The purposes of this study were to design and to evaluate an online system designed to enhance communication skills and project tracking of computer software courses at Ball State University (BSU). Student Online Project Planning and Tracking System (SOPPTS) was designed and field tested to provide real-time feedback from faculty on student progress, offer online guidance for software project planning, produce tracking automation, and facilitate communication between faculty and students.SOPPTS technology was designed under the supervision of W. Zage and D. Zage, professors in the Computer Science Department at BSU.Participants in this study included six BSU undergraduate students, six BSU graduate students and seven BSU faculty members. Each participant was interviewed for one hour in an instructor's office in the BSU Computer Science Department. With the participants' permission, each interview was audio-taped and coded with a letter and number.Data evaluation consisted of narrative summaries of the interviews, an analysis of the evidence in terms of the research questions and the compilation of data to show both emerging themes and major trends.Analysis of the data showed that learning was definitely enhanced, and that faculty evaluations were also strongly enhanced. Participants recommended more SOPPTS applications, both industrial and academic. The emerging themes showed that faculty and students:1) Had more and easier access to information; students' work was better organized; student team spirit grew; students were more accurately evaluated by instructors;2) Had more efficient methods for report submission and record keeping; students interaction with teachers increased; students found SOPPTS better than email;3) Students and teachers could work from various locations, with greater access to record retrieval and submission of reports, so that documents submitted were available to all instead of getting lost;4) Students were motivated by the nature of online task assignment and tracking because of greater accountability; faculty members were happy to see students' project progress online; 5) Improved time and project management through greater awareness of milestones, deadlines and date/ time "stamping" of report submissions.Major trends show that improved access to information and communication facilitated learning, and that planning and tracking skills improved. / Department of Educational Leadership
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/182244 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Zhang, Yong |
| Contributors | Murk, Peter J. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | xiv, 208 leaves : col. ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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