CS190 Project Requirements Proposal

CoursesHelper
by Kate Ho (siho)
January 29, 2003

OVERVIEW:
 Although internet technology has become everydays' life these days, 
 Brown students could not enjoy the convenience of registering and 
 managing their courses online yet. Moreover, grades are often one
 of the most concerned subject for students, and so additional
 tools for estimating course performance could be valuable.

 This project will implement a secure web interface for course
 registration and grades viewing. It would also provide tools
 for professors and teachers to help determine the final grade
 of a student. The goal is to reduce work load in Registrar's
 Office, and provide a more convenient way for professors and
 students to manage their courses. 

TARGET USERS:
 Target users are mainly Brown University Registrar's Office,
 professors, and students. However, it should also be general
 enough to use in other universities or schools. 

BASIC FEATURES:
 High priority:
  * Security
  * Courses registration via internet
  * Grades viewing via internet
  * Grades input by professors via a client or internet

 Mid priority:
  * Help professors to determine students' final grade
    - allow professors to set grade distribution for
      each course
    - calculate students' final grade by summing up
      the sub-grades/scores
    - allow professors to set additional requirement
      such as attendance and "one could only pass if
      he/she pass the final exam/handed in all the
      assignments"
    - allow professors to alter or input final grades 
      manually
    - grades could be determined either by fixed scores
      or curved
    - provide statistics for each sub-score and final grade:
         mean, standard deviation, medium
         creating graphs for each score set.
  * Final grades could be submitted by professors via client
    or internet, and immediately available for students
    viewing.
  * GPAs (general, concentration, last two years) would
    be calculated and shown with students' grades.

 Low priority:
  * allow students to view their sub-scores in each course.
  * allow students to declare their concentration online.
  * allow students to view their concentration requirements,
    and how many they have fulfilled, online.
  * generate a weekly class timetable

OPTIONAL FEATURES:
  * would predict students' final grades in each course based on
    previous performance.
  * provide professors and students with student's learning curve
    in each course, based on inputted sub-scores.
  * allow students to view courses statistics, such as
    number of students enrolling in class.
  * allow students to find out who else is in the same class,
    access their classmates basic info if they chose to release
    them, all via internet.
  * allow students to changes courses online
  * allow professors to sign permission online.
  * attach with each student's name with his/her photo
  * let students to do course evaluations online, to save papers.
  * gather and calculate evaluation statistics for all courses, 
    and allow potential students to view them online.
  * request transcript online.
  * automatically generate course webpages with basic info.

TESTING:
  This project is considered successful when all the basic
  features are implemented, and that it is secure and stable.
  Its statistics could be compared to existing statistics 
  of previous scores and grades. It must be tested to
  ensure it could support heavy load (above 1000 users.)