Running Head: Lab 1 – REMSY Product Description
Lab 1 - REMSY Product Description
Blue Team
Seth Hohensee
CS411W
Janet Brunelle & Hill Price
March 17, 2014
Version 2
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Lab 1 – REMSY Product Description
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Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 3
2 REMSY PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................. 3
2.1 Key Product Features and Capabilities ...................................................................................... 4
2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software) ................................................................................. 5
3 IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY .............................................................................................. 6
4 REMSY PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION ....................................................................... 7
4.1 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software) ........................................................................... 8
4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities ........................................................................................... 9
4.3 Prototype Development Challenges ........................................................................................... 9
List of Figures
Figure 1 Real World Product Major Functional Components Diagram ....................................................... 6
Figure 2 Prototype Major Functional Components Diagram ....................................................................... 8
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1 INTRODUCTION
Resource management is a critical area of focus for any organization that provides
services. Regardless of whether or not an organization is profit focused, its goal for resource use
is generally to accomplish as much as possible. This means that a flexible system for tracking
and allocating these resources is essential to effectiveness and longevity. An organization’s
operations are constrained by the availability of its workspaces, employees, and equipment, so
resource management can directly affect the success of the organization’s goals.
Collecting and analyzing data about which services a client makes use of is necessary to
understanding how to direct the growth of an organization’s programs. If related programs are
not communicating effectively, they may begin to waste resources by offering services already
covered by another program. In education, for instance, data on the effectiveness of a tutoring
program may become unknowingly skewed if students are taking part in multiple tutoring
sessions, for similar subjects, offered by separate programs.
In the case that expansion beyond currently available space is required, a branch location
or alternate method for delivering a service may need to be introduced. Without a system for
resource management that integrates the two, existing problems become exacerbated and the
potential for resource mismanagement increases. An organization’s resource management system
system should allow clients to schedule resource use through a single interface, without the need
to care about which program is offering it. This streamlines the process for the client, and allows
all the organization’s programs to share in data collection automatically. REsource Management
SYstem (REMSY) is designed, with these attributes in mind, to address the problems currently
faced by tutoring programs at Old Dominion University (ODU).
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2 REMSY PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
REMSY is an application designed to bring ODU’s various tutoring resources under a
single management system. This will allow for report generation regarding student and tutor
activities and success, without the need for manual data compilation and sharing between
tutoring programs. REMSY implements both a web portal and a mobile application. The latter
will allow students to easily sign up for tutoring, receive notifications, and cancel if plans
change. It will also allow for students and tutors to quickly clock in and out of sessions without
relying on access to a computer or kiosk. There is a current need for additional tutoring locations
on campus (Jimenez, 2013). REMSY will open up opportunities for tutors to operate in
additional spaces.
2.1 Key Product Features and Capabilities
One of REMSY's primary goals is to provide a platform through which tutoring
information can be shared. It is important, for instance, that the Peer Educator Program knows
whether or not the Math and Science Resource Center (MSRC) offers tutoring in MATH163 so
they do not unnecessarily cover the course. With each program residing inside the same system,
information about which courses each program covers and which students have made use of
tutoring will be natively available. Communicating this information has been described as one of
the biggest problems faced by program administrators because it is vital to referring students to
the correct program and eliminating areas of unnecessary overlap (Turner, 2014).
REMSY's mobile application will be available to users of both Android and Apple iOS
phones and tablets. Verification of student attendance at a session will be built into the mobile
application. It will require the tutor, student, or both to open the student’s session, which the
student will close after the session concludes. Support for reading the student’s university ID
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card for their University Identification Number (UIN), and signing in via the web portal will be
available as alternative options. The methods available for use in each session will be based on
the requirements of the university program through which the tutoring is being offered. Students
and tutors making use of REMSY can receive alerts via email, SMS, or mobile application.
Students can choose to be notified about their upcoming sessions, the cancellation of a session,
and sessions they have forgotten to close. Tutors can receive notifications about student sign ups
and cancel a session if they become unable to attend. They will also be able to find similar
information on their dashboard after logging in to the web portal. REMSY will comply with
Section 508 regarding accessibility for persons with disabilities as well the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
REMSY will make use of data already available to ODU, such as enrollment information,
to streamline the process of signing up for tutoring. The application will be aware of the student's
class schedule and present tutoring options based on their current courses and availability. The
system will also keep track of students who were unable to obtain appropriate tutoring, so the
tutoring programs can identify and address these potential gaps in coverage. Through the web
portal, students will be able to submit an application to become a tutor for a certain course or
offer their services even if no program offers tutoring in a course. Professors will be able to
which students in their classes have attended tutoring. Administrators may have a variety of
powers based on their role. This may include the ability to create sessions for additional courses
or generate and view reports.
2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software)
REMSY will make use of two physical servers or virtual machines. The REMSY web
application will be hosted on one server using Apache and PHP. This application will modify the
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MySQL database hosted on the other server. The product will include a Java based application
for Android devices and the iOS application will be written in Objective-C. A reporting engine
will also be developed to process data stored in the database. REMSY will be designed to be
compatible with university resources such as the existing tutoring system (TutorTrac), the
student information database (Banner), authentication systems (Shibboleth), and email services.
Users will connect to the system via their mobile devices and web browsers. Users can make use
of the web portal to accomplish any tasks associated with the roles assigned to them. A limited
subset of these features will be available to students and tutors on the mobile applications for
quick access. A visual representation of the product architecture can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Real World Product Major Functional Components Diagram
3 IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY
Tutoring at ODU is not handled by any one central entity. Some departments manage
their own tutoring programs, while others allow it to be handled by a group like the Peer
Educator Program. Tutoring takes place in six separate locations around campus as well as
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online. Each program has its own structure and places its own requirements on students and
tutors. The Peer Educator Program alone offers tutoring in 49 courses taught at ODU (Old
Dominion University, 2012).
Since the fall semester of 2012, the Peer Educator Program has been making use of a
system for tutoring management called TutorTrac. TutorTrac makes use of a web portal to allow
students to sign up for tutoring sessions. The same web portal is also used to start and end each
student’s session within the Tutortrac system. This can also be done using a card reader
connected to a kiosk computer (Redrock Software Corporation). Due to the portal’s limited
mobile functionality, attendance verification using TutorTrac restricts tutoring to predetermined
locations where programs can be assured that equipment will be available. It also provides no
mechanisms for tracking student interest in additional tutoring, applying to be a tutor, or
notifying students about sessions that were not closed. Its user interface (UI) can make it difficult
to find tutoring for a given course without first knowing who offers it. TutorTrac has yet to see
adoption by several of ODU’s tutoring programs.
Marissa Jimenez and Jeffrey Turner are serving as mentors for the REMSY project. Both
are staff at ODU who work with the Peer Educator Program in the Student Success Center.
Marissa is an Instructional Resource Specialist, and Jeffrey is a Higher Education Teacher
Resident Assistant who works directly with TutorTrac.
4 REMSY PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION
The REMSY prototype will demonstrate proof of concept with an implementation of the
REMSY web portal and mobile application designed to work with simulated university assets. It
will make use of a testing module to manage test accounts and populate its database with student,
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tutor, class, and location data. This data will be used to test reporting functionality. The
prototype will also demonstrate compliance with Section 508 and FERPA.
4.1 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software)
The REMSY prototype will be built on an Apache web server using PHP and a MySQL
database instance running on a CentOS Linux virtual machine provided by the Department of
Computer Science at ODU. External authentication through the university will be simulated
through the use of an Active Directory domain running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual
machine. Access to student information will be simulated through a mockup of the university
enroll file and Banner database. The prototype’s test harness and reporting module will also be
developed on the web server. The Computer Science Exchange email servers will be used in
place of the university email servers. A visual representation of the prototype architecture can be
seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Prototype Major Functional Components Diagram
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4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities
The mock enroll file and Banner databases will be designed using the same fields and
tables as the real product to ensure compatibility. The testing module will act on the Active
Directory domain, mock enroll file, mock Banner database, and REMSY database to populate
sample data. This data will be used to test functionality of all student, tutor, professor, and
administrator functions to be included in the real world product. It will also be used to develop
and test the reporting functionality. Reports will cover individual student data, data regarding
specific courses, data on student interest in additional tutoring, and average academic
improvement of those who participated in tutoring for a given course.
4.3 Prototype Development Challenges
The foremost challenge facing REMSY’s development will be the lack of access to
systems with which it must interface. University resources like Shibboleth and Banner cannot be
made available to the project due to security restrictions. Substitutes will need to be crafted to
simulate core pieces of product functionality. Actual class and student data cannot be used, and
therefore a testing harness must be created to simulate real data. Developing the prototype will
also require the team to obtain the skills required to design and create a mobile application. The
iOS version in particular will be problematic, as the team is almost entirely inexperienced with
Objective-C. This could potentially be eased through the use of conversion tools after developing
the Android version. Working with a card reader will also require additional research and
implementation time.
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Glossary
508 Compliance: Amendment of the Rehabilitation Act which requires Federal agencies to
make electronic and information technology accessible to people with and without disabilities
Apache: Open source web server providing a full range of web server features distributed by the
Apache Software Foundation.
Banner: Centralized academic and administrative records system
FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Java: Computer programming language that is concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, and
specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible
MySQL: Open Source SQL database management system by Oracle Corporation
Objective-C: General-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style
messaging to the C programming language
ODU: Old Dominion University
PHP: General-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development
REMSY: Resource Management System to aid in scheduling and collecting information on
tutoring at Old Dominion University developed by the Spring 2014 CS411 Team Blue
Shibboleth: Single sign-on process that authenticates and authorizes a user, and allows a user to
access secure sites by using university computing account username and password
SMS: Short Message Service
TutorTrac: Completely web-based management software for learning, writing, reading, tutoring
departments, and academic skills centers developed by Redrock Software
UI: User Interface
UIN: University Identification Number
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References
Jimenez, Marissa. Personal interview. October 9, 2013.
Old Dominion University. (2012, October 3). Peer Educator Program. In Academic Enhancement
Tutoring & Mentoring. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from
http://uc.odu.edu/taa/peereducatorprogram.shtml
Redrock Software Corporation. (n.d.). TutorTrac. In Redrock Software Corporation. Retrieved
February 12, 2014, from http://www.tutortrac.com/subpage.php?go=tutor
Turner, Jeffrey. Personal interview. February 11, 2014.
United States Government. (n.d.). Resources for understanding and implementing Section 508.
In Section508.gov Opening Doors to IT. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from
http://www.section508.gov/
U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In
ED.gov. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html