University of Toronto Department of Computer Science A Feasibility Study Prepared for Michail Flouris CSC340 TA February 4 2002 Prepared by Amit A Kaul Arvin Kamboj Lawrence Llaguno Table of Contents Feasibility Study Introduction Understanding the Current System Scope of the Study Users Problems Objectives and Requirements Comparison Criteria Alternatives Alternative Analysis Summary of Findings Recommendations Conclusion 3 3 4 5 8 10 11 13 15 21 23 23 Appendices Appendix A Screenshots Appendix B CDF Administrator Interview Appendix C Survey Tools Appendix D Survey Data Professors Appendix E Survey Data Teaching Assistants Appendix F Survey Data Students Appendix G Detailed Explanation of Cost Benefit Analysis Appendix H Information Flow Appendix I Glossary Appendix J Team Report Form 24 28 30 34 38 42 55 56 57 58 2 Introduction Organization Description The Department of Computer Science DCS at the University of Toronto was the first computer science department established in Canada In a recent study it was rated the foremost Canadian computer science department and among the best in North America Fields of study include Information Systems Computer Science Software Engineering Human Computer Interaction Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence Many programs combine another field with computer science such as Economics Mathematics Physics or Statistics The DCS offers the latest equipment and software to students On all three campuses St George Erindale Scarborough PC and UNIX workstation environments support the growing computing needs of all undergraduate and graduate courses The introduction of the World Wide Web has revolutionized the face of education It is a rich source of information for students lecturers researchers and professionals It allows us to get information quickly and effectively It has been embraced world wide as a universal means of communication Therefore for our study we chose to analyze the Department of Computer Science web system We will discuss possible alternative solutions to the current system and determine which solution is the best Understanding the Current System Currently all computing support for undergraduate courses in the Department of Computer Science is provided by the Computing Disciplines Facility CDF In order to understand the current CDF infrastructure we interviewed CDF System Administrator Lloyd Smith See Appendix B Lloyd is the Lead Administrator for the CDF PC environment and is heavily involved with all aspects of CDF administration and user support He was able to give our group valuable insight regarding the CDF infrastructure and users CDF hardware support consists of three Sun Solaris workstation laboratories one Linux workstation laboratory and two Microsoft Windows based PC laboratories All access to the CDF system including any CDF applications is granted through user accounts Students are issued user accounts to the system under two circumstances a Students enrolled in a Computer Science undergraduate program may request a permanent user account which is deployed by the system administrators b Students without a permanent account are issued user accounts on a per studentper course basis which are removed from the system upon completion of the course Support for web initiatives in the Computer Science department is also provided by the CDF Undergraduate course websites are stored on CDF servers CDF system 3 administrators deploy and administer storage space on these web servers It is important to note that all content on individual course web pages is created and maintained solely by the professor or teaching assistants Currently there is a main portal for the online CDF community which exists at http www cdf utoronto edu See Appendix A Figures 1 2 Among other options the current interface allows students to access a list of course websites for all undergraduate and graduate courses in the department As the content is created and maintained by the professor added functionality is included at their discretion Current course website functionality includes course syllabi announcements lecture materials assignment information course standing sample tests CDF account listings and scheduling information for important dates CDF also maintains a news server with individual newsgroups for each course The newsgroups provide a forum for individuals involved with the course to communicate See Appendix A Figure 6 Students use the newsgroup to ask questions which are then answered by professors teaching assistants and other students Some professors use the newsgroup to communicate announcements and other course related information The newsgroup service is a stand alone system which is not incorporated into the course website both being independent of one another In addition to the CDF Home Page there exists a CDF online information system with limited functionality The application is located at https www cdf utoronto ca students See Appendix A Figure 3 4 This system contains functionality for the online submission of assignments Professors update the information system with assignment deadline information so that students may submit their assignments from the internet The system mimics the functionality of the assignment submission tool available to users working in the CDF laboratories There also exists a CDF tool in which the professors can enter their course marks which are automatically formatted and submitted to the DCS This tool was created by the system administrators to simplify the process of submitting course grades and ensure that they are in an acceptable format This tool is a stand alone application operating independently of any of the aforementioned systems Scope of the Study The scope of this study will be limited to the means of communication between members of the DCS specifically the undergraduate course web pages newsgroups and email The main focus of our analysis will be related to integration standardization and simplification The current system involves the use of multiple tools and formats Some may not consider this to be a problem however it is clear that integrating standardizing and simplifying will save time 4 The reason for limiting our study to undergraduate computer science students and faculty is simply due to higher technological literacy For example compared to English students Computer Science students are generally more comfortable using newsgroups This natural aptitude for computers guarantees
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