Project Title – Undergraduate Research Program (URP) – Approval Form System
Short Description- Each semester students who are accepted into the Undergraduate Research Program must find a faculty researcher (called a Principal Investigator (PI)) to do research with. After they find a faculty member they must complete the URP Approval Form. This form contains all of the critical information needed to process the student for the term for the program.
Once the form is complete and final approval is done by the CST Dean’s office the information on the form must them be manually entered into an excel spreadsheet for analysis and reporting. The form requires sign-off approval from the Program Administrator.
What we would like the system to do is as follows:
Allow the student to complete the form online and record all of the data entered in a database for easier retrieval and history.
Allow for a small workflow process which would pass the form from Student to the Program Administrator.
Current system – None – just paper forms and an excel spreadsheet when the forms are complete and signed.
What are you doing now?
Currently – The student begins to complete the form after they have located a faculty researcher to work with. There are three sections of the form which each requires some workflow (approval process).
What parts are done manually?
The entire process is done manually right now – We have no database or web access to the information
What parts are automated?
There are no automated parts.
What current websites are related to this project?
Today none
Who would use the system?
There would be multiple types of users each with their own processes.
1) Administrators –They would need to do everything and see everything and override some processes.
2) Students – URP students are approved for each term– we would need to load a file with only the approved URP students for the term so that only those students could complete the process – this would also require a manual entry to allow the administrator to add or remove a student from the approved list for the term. Each term’s information must be maintained for historical information. Multiple terms are in process at one time. Students are completing their Fall 2017 URP assignments and are getting approval for Spring 2018 URP both during the Fall 2017 semester.
Project Outline
Please describe what you would like the new system to do.
· Provide a stable database where all of the URP Approval form information is stored by TERM so that we do not need to worry about the stability of the excel spreadsheets
· Allow any of the authorized users to be able to view and complete the information.
· Be able to track the status of all of the forms and what status they are in – for example
· Forms completed by students
· Forms completed awaiting CST Dean’s office approval
· With the use of Web services we would like to know the current information about the student such as:
· college
· major
· graduation date
· current GPA if possible
· email address
· We would like to be able to add comments to each section of the form which is not available today
· We would like to be able to reject the application if needed and notify the student that they have been rejected and why.
· We would like to be able to query any term and see all faculty who participated or all students who participated or status of all forms
· We would like to be able to get all information on a single student or a single faculty member across multiple terms
· We would like to be able to download all information as selected by the users.
What are the required features that you want?
· Database to store the information
· Query access to allow easy searches
· Upload of valid URP approved students per term
· Download to be able to analyze data
· Ability to modify the data online
What is the problem or critical issue which the project would solve?
· Stable, online access to data
· Easier access to data by those that need to access it
Include any relevant artifacts (documents that are used as part of this process).
· URP Approval Form
· Link to program information on CST Web Site
· http://cst.temple.edu/research/undergraduate-research
Are there any risks or areas to be aware of or concerned with?
· Access to student information
Optional Features:
Please list any additional items on your wish list for this system.
None at the present time – I am sure some will develop!
Expected Results of the Project
Please list anything relevant to help the project team.
Much happier URP students
