Bound Simplicity
Feasibility Presentation
Orange Team
CS 410
July 26, 2016
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Outline
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Problem Statement
Supporting data
Solution Defined
Solution Comparison
Costs
Customer Identification
Risks
Conclusion
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Organization
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Problem Statement
• Poor communication between universities
and students about available activities and
resources leads to poor student retention
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Problem description
• Retention is directly related to a student's
social activities, finances and stress level
• Methods of helping students succeed have
been developed, but none of them address
the social and personal aspect of relating to
life at a university
• The method of communication between the
university and students is inefficient
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Did you know?
• ODU is spending $2.3 million on retention
related items for the 06-07 school year
– Blackboard Enterprise licenses for 5k per
month
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Graduation Rates
School
4yr rate
University of Virginia
William and Mary
University of Richmond*
Virginia Tech
Old Dominion
University
DICE
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83
80
73
43
14
5yr
rate
91
89
81
70
35
8
Rank Related Factors
• Increased retention increases school rank
• Increased rank means:
– Better professors
– More recognition
– More funding and grants
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Venn Diagram
• Retention is related to:
– Available finances
– Stress
– Healthy social life
– A social connection to the university
(Witt & Handal, 1984)
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Finance Factors
• Students who receive some form of
financial aid are 20% more likely to stay in
school
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Social/Stress Factors
• Antisocial students experience much
higher levels of stress than do social
students
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Roommate’s GPA
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Solution Goals
• Build an online communication network
– Create a direct method of communicating
resources, services and activities
– Bring social and financial aspects of retention
together
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Solution Objectives
• Create a general rule based engine that is
applicable to many domains
• Build a database of student interests and
information
• Alert students directly of information related
to them
• Integrate with the University in order to
obtain necessary student data
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Current Method of Communication
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•
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Technologically Archaic
Broadcast of information
Hub Structured
Public
Inefficient
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Flyer Reception
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Blanket Emails
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Rule Based Reception
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Rules Defined
• A rule is:
– A method of matching two related items
together
– Priority based
– Not necessarily specific
• Rule set:
– Group of rules that describe the correlation
between a service, resource or activity and a
student
• Rule matching component: “Binding
Engine”
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Rule Based Method
• Likes, dislikes, needs and resources are all
comparable and related items
• A set of rules to route or direct matches can
be created from the needs of a person and
qualities of a service
• Similar to a switch
• Direct person to person communication
• Extendable
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How Rules Are Applied
• Student housing
• Textbook trading
• Social events
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Rule Based Process
(as applied to books)
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Rule Based Process
(as applied to rooming)
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Scope
Won’t Do
Will Do
•Display information in an
online format
•Be expandable
•Use a rule based system
•Promote communication
•Allow different priority levels
•Work with University
systems already established
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•Be an online personal
community like
MySpace or Facebook
•Focus on student to
student communication
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Solution Components
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Provided Components
• We provide:
– Matching and communication system
– University and student interfaces
• Customer provides:
– Student data
– Infrastructure
– Student services and activities
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Pros
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•
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Direct communication
Increased student awareness of activities
and services
Reduced education costs
Reduced student stress
Increased student retention and school
rank
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Cons
• May not communicate to some students
because of incomplete data
• Bookstore contracts could prevent the
university from using the textbook trading
feature
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Boun
d Sim
plicit
y
Face
book
Trad
ing W
ebsit
es
Flier
s
Blan
ket E
mails
Competition
Student Communication
Roommate Matching
Service Matching
Resource Matching
University Integration
Resource Trading
Targetted Communication
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Costs
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•
•
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•
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Web Servers
Database Servers
Email server
Maintenance
Training
Product Cost
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Customer
• Old Dominion University
• ODU Retention
• ODU spent 2.3 million on retention related
factors for the 06-07 year
• Increased rank and recognition
– More funding – research grants
– Reputable professors
• Unsure of new problems
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Return on Investment
• ~4 thousand universities in the US
• Blackboard Enterprise licenses for $5k per
month
• Similar pricing could be used for Bound
Simplicity
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Risks
• 1) No University
Support
• 2) No Student Support
• 3) No Feasible Matches
• 4) Server Failure
• 5) Website Failure
• 6) Database Failure
• 7) Security/Privacy
Issues
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Risk Descriptions
• University support – assistance to reach
students
• Student support – users to trade books
• Feasible matches – ability to match services
with students
• Server failure – when the web host goes
down
• Website failure – scripting components
fail/buggy
• Database failure – data is lost of unavailable
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• Security/privacyOrange
issues
–
student
information
Presentation
Conclusion
• Not enough is being done to address the
stress and social related aspects of
retention
• Communication between universities and
students can be improved in order to
improve retention
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References
• ODU Student Activities Council
• ODU Student Success Center
• http://www.crankyprofessor.com/archives/0
00180.html
• http://studentservices.odu.edu/ssrc/missio
n_and_objectives.htm
• http://academic.reed.edu/economics/parke
r/Peer_Effects_HEDS.pdf
• http://www.appstate.edu/www_docs/depart
/irp/assessment/reports/retentionstudies.ht
ml
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