Wish List
Last updated: 26 September, 2008
This page currently contains details of various requirements, in no particular order. For those departments already using Echo, the requirements are pretty well known, so they are under represented here.
If you have features, requests or comments to add, please email the lead developer, Paul Newman.
Not all of these may be included in the final system.
- Computer Science:
- Staff upload project details - title, keywords, description etc (Throughout the year).
- Students select their projects from the list - total selections of 4 - maximum of 1 or 2 per academic.
- The system allocates students to staff based on 1st Choices.
- Staff select the students they want to supervise subject to:
- If the student is the only student selecting that project as 1st choice then the staff member must accept them.
- If multiple students, say X, select a project, then the staff member can accept any of them on that project, i.e. the staff member can run the project a number of separate times simultaneously.
- Staff must select up to the maximum number of projects they should supervise - this is different for different individuals.
- Process 4 is repeated for 2nd choices and 3rd and 4th.
- Students remaining unallocated are allocated manually with system support.
- Elec Eng (undergraduate):
- Distinguish Parts C + D (probably different lists).
- Group by programmes (tick boxes).
- Need shortlists to hold 6 projects.
- Need instructions to Authors and Students (adminable).
- Need 'class/category of project' : practical, theoretical, software, experimental (tick boxes).
- Academic allocates their own projects during three rounds of allocation. First choices, then second, etc..
- Possibility of multiple students to one project in rare cases only.
- Mech Eng (under and postgraduate):
- Can we add a facility that automatically emails a student with a sort of receipt when a project is allocated to them on the systems.
- I think this is done, but we need to automatically tie in with module lists so that names are automatically updated.
- I could do with the facility to be able to administer the list of supervisor's names - add or delete names form the pool as staff changes are made over the years.
- We need to add the facility to control the allocation dates i.e. prevent staff from allocating until a date and time I specify. We do this to allow discussion time (you did this for me this year).
- Please could you show the student's degree programme on the 'current allocation' and 'allocation' sheets?
- Please add a facility to clone projects from year to year for times when a member of staff wants to run the same project again.
- Please add a column showing the suggested 2nd readers (from project descriptions) to the 'administer projects' page.
- How do I see previous year's projects? I know that they will be saved somewhere, but we need to show staff a blank system each year.
- An item that came up in the recent focus group is to include an indication of 'interest' in a project proposal during the 2-week pre-reading stage so that students can 'hit the ground running' during the allocation period and weaker students do not waste their time chasing very popular projects.
- One thing that I really need is the facility to provide written feedback to students at various points in their project. I already have a very basic learn page at the moment that requires a student ID and password to enter and obtain feedback and I would like to develop something far better for the new project system - engineering is notoriously bad at feedback and I aim to address this.
- Recently added, or amended projects should be flagged up somehow. Or alternatively, each project should have a timestamp of when it was last updated.
- Aeronautical & Automotive Engineering:
- Cloning projects - 'clone unallocated projects' would be a great