1.1 Background
The current MIT subject catalog system is made up of numerous manual and automated processes which together support:
- The development and approval cycles associated with new and changed curricula and programs
- The production of the Subject Listings found in the printed MIT Bulletin
- The integrated online web Subject Listings/Schedule
- The subject definitions inform other processes contained with the MIT Student Information System, including grading, degree audit, transcript production, and class scheduling
Students, faculty and administrators use MIT catalog information extensively for registration and Course planning. Catalog information is also used by the MIT global community including perspective students and scholars interested in what MIT is teaching. The appearance and timeliness of published catalog information is important since it is widely used a tool within MIT and as showpiece to the MIT global community. The accuracy of the subject information is critical to other processing done on MITSIS.
The current MIT subject catalog system has functionality and data residing in three separate computer systems and in paper processes. Some of the current catalog processes are based upon out-dated software tools and database technologies. The current system lacks flexibility for growth, its data is difficult to synchronize, only one year’s subjects can be maintained at a time, and many procedures must be done manually or in duplicate. These shortcomings have led to a decision to replace the current set of functionality with a new, integrated system that will also provide a solid infrastructure for future growth.
1.2 Business Opportunity
The proposed new catalog system will provide the development, publishing, and sharing of information about MIT curriculum in an integrated environment using modern technologies. It will provide the infrastructure to support state-of-the-art initiatives.
The new system will resolve these problems in the current catalog systems:
- The lack of secure, access-controlled web support for sharing information among faculty, staff, and the registrar’s office during the development of new and changed subject proposals
- The use of many manual procedures such as logging the receipt of hardcopy subject proposals and approvals, emailing comments and questions raised by the COC to department coordinators
- The use of hardcopy for subject approvals (e.g. tear sheets to departments for review, signatures returned on hardcopy listings, signed proposals to COC and CGSP for approval)
- The overhead of data synchronization among the three systems and duplicate data entry
- Long development times for new and significantly modified subject listings
- System restrictions such as MITSIS subject updates taking place only once per academic year
- Inability to maintain catalog data for more than one academic year at a time
- Delays between approvals of new/changed listings and their on-line publication to the MIT community. Current published information, on-line and printed, is as much as one year out-of-date.
- The dependence upon out-dated Ventura publishing for all hard copy subject downloads
- Inability to integrate the subject and department information now published in the MIT bulletin
- Subject Proposal Form requires too much time for the Academic Administrators to update
- Inadequate security of access to catalog data (now handled unencrypted with password access)
- Inadequate database support for new web-based facilities such as student portals
The current catalog system, despite these many shortcomings, has certain features that exceed the capabilities of any known commercial product. In particular, it has a sophisticated on-line catalog system with search facilities, on-line pre-registration, and scheduling. The data it uses is carefully synchronized with existing MITSIS and WebSIS data and processes.
1.3 Business Objectives
The new system will:
- Replace the current out-dated set of processes and data stores with a new, integrated catalog system
- Eliminate the problems cited above in Section 1.2
- Employ modern technologies (a three-tiered environment using an Oracle database, a Unix system, and a web interface)
- Streamline the development of new and changed subjects
- Provide for up-to-date catalog listings and enriched availability of related subject information
- Provide modern infrastructure to integrate desktop and Web publishing.
- Provide the infrastructure needed to eventually provide faculty, advisors, and students with personal portals
1.4 Customer or Market Requirements
The MIT community in general needs:
- Accurate and accessible academic information, starting with up-to-date subject listings
- Links from the on-line subject listings to auxiliary, official departmental course information at department web sites
- Easy access to other information about courses such as course appraisals by former students
- Possible access to informal information about courses.
- Secure web access where necessary to support distance learning
The faculty, departmental administration, and advisors need:
- A flexible system that supports academic policy
- A system for developing curricula that enables more collaboration
- Fewer paper processes. (Currently, the curricula review process starts when tear sheets are sent to department coordinators for faculty review. Printed subject listings with longhand signatures are used for approvals to subject changes.)
- Secure, on-line tools for communicating about curricula development
- Better web-based tools for communicating with students
The registrar’s office and information systems staff need:
- Easier-to-maintain processes, fewer manual procedures, and no data synchronization tasks
- Ability to work on subject listings for more than one academic year at a time
- Easier downloads of subject data to the printed MIT bulletin
In the long range, the new system must have an infrastructure that empowers students with a decision-making network for planning their academic careers, including:
- Ability to communicate with faculty and advisors over course selection, assignments, etc.
- On-line scheduling facilities
- These need to be permanent, not temporary as in the current on-line catalog
- Students need to be able to add/delete activities from their schedule
- Students need to be able to schedule meetings with faculty or advisors
- Personal portals with secure access to information about subjects they are enrolled in:
- Access to syllabi and other course materials
- Facilities to track course assignments
- Access to chat rooms, bulletin boards for subjects
- Access to tutorials for courses
- Facilities to communicate directly with faculty and advisers
1.5 Value Provided to Customers
The new catalog system will provide the MIT global community:
- Up-to-date official subject information
- Multi-formatted information about curricula.
The new system will provide the developers and administrators of catalog data:
- Enhanced collaboration in subject and curricular development by faculty across departments, disciplines, and campuses.
- Facilitated discussion about curricula development
- Ability to approval catalog changes through secure web interfaces, eliminating the need for emails to/from department administrators.
These features will automate previously manual tasks, streamline departmental administrative processes throughout MIT, and help to shorten the time needed to develop new subjects.
The new system provides administrative staff:
- Elimination of need for data synchronization, duplicate data entry, and many manual procedures.
- Replacement of out-dated database and PC technologies with current standard technologies.
- Replacement of old DOS Ventura hardcopy reports with a more flexible, modern publishing format.
- Easy methods for changing the content and organization of the MIT bulletin.
These features will improve productivity and provide cost savings. They also comply with current standards for data security.
The new system eventually provides faculty, departmental administration, advisors, and students:
- Enhanced capabilities for communicating directly and securely between students and faculty/advisors about subject selection and progress.
- On-line scheduling facilities that are permanent, allow additions and deletions, allow setting up meetings.
- Personal portals with secure access to information about subjects that students are enrolled in
The above facilities are new functionality that should streamline and enhance dialog.
1.6 Business Risks
Policy: Care must be taken that the specifications for the system are in sync with policy. This will require close alignment of faculty policy discussions with development of technical capabilities (e.g., implications of on-line registration and add/drop for advising).
Flexibility: The system must also be flexible enough to accommodate changes in policy and procedures (e.g., new mechanisms for tracking educational collaboration among MIT and partner institutions).
Resource availability: Academic Services must provide people to describe the functional requirements. If the product is developed in-house, ODSUE-IT must provide programmers to design and develop it. These same people need to maintain current systems and operational responsibilities as the new system is designed and implemented.
Compatibility with new Student Information System: The new catalog system will be integrated with the current Student Information System. This may create difficulties with a new student information system.
2.1 Vision Statement
The new catalog system is a new centralized academic curricular information system. It will support curriculum development, Catalogue publishing, and the course information maintenance used in student records. It will provide the infrastructure for the eventual development of student portals, facilitating communications among students, teachers, advisors, and administrators.
2.2 Major Features
The new catalog system will:
1. Provide facilities to enhance the exchange of information among faculty and staff during curriculum development. It will do so by enabling distribution of official information with ancillary discussion among authorized faculty members, staff, and faculty committees during all phases of subject proposal development and review, including prior to proposal submission to the COC/CGSP.
2. Preserve a record of these decisions and their context.
3. Support versioning and workflow management of the information that it maintains.
4. Replace the current catalog production system, in which departments submit subject-listing changes both electronically and on paper and curricular changes on paper, with a fully electronic system. (However, printed listings will still be obtainable upon request.)
5. Enable updating of catalog data throughout the year. Do so for more than one term/year simultaneously.
6. Provide up-to-date information about subjects, schedules, and instructors to the MIT community (faculty, academic staff, students, alumni, and prospective students).
7. Provide easy-to-use, on-demand print and on-line publishing. Non-subject data now printed in the MIT bulletin will be integrated via the web with subject data for integrated publishing.
8. Enable links from the basic on-line subject postings to auxiliary information such as teaching tools and instructional material, syllabi, class schedules, official subject evaluations, instructor information, supplemental material like that provided in the HASS Guide, and comments from students and alumni who have previously taken the subject. Through the web this information will be available to students at MIT partner universities and to prospective students.
9. Provide web search capabilities of on-line bulletins and auxiliary information.
10. Provide an infrastructure for future enhancements (as described below).
11. Eventually, offer students and advisors a graphic tool for planning the student’s course work over several years, considering Institute requirements, department requirements, and information about what subjects are offered when and with what prerequisites. Students could consider ‘what if’ situations, e.g. the impact of changing majors. (A paper version of this tool existed in the 1980’s).
12. Eventually provide these future enhancements: student portals, advisor access to broader advisee information, software to suggest courses to students based upon their academic record and outstanding degree requirements, and direct submission of grades to the Registrar's office by departments.
13. Eventually, pending faculty approval, allow on-line registration.
14. Eventually support the development of a dynamic personal scheduling system for students, faculty, and staff (to replace the current student scheduling component), and options for users to select with whom to share their schedule.
2.3 Quality attributes
These technical quality attributes are required for the new system:
1. Close integration within itself and with the student information system, enabling coordination with room scheduling programs, teaching faculty assignments, instructor biographical information.
2. Web interface for all functionality (unless detailed requirements cause other options to be used – e.g. spell check facilities may not be available over the web).
3. Secure web access under Kerberos authentication for all MIT user interactions with the posting and administrative software.
4. Management of all data in the student information Oracle database (and possibly other linked databases).
5. Integration of curricula data with the current student information data.
6. Adherence to MIT regulations concerning privacy and security of student information.
7. Employment of object-oriented modeling of subject and related information.
8. Capabilities for extensibility of data objects and functionality on a department or individual user level.
9. Ability to maintain department-wide and MIT-wide information for the bulletin in addition to individual subject listings.
10. Support for versioning of subject listings.
11. Support for workflow management of process stages..
12. Updates to subject catalog data immediately available to the MIT community on the web.
13. Support for modern print publishing software (Quark, RTF, etc.) using style sheets.
14. Use of templates to define layout and published bulletin content. Capability for multiple, configurable layouts for web and print publications.
15. Use of generic subsystems where possible for easy configuration of web form content, publishing templates, and data validation rudiments.
2.4 Assumptions and Dependencies
These assumptions exist:
1. Existing MITSIS/sisjajp database table structures will remain largely unchanged to minimize the impact on other systems currently using catalog data. New database tables will be added to integrate all needed data in one database.
2. All functionality currently provided by the old systems will be accommodated in the new system, in the initial release. New functionality may or may not be included in the initial release.
3. These old catalog processes will be retired when the new system is in place:
The old Clipper system programs and database
MITSIS forms SCASUBJI and SSASUSUB (the data they update will be handled by the new system)
The web proposal system logic and files
The upload and download programs and their data transformsThese dependencies exist:
(None documented at present.)
3.1 Scope of Initial Release
The initial catalog system is anticipated to include all major features enumerated above except for those features specifically mentioned below.
The first year (January to July 2000) deliverables:
- An analysis of the existing catalog systems, including interviews with users.
- Documentation of the old system functionality using Data Flow diagrams, a data dictionary, state transition diagrams, use cases, and any other method found necessary or useful.
- Everyone necessary will review these documents.
- Customers of the new system will be interviewed to gather detailed descriptions of new/changed functionality.
- New system functionality will be documented as Use Cases and a Requirements specification using the ODSUE-IT Project Standards and Checklist, augmented by the currently approved Requirements documentation procedures.
Second year (tentatively scheduled for August 2001 to July 2002)
If the in-house development of the catalog system proceeds:
- System architecture and design of database enhancements, user interface storyboard, etc.
- Resulting in Database, Design, and Architecture documents and a Storyboard of the UI
- Development, testing, documentation of subject catalog portion of project
- Rollout, training, usability testing, etc.
3.2 Scope of Subsequent Releases
Deliverables deferred in the initial release include
- Student portals
- Student and faculty personal scheduling
- On-line registration
3.3 Limitations and Exclusions
Features outside the scope of the project:
(None documented at present)
4.1 Customer Profiles
Faculty: will be especially interested in and benefited by the tools to help develop new curricula, especially to share comments and draft versions of new curricula with selected colleagues. Some faculty will be resistant, so the tools must be sufficiently robust to overcome resistance. Electronic subject approvals will be a new feature (replacing paper signatures) so faculty will have to be ‘sold’ on web personal certificates or else the system will need to provide both manual and electronic approval capabilities.
Academic Administrators: will be a key user of the system and will benefit from the same development tools. Clarity of system function and any savings in time should ‘sell’ them on the system. They are already used to using similar tools (for the existing catalog systems and for IAP.) They need an easy to use, efficient system that will encourage them to keep the information up-to-date.
Academic Staff: will provide much of the clerical work for faculty and will benefit from the same development tools. Clarity of system function and any savings in time should ‘sell’ them on the system. They are already used to using similar tools (for the existing catalog systems and for IAP.) They need encouragement to keep important information up-to-date (e.g. room assignments).
Prospective Students: will peruse the published on-line catalog and those linked materials they are allowed to see. A richer depiction of MIT academics will be available to prospective students, a search facility will be available, and the information will be more up-to-date.
MIT Students: (including pre-freshmen, undergraduates, graduate students) and other students (at MIT partner universities, life-long learners.) Students will benefit from the expanded course listings, search facility, greater currency of information. If the personal scheduling piece is left out of the first release, students may not be happy with the new system since they will perceive that as losing functionality. Eventually, the scheduling and other personalized features made possible by the new infrastructure will make up for the loss. ADA constraints must be addressed for this category of user.
Alumni: Alumni may refer to the system as a way to stay in touch with MIT. With the increase in potential lifelong learners both here and at a distance, many Alumni may view the system as Perspective Students.
Registrar’s Office: Redundant and manual processes will be considerably reduced.
ODSUE-IT and MIT-IS: Hardware and software support will change for the better – fewer data synchronization steps.
This project will be done in consultation with the Committee on Curricula, the Committee on Graduate School Policy, and the Committee on the Undergraduate Program. Faculty and departmental administrators will participate in the functional requirements phase and in the usability testing. Close collaboration will be needed with the Communications Office.
4.2 Project Priorities
The top ‘drivers’ of the catalog project are:
- Replacement of old, non-integrated, below-standard technologies.
- Elimination of duplicate, paper, and manual procedures.
- Integration of catalog data with the Student Information Database.
- Reduction of time to develop subject listings.
- Easier collaboration among faculty and staff during curriculum development.
- Ability to maintain subject listings for more than one academic year at a time and to update listings throughout the year.
- Robust and up-to-date catalog data available on-line.
The top ‘constraints’ are:
- Acceptance of new ways of doing business by all affected members of the MIT community.
- Time and money resources.
The ‘floating’ factors are:
(None documented at present.)
Acceptance and use of the new system by each category of user will measure success. User comments on the new system will be monitored. Measured improvements in the efficiency of work processes will also factor.
Factors most impacting success are:
- Retention of all current catalog functionality in the new system
- Accuracy and reliability of the new system
- Ease of use of all web interfaces
Factors within the control of the organization:
(None documented at present.)
Factors outside the control of the organization:
(None documented at present.)
From Icampus:
“The frequency and content of exchanges of information will be measured and evaluated to determine the impact of this system on curriculum development, the exchange of information about specific subjects, administrative efficiency, and the level of participation by different groups. Examples include measurements of the frequency of communications between students, faculty, and advisors and usability testing to gauge user satisfaction.”