Developing a Web Registration and Course Management System for Staff Development

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Developing a Web Registration and Course
Management System for Staff Development

• Information Systems Technology Training (ISTT)
• Northern Arizona University
• Microcomputers in Education Conference
• March 15, 2005

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ISTT Mission

• The Information Systems Technology Training Team
  (ISTT) was organized to facilitate formal
  technology training opportunities for staff and
  faculty in classroom and online environments.
• Part of NAU Information Technology Services

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ISTT Areas of Training

• Web Development Tools Technology (Dreamweaver,
  Flash, HTML, CSS, SQL, FrontPage, etc.)
• PeopleSoft
• MS Office, Publisher
• Other ITS Supported Applications

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ISTT Team Members

• Steve Sorden Team LeadM.Ed. Ed Tech, Ed
  Leadership
• Dave Berz Senior TrainerM.Ed. Educational
  Technology (in progress)
• Rubén Vásquez Online DeveloperM.Ed.
  Educational Technology
• Chris Montague TrainerM.Ed. Educational
  Technology (in progress)
• Stephen Montague Trainer

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Overview of Presentation

• RegisCM Course Management System
• Rationale for developing our own system.
• Team process for developing RegisCM.
• Tools and technology used in development.
• Demonstration of RegisCM features.
• Roadmap for future development.

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RegisCM
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RegisCM Features

• Provides a single entry point to ISTT
• Organizes and manages training schedule
• Offers a user-friendly way for staff faculty to
  register withdraw from classes
• Displays training by subject, so clients see all
  training, not just lab classes
• Tracks attendance course evaluations
• Reporting tool

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ISTT Needed a New System

• Old system was five years old and looked dated
• It was limited in features
• It was written for a platform that we had moved
  away from (Cold Fusion Access)
• It was becoming increasingly hard to maintain the
  old system

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Commercial Systems

• Expensive (10,000 and up)
• Restrictive licensing clauses
• Took control away from us and placed it in the
  hands of distant vendors
• Still didnt do what we needed

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PeopleSoft

• NAU uses PeopleSoft as our ERP system
• PeopleSoft training module did more or less what
  we needed, with modifications, but we couldnt
  get the modifications

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Open Source Systems

• We spent a lot of time looking at open source
  systems
• We even considered modifying Moodle LMS at one
  point
• After an exhaustive search, we couldnt find
  anything that came close to what we needed

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Decision

• Reluctantly, we decided that developing our own
  system the only viable option.
• The problem was that the team had limited
  programming skills. We were instructional
  designers, not programmers.

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Brainstorming

• We began the project in August of 2004.
• We started by meeting to brainstorm what features
  we wanted to maintain from the old system, as
  well as new features needed.
• We created an extensive wish list.
• We developed story boards for different views and
  passed them around for team discussion
  suggestions.

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Planning Phase

• We created a checklist of the most practical
  features for initial development
• Main areas were divided up between team members
  to develop
• Client
• Admin
• Instructor
• Team had limited experience. We purchased lots of
  books and used Web resources extensively.
• On-the-job training for all

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Planning Board
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Development Timeline

• Project started August of 2004.
• Development proceeded as time permitted.
• We asked for and received permission to
  eventually release RegisCM as open source.
• Conducted usability testing with clients.
• RegisCM successfully went live at NAU in December
  of 2004.

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Tools Technologies

• Used Moodle as a loose guide for how to structure
  Regis
• All settings are contained in two files
• Database connections
• LDAP information
• Email addresses and messages
• Colors used in application
• CSS Themes
• Long and short names

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Tools Technologies

• Dreamweaver MX 2004
• PHP
• MySQL Database
• PremiumSoft Navicat MySQL Client
• Concurrent Versions System (CVS)http//www.cvshom
  e.orghttp//cvsdude.com
• Tortoise CVS
• Cascading Stylesheets (CSS)
• Macromedia Captivate for Tutorials
• DotProject Project Management System

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CVS

• Allows developers to work on code from different
  places at different times.
• Mediates conflicts when two developers have
  changed the same code.

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Environment
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Regis Demo

• Client View
• Instructor View
• Administrative View
• Evaluations

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RegisCM Demo
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Evaluations
Team Lead receives an email of each evaluation.
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The Future?

• Tutorials in WebCT and SCORM
• Add reporting capabilities
• Complete Instructor/Admin Capabilities
• Backup MySQL Database
• Automate Functions (Using cron jobs?)

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Developing a Web Registration and Course
Management System for Staff Development

• http//jan.ucc.nau.edu/sds3/mec2005