PP654 UniSa Freney - Final Report Feb 2010.pdf - Office for ...

Setup structures for communication and administration: to ensurethat the project is effective.Outcome The project commenced in February 2007.The appointment of team members was finalised in August 2007when it was determined that additional programming resourceswould be required – this was a contingency included in the budgetand proposed team structure. The “Programmer 2” position in theteam was fulfilled by two staff in the Flexible Learning Centre of thelead institution – one to program the front-end user interface andone to program the back-end database.Contact with experts in learning and teaching and IT wereestablished in the second month of the project (March 2007). Firstthe team had to agree on a questionnaire and establish a list ofcontacts.ResearchOutcomeCommunication and administration structures were established andagreed upon by the team in the first month. These are discussed inmore depth in the Analysis of Critical Factors section below.Conduct an extensive literature review relating to feedback andassessment and to IT systems for delivering online feedback andassessment.Conduct an extensive survey of Australian higher educationinstitutes to determine their particular requirements.Further investigate competitive products.Benchmark competitive products (in terms of features, cost, efficacyetc.)Investigate options for software development e.g. via honoursstudents studying software engineering, UniSA staff, privatesoftware development companies etc.The literature review was underway prior to the project, which wasbeneficial in terms of establishing questionnaires aimed at learningand teaching and ICT experts.The literature review continued throughout the project and wasdisseminated via five peer reviewed publications.A summary of the results of the Learning and Teaching, and ICTquestionnaires are reported on in journal article and are reported inthe Details of Research Study section of this document.Competing products were investigated and where possible theywere accessed and trialled. This included Electronic Feedback,Assessment@YourFingerTips, ReView, and Mindtrail. Key featuresof these products were listed and ranked in terms of theirimportance in a Product Specifications document that was used bythe team in the design of the user interface and the database.Exploration into options for software development were curtailed byan offer from the lead institution’s Flexible Learning Centre to fulfilthe Programmer 2 role in the team. This offer was quickly accepteddue to the strategic benefits of this commitment from the leadComputer Aided Feedback & Assessment System (CAFAS) 19