to completion and beyond. Inter- and cross-moderation of project assessment between members of staff results in a complex but effective process used to assess students project. OSIPMS enables academic staff to effectively manage student project activities throughout their project engagement. Students will benefit from OSIPMS as it is an enabling tool for them to submit weekly journals and to reflect on their current progress, whilst maintaining an up-to-date online project plan. The complexity of managing multiple projects is simplified through a simple to use web application that is accessible anywhere, anytime. Traditional paper based assessment is no longer in use and is now replaced entirely by the online system.
The paper aims to disseminate good practice in student individual project management activities in the School of Electronic, Communication and Electrical Engineering, as well as future developments planned for the system. The system has been praised by external examiners and by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) during their recent accreditation visit. This project is currently funded by the Learning and Teaching Development Funds and the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre.
INTRODUCTION
The online project management system helps support staff in the management of final year project students, and allows the school project management team to have a complete oversight of the entire process. The complexity of managing multiple projects is simplified through a simple to use web application that is designed to fit its purpose. OSIPMS is enabled for moderation whereby staff involved in supervision and assessment can have access to each student’s profile. This presents staff with a simplified view of project students whom they are supervising and assessing, including the ability to generate paper reports, summaries, and other template reports from the system. End of year reports, and automatic graphing, mean values, standard deviations, and distributions are automatically computed by OSIPMS. Traditional paper based assessment is no longer in use and is now being entirely replaced by the online system.
The OSIPMS incorporates student’s online journals whereby project students can submit weekly progress reports to their supervisor. All students undertaking a project are now required to submit weekly progress report via the project management system. The system also allows student to create and track the progress of their project using an online project plan integrated within OSIPMS. Staff members can access student’s journal and provide comments and feedback via the project management system. The system simplifies the administration and management of multiple student projects and is now being actively used in this school. The system also enables staff to project manage their students whilst on the move away from their desk. OSIPMS gives staff complete project management and assessment all under one web application. Security is of paramount importance and this has been taken into account when developing OSIPMS, with utmost concern for the integrity of the backend database.
External examiners have also commented positively on the use of such system and have commended excellence practice in project management activities within the school quoting: “I find the on-line system for managing final year projects impressive”.
OSIPMS is designed to be a student and staff focused online project management tool rather than a project focused tool, as opposed to project management tools available on the market. This project demonstrates the effective use of blended learning and assessment methodologies in simplifying project management activities for staff and students. It is envisaged that the project will make credible contribution to the engineering community, as well as providing educational community with an invaluable tool in project management activities.
Similar Work
Table 1 shows a summary of existing project management tool that are available. TopTenReviews (2007) provides a review of software based project management tool that are being used by the industry. However, majority if not all project management tools researched are complex in nature and are heavily focused on projects instead of providing assessment capabilities, inter- and intra-moderation, and in engaging students to reflect on their project management activities.
Table 1: Other web-based project management system
Web URL Summary
http://proj.chbs.dk/ Contains a generic list of open source application or web based project management tools.
http://www.easyprojects.net/ Registration and subscription fee required for project management.
http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/ Open source, free project management tool, focusing mainly on gantt charts, and mimics 80% of Microsoft Projects functionality.
http://www.iteamwork.com Team work solutions for project management.
http://www.aceproject.com Hosted solution, free for small number of users, but subscription based for large number of users.
THE SYSTEM
OSIPMS is made up of two web applications, the e-Proforma and e-Journal. The front-end web applications are fault-tolerant and load balanced. The security of the system is secured as all authentications are performed via 128-bit SSL Encryption and they are further validated against Active Directory (MSDN Library, 2007). e-Proforma and e-Journal are physically on separate servers, and on separate networks. All transactions and records are held in a database server. The database server is completely isolated from both the staff and student network and further improves the security of the system (Figure 1). Network access to the database server is only possible via the front-end web applications. OSIPMS has five levels of access rights to cater for project supervisors, assessors, moderation group leader, project tutor and system administrator. Each role has its relevant permission to certain records on OSIPMS.
Figure 1: Overview of the Online Project Management System (e-Proforma & e-Journal) e-Proforma: Staff Interface
Members of the project supervision team have access to students whom they are supervising and assessing via a simple interface, as shown in Figure 2. From here, staff can:
• edit and update individual student’s proforma (Figure 3)
• read, assess and monitor student’s online journal and project plan
• generate and print a PDF document or paper copy of the proforma, overall result summary, and other available formats of report
• email a student or a group of students
• view the current status of their entry on the e-Proforma
The final year project is assessed by four components; feasibility study, project seminar, practical work and project report. These components are individually marked, assessed and moderated by a group of staff members. As the project progresses, staff members are required to mark the work submitted and update e-Proforma.
Figure 3: Individual Student’s Assessment Proforma
Members of staff are able to view a student’s journal through e-Proforma. When a student submits an online journal, the system will automatically notify staff by sending them an email. Supervisors are also able to mark and comment on a particular journal entry and are given the option to either show or leave their comments hidden. The comments are hidden by default. When comments are shown, students will be able to read these comments on their e-Journal. This enable staff to effectively and systematically communicate with each of their project students with regards to specific elements encountered during the project period. Student progress and marks are never shown to the students and are intended to be used by staff to serve as guidance. This will help staff towards the end of the project supervision to formalise a mark based on each student’s weekly performance.
The student’s project plan, as shown in Figure 5, is made accessible via e-Proforma in the journal summary area. This will enable staff to monitor student’s progress throughout the project period. When a student updates their project plan, staff will be able to follow their status. Student’s project plan is read-only and cannot be edited or updated by staff. Further information regarding a particular task can be displayed by moving the mouse pointer over a particular task name.
Staff can generate a number of reports for their own record. These reports are created based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and eXtensible Style Sheet Language (XSL) allowing unlimited forms of report to be designed. The report can be printed or stored as PDF format for future reference. The report generation section is also useful for cross moderation purposes and for examination boards. The reports can be easily created and catered for specific needs. Staff are also presented with a straightforward interface to contact individual or a group of students via email. The system is also designed to generate standard email templates to facilitate common reminders, and tasks.
A common scenario with paper based assessment especially with large number of students is where the project tutor has to chase up individual supervisors for their marks. Combining this with moderation and cross-moderation between staff, the process can become very complex and confusing. The system allows staff to monitor their own status of completion, ensuring that all records are completed correctly. This will instigate peer pressure for staff to complete their marking online and hopefully on time. As a measure of security, all crucial activities on the e-Proforma are logged and staff can also view their previous activities on e-e-Proforma.
Figure 5: Student’s Online Project Plan e-Journal: Student’s Interface
The e-Journal as shown in Figure 6 and 7, allows project students to create a standard progress report throughout the duration of the project. These progress reports/journals can then be used
as the main topics of discussion during regular meetings with their supervisors. When a student logs on to their online journal, the system will inform them of any unread comments. The online journal is also compatible with Pocket IE browsers, allowing students to have the flexibility of submitting their journals through their mobile device. Student can view staff’s comment by selecting an entry with the ‘*’ sign appended to it. These are the corresponding comments on the journal entry that staff has turned visible to students. Viewed comments/journals are then marked with the ‘+’ sign. Students are also given the option to print a particular journal or to print the entire journal entry to date. These journals can then be used as a supplement when submitting their final dissertation. Students will not be able to amend journal entries once submitted. However, they are allowed to submit subsequent entries as required.
Figure 6: Student’s Online Journal (e-Journals)
The e-Journal has four well defined categories for student to reflect on activities relating to their final year project. The categories are as follows; work done since last meeting, task completed with reference to original project plan, any difficulties encountered, and plan for the next one/two weeks. Students are advised to complete the journal on a weekly basis preferably prior to the face to face meeting with their supervisor. A good online journal usually tells a story of the student’s project engagement from conception to completion. This has been observed from a number of good journal entries during this academic year.
Figure 7: Student’s Journal Entry
Students are also able to create their project plan online, as shown in Figure 8. Project plans are created during the feasibility study stage of the project. The project plan (in green) is the approved plan of work for the duration of the project. Student can amend their project plan (in red) as they progress through their project and this can then be referenced towards their online journals. All date entries are simplified by the use of a date picker mechanism. Further information regarding a particular task can be displayed by moving the mouse pointer over a particular task name. The editing mode gives student greater control over their project plan. This will enable them to add/edit/update/delete individual tasks and subtasks. Staff has the ability to monitor each student’s project plan via e-Proforma.
Project Tutor Interface
The project tutor is presented with an overall view of all students and staff registered with OSIPMS. This in turn allows the project tutor to monitor the overall progress of individual students, as well as staff’s progress with completion of the proforma. The interface allows project tutor to automatically email staff members in case of incomplete entries on the proforma. Long gone are the days of ‘paper chasing’. OSIPMS was designed to simplify and streamline the day-to-day administrative task which allow for a more efficient way of managing multiple projects within the school. Numerous reports and graphs can also be generated for the purpose of examination boards and for an overview of projects across the undergraduate and postgraduate programme.
Figure 8: Student’s Online Project Plan CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The online student individual project management system is a prime example of blended learning, assessment and management. The model used within the school has been extremely successful and have praised from external examiners, and professional institutions. OSIPMS provides student with a simple to use management interface allowing them to reflect on their project activities. These thoughts are then summarised and recorded systematically through an online journal. OSIPMS also provides staff with a simple to use interface allowing them to effectively manage their project student and to monitor their progress throughout each stage of the project. Most importantly, all the work carried out OSIPMS is transparent and the process of assessment and moderation is clearly shown.
OSIPMS has proven to be a successful project management tool within the school for both staff and student, and the model will be adopted to support postgraduate research and other schools within the university. The author is currently identifying needs from other disciplines within the university to cater for a more generic implementation of OSIPMS. This will lead to further development of the system, incorporating the needs identified above, and to extend the existing project management system to incorporate dynamic marking templates. The author is also planning to repackage the project management system as a complete web application solution made available to the educational sector.
REFERENCE
MSDN Library (2007), Directory Services
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682458.aspx
TopTenReviews (2007), Project Management Software Review 2007. http://project-management-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
