Online Advising System(OAS)

About OASProgrammer: Daniel HarveyAssisted by Alexandra Tayrien, Chris HickmanSupervisor: John PetersonFunded by BAE (thanks!)

Goal: to develop a web-based system that will assist students and advisors by:

reconciling transcripts with graduation checksheets,planning future classes, and saving advising information from semester to

semester.

Design Goals• Not a replacement for the registrar – we don’t

want this software to “officially” approve anything.

• Educational records (transcripts) will not be accessed directly.

• Give advisors the information they need in an easily understood form

• Support semester to semester advising flow• Convert existing documents (transcripts,

schedules, and checksheets) to an industry standard format (XML).

Geek DetailsImplemented in Ruby on Rails (after a

disastrous attempt to use Microsoft technologies)

Uses a local (MySQL) database to hold advising notes and scheduling information.

Working prototype should be ready by AprilNo direct connection to Banner – we’ll have

students move transcript information by hand (download / upload)

Views:Student information

Major / Minor / Anticipated graduationNotes that can be saved from one session to

the nextSubstitutions

ChecklistsClasses from transcript are already filled inPlanning for future semesters

Transcript / ScheduleSemester by semester list of courses taken /

planned

Advising Notes

View/Upload TranscriptObtaining an electronic transcript

This can be added to current transcript viewing in banner – add an option for the student to download in XML form.

Upload into OAS using a file uploadWe won’t save this beyond the current

session since it contains sensitive information

Graduation ChecklistElectronic version of current checklistsWill be filled out automatically when possibleAdd controls for future schedulingAdds progress informationCurrent checklists need to be converted to

XML (not too hard)

Checklist view

Class SchedulerView schedules for future semesters or look

at completed semestersConnected to the checklist – clicking items

there adds them to this viewWe can check for schedule conflicts in the

next semester but there is no schedule information beyond that.

Wrapup• We’re looking for feedback into this design• Live demos coming later• For a full rollout, we need:• Checklists converted to XML• Transcript download• Usability tests and evaluation• Transfer of catalog / schedule data