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The first Department of Computing database prototype was implemented in 1998 using Sybase, a relational database management system, from a system specification by Dr Marian Ursu, then Database Systems lecturer for the Department.
In 1999, the initial database prototype specification was reimplemented and extended by Dr Chris Fox, then Computing and Artificial Intelligence lecturer for the Department, using PostgreSQL, an object-relational database management system with an emphasis on extensibility and standards-compliance capable of supporting large Internet-facing applications with many concurrent users. Rudimentary web-interfaces for the new database were developed by Mr Matt Bernstein, then the Departmental Systems Administrator, to allow online entry of assessment marks and student absences by staff. This initial system achieved the two primary goals of the departmental database project:-
The department formed a database group, consisting of the Head of Department (Prof Nelson Stephens), the Director of Studies (Dr Roger Sugden), the Departmental Administrator (Hayley Frapwell), the Departmental Secretary (Isabelle Seale), the Departmental Systems Administrator (Eamonn Martin since November 2000) and other interested staff, to consider new ways to make further use of the data now being collected. Along with a variety of new web-interfaces for the system (eg. student profiles, module result scaling), the group developed a formal specification for the calculation of module results from individual assessment marks. A result calculator module was eventually implemented as a function of the departmental database system, thereby automating the module result calculation process for the department.
Over time, the database interfaces grew in number and complexity and were eventually combined with a variety of online tools and services to become the Department of Computing Intranet, a secure, online information portal with an application framework built in the Java programming language on an Apache Tomcat application server. All staff and students in the department have access to the departmental intranet using their IT Services logins and are encouraged to provide feedback and submit feature requests to help expand and improve the services it provides.
The Department of Computing Intranet, backed by the departmental database system, has thus remained in continuous development. Benefitting from direct developmental input from both academic and administrative staff in the department, past and present, it has grown to support a wide variety of departmental processes, including programme and module management, staff/student module allocations, exam paper production process tracking, online coursework and exam submissions and student progress reports. It provides students with a central reference point for departmental information and a highly detailed breakdown of their academic progress as recorded in their departmental student profiles. Module result calculation has been refined to include module result calculations for resit students which require the recombination of the best assessment component marks achieved across multiple sittings, including support for late-summer resits with alternate assessment component configurations. The support provided to the department's student assessment process by the system has been highlighted as an example of "best practice" by external examiners.
For more information, please contact: E.Martin@gold.ac.uk
