######################################## #Written by David Tam, 1995 # #davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999# ######################################## David Tam 73 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario M5S 2E5 November 30, 1995. Robert Pritchard, President The University of Toronto 11 King's College Circle Toronto, Ontario M5S 2F6 Subject: Submission of Proposal Report Dear Mr. Pritchard: I am pleased to submit my proposal report "Creating Web Pages for Courses Offered at the University". The Web pages described in the proposal expands upon the current Web content that is already provided by the university. This project would directly benefit the entire university community at a very low cost. The idea originated from the Web pages of a course I am currently taking. From first hand experience, I have seen the benefits of these Web pages. I believe this idea could be very easily implemented because the university has all the necessary resources. If you have any questions, please contact me at (416) 204-1473. I would be happy to offer any assistance. Yours truly, David Tam Enclosure(1) ============================================================================== Creating Web Pages for Courses Offered at the University - A Proposal -- Prepared for: Robert Pritchard, President The University of Toronto By: David Tam, Undergraduate Computer Engineering November 30, 1995 ============================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION The Objective Current Trends The University's Respons What the University is Missing An Example of the Web Pages Offered by APS 105 The Benefits The Application PROPOSED PROGRAM An Overview The Procedures 1.1 Informing the professors and their tutoring staff of the project 2.1 Setting up the hardware and software 2.1.1 Hardware Requirements 2.1.2 Software Requirements 3.1 Training the professors and their tutoring staff 4.1 Creating the Web pages 5.1 Copying the Web pages to the Web Server 6.1 Updating the Web pages 6.2 Technical Support BUDGET Appendix A : Memo to Brent Nelson ============================================================================== EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ================= This report proposes the creation of Web pages for every course offered at the university. Currently, these types of Web pages are only available for one course: APS 105. This project would enhance communications among professors, tutors, and students. It would create a greater sense of community among those enrolled in a particular course because it provides a virtual gathering place for exchanging communication. Access to the Web pages is not a problem because the university provides Internet accounts to all students. Most of the resources (hardware, software, human resources, and technical knowledge) for implementing this project are already available at the university. Creating the Web pages is made simple by Web page creation programs. Programming knowledge is not necessary because these programs function much like a word processor. Technical support would be provided by the computer administrator at the Robarts Library. The total estimated cost of this project is $450. It would have direct benefits to the university's 45000 students and 3300 professors and teaching staff. The initial pilot project with the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering would take about 2 weeks to complete. Afterwards, only minimal maintenance is required by the professors to update the information on the Web pages. The time required to complete the project for all other faculties would depend on how well the pilot project goes. It is a very economical way of enhancing communications among the entire university community. ============================================================================== INTRODUCTION ============ The Objective ------------- This report proposes the idea of creating Web pages for all courses offered at the university. These Web pages will enhance communications between professors, tutors, and students. The University needs better communications within its large community. This project will benefit thousands of students at a very low cost. Current Trends -------------- In this era of the information age, "information at your finger tips" is a reality. The phenomenon is supported by the rapid popularity of the Internet and the Web (World Wide Web). The Internet is a massive, global network of interconnected computers. The Web makes use of the Internet to provide information to a large audience very economically. To use an analogy, the Web functions much like a multimedia program running off a CD-ROM. It provides information in various formats such as text, graphics, sound, and animation. However, instead of using a CD-ROM to provide the information, the Web uses the Internet. This provides an almost infinite amount of information and resources. Another difference is that anyone who has access to the Internet has access to the Web, making the information available to a massive audience. The Web makes information from around the world readily available to anyone at a very lost cost. The University's Response ------------------------- The University has recognized the Internet's importance by providing all students with Internet accounts via the Robarts Library computer systems. Students can now use the Internet and the Web pages from a home computer or from computers on campus. Students are able to access vast amounts of information at a minimal cost. They can use the Web to search databases around the world, retrieve information, communicate to other academics around the world, and pursue many other academic activities. Currently, many of the departments have their own Web pages, providing useful information related to the departments. Students are able to use this medium to their advantage. What the University is Missing ------------------------------ Today, many organizations design their Web pages to meet the needs of their customers. This project would fulfill the same role by designing Web pages that meet the needs of 45 000 students and 3 300 teaching staff at the university. Currently, Web pages devoted to each course are scarce. Providing Web pages with such content would enhance communications among the entire university community. An Example of the Web Pages Offered by APS 105 ---------------------------------------------- Currently, only one course offers Web pages for interaction among its students: APS105 -- a first year computer science course. The following up- to-date information is provided on-line: 1. Test, quiz, and examination dates 2. Old tests, and solutions 3. Handouts and assignments 4. Supplementary exercises 5. Test marks 6. Course curriculum, and schedule 7. Information about tutors and the professor 8. A message area where students, tutors, and the professor may: - discuss course related matters - ask questions - answer questions 9. Email addresses of the professor and tutors The Benefits ------------ The effect of the Web pages offered by APS105 is that the community -- consisting of the professor, tutors, and students -- is able to communicate more effectively. It provides a virtual meeting place at a virtual time, where anyone in the community can communicate at his/her own convenience, and without regard to location. Access to the Web pages is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week because it is on the Internet. Better communication among this community results in more awareness and more feedback from the students. The Application --------------- Creating similar Web pages for all courses would be beneficial to all students, tutors, and professors at the university. From an economic point of view, the benefits are enormous compared to the monetary costs. ============================================================================== PROPOSED PROGRAM ================ Overview -------- This project would set up Web pages for all courses offered at the university. It would use existing computer hardware and software which is centrally located at the Robarts Library. The project would begin on a small scale and slowly expand to include the entire university community. In this way, the amount of resources required would be minimal. The Web page development would begin with the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering and would take approximately 2 weeks to implement. Setting up the hardware and software requires about 1 day to complete. Training the professors and the tutors requires three to four days. Creating the Web pages (done by the professors and their tutoring staff) requires about a week to complete. After this initial setup, only minimal maintenance is required. Once the initial pilot project is successful, Web pages for other faculties would be created. The Procedures -------------- The following steps would be taken: 1. Informing the professors and their tutoring staff of the project. 2. Setting up the hardware and software. 3. Training the professors and their tutoring staff. 4. Creating the Web pages. 5. Copying the Web pages to the Web Server. 6. Updating the Web pages. 1.1 Informing the professors and their tutoring staff of the project A memo about the project would be drafted and distributed to professors and their tutoring staff. The Web pages of APS 105 would be demonstrated to fully convince them of the project. 2.1 Setting up the hardware and software In the initial setup, a Web page consisting of an index of all courses would be created by the computer administrator at the Robarts Library. Each course would be hotlinked to the appropriate Web page. Hotlink refers to cross-referencing the word to the corresponding course Web page. For example, when a user clicks on the word "APS-105", the Web page for that course appears. This index would allow students to easily find the Web pages for their courses. The initial setup is quite simple and would be completed in less than a day by the computer administrator at the Robarts Library. 2.1.1 Hardware Requirements The Web pages can run on the existing computer system at the Robarts Library. It would serve as the central storage location of the Web pages. The only piece of hardware that needs to be purchased is a one gigabyte hard drive to store the Web pages. It would be purchased at the cost of approximately $450 (after taxes). 2.1.2 Software Requirements Existing Web server software on the Robarts computer systems would be used at no additional cost. This software allows users to access the Web pages on the computer system. The current software setup does not require modifications other than allocating storage space. Free Web page creation software would be acquired over the Internet. This software functions much like a word processor, allowing a user to create Web pages easily because programming knowledge is not necessary. Software of this type abound on the Internet. It would run on regular PCs and not the Robarts computer system. 3.1 Training the professors and their tutoring staff Training the Teaching Staff: Co-operation from various university departments is required for the training to be economical. Human resources and technical knowledge could be provided by the following departments: Computer Science Computer & Electrical Engineering Information Studies University of Toronto Computing & Communications Centre Professors and tutors would be trained on how to create Web pages and how to copy these pages to the Robarts computer system. After the initial training, they would be able to create Web pages tailored for their specific courses. Training the Students: Accessing the Web is very easy because of Web browsers such as Netscape and Mosaic. They have simple interfaces which make access very simple. Students should have no problems accessing the Web pages. 4.1 Creating Web pages Professors and their tutoring staff can easily create Web content on their own PC's using the Web creation software. There is an endless amount of information that could be made available on the Web pages. Below is a list of some of the possibilties. 1. Course curriculum, and schedule 2. Course news 3. Test, quiz, and examination dates 4. Old tests, and solutions 5. Handouts and assignments 6. Supplementary exercises 7. Lecture notes 8. Lecture highlights of the day 9. Test marks 10. List of office hours 11. Information about tutors and the professor 12. Email addresses of the professor, tutors, and students 13. On-line self-tutoring in the form of quizzes 14. A message area where students, tutors, and the professor may: - discuss course related matters - ask questions - answer questions 15. References to other Web sites on the Internet that pertain to the course 5.1 Copying the Web pages to the Web Server Copying the Web pages to the Web server (the Robarts computer system) makes them available on the Internet for student viewing. This is simple task can be performed by the professors and their tutoring staff without the assistance of the computer administrator. 6.1 Updating the Web pages Updating the information on the pages of each course would naturally fall into the hands of the professor and tutors of the respective course. They would be able to update and customize their course Web pages without the help of the computer administrator. Each professor could update, alter, or create new Web pages whenever he/she wishes because the Web creation software runs on regular PCs (personal computers). This gives flexibility to the professors because they are not restricted to the computer administrator's office hours. In fact, the computer administrator plays a very minor role in the maintenance of the Web pages. The amount of time required for this task would be small once the initial pages are set up. 6.2 Technical Support The computer administrator at the Robarts Library should be very knowledgeable in Web page support because existing Web pages are already stored there. He/she would provide adequate technical support. ============================================================================== BUDGET ====== Purchasing a new computer system to run the Web pages is not necessary because the pages can run on the existing system at the Robarts Library. The only piece of hardware that is required is a one gigabyte hard drive to store the Web pages. Web server software does not need to be purchased because the Web pages can run off of the existing server software on the Robarts computer system. Web creation software can be obtained for free. Many abound on the Internet and can be used free of charge. Technical support from the computer administrator at Robarts would be provided without additional cost because this task is part of his/her job. The administrator already maintains the existing University of Toronto Web pages so the impact of this expansion should be very minimal if not unnoticeable. The training could be provided internally by various university departments without incurring additional costs. Hardware 1 Gigabyte hard drive 450 (after taxes) Software Free Web creation software 0 found on the Internet Training Provided by various university departments 0 Technical Support Provided by the computer administrator 0 at the Robarts Library ------- Total Expenses $450 ======= ============================================================================== MEMO ==== To: Brent Nelson From: David Tam Subject: My proposal for the final report Date: Wednesday, November 8, 1995. Purpose ------- The purpose of this memo is to explain my idea for the proposal report. Summary ------- My idea is to provide the service of creating Web pages for each of the courses offered at the university. This service will expand communications among professors, tutors, and students of each course. Professors can publish course information, and provide an arena for students to ask questions and receive answers. To use an analogy, these Web pages would function much like a physical cork bulletin board, where the community of students, tutors, and professor may exchange information. Access to the Internet is not a problem because the university provides Internet accounts to all students.