Yesterday Myself, Harriet and Claire Ellison of UPC Faculty visited HMS Drake naval base in Plymouth.
Ian Austen was kind enough to show us around and tell about their experiences with APEL. Ian presented to the group details about the Flag Officer Sea Training Hydrography, Meteorology and Oceanography (FOST HM).
We discovered some really good practice with regards to APEL which we will be writing up and discussing further in the coming months so watch this space.
Development has been continuing this month. Still focusing on the administrative side of it. I’m basically designing the system to be able to design a branched step processes in order to accomodate the APEL process we have designed but also to allow modification and support for multiple processes.
The way it works is each step has a title, content and a number of links or options. In addition to this tasks can be added.
Within a task people can be set roles, e.g. Tutor interviews student. Student completes form, etc. In addition to this resources can be added to the step such as a document, web link, etc. I’m hoping this will cover everything we need for PINEAPPLE whilst allowing additional flexibility if others want to use the system.
I aim to start focusing on the front end of the system once I am able to fully input and manage a process. I estimate this will be around the end of March but possibly sooner.
Completed Developments this month
Admin – Add, Delete, make admin (Users)
Process Manager – Create, edit processes
Process Designer – early development started. Interface and basic functionality
I’ve been keeping a log of development progress so far on the system. Been concentrating on backend administration so far whilst we finalise the APEL process aspect of the system. Much of this functionality is in basic stages and will be refined in time. Got a bit more work on this backend basic setup side of things before moving onto APEL applications and process side of project. Aim is to add in AJAX and javascript functionality down the line to improve usability and error checking.
Basic site structure HTML and CSS
Basic setup system script (to create admin)
Register user
Login / Logout
User profile page (edit/update)
User list of contacts (within college / upc)
databases structure setup
input error checking
Admin Area
Edit User information
Manage roles within system (e.g. advisor, tutor, administrator, student) (Add/edit/delete)
Manage Areas (Institutions) within system (Add/edit/delete)
Manage Locations (Campus’ or sites) within system (Add/edit/delete)
The last few days I have been creating various screenshots of how the system may look and function.
I have now compiled these in flash to produce an interactive version so we are able to mock up how the system may function before making it all and get feedback from potential users.
This will be evolving over the coming months and can be seen here.
As you will know from the previous posts we are currently gethering as much information as we can about APEL.In the last week Harriet and I have been focusing in on UPC and what is already going in terms APEL and APCL. Our meeting in Bradford was extreemly useful and I must thank the other projects for their useful input and insights provided both through their presentations and coversations.
I am taking time to think from a systems / user perspective too and what information is available, where it is stored, what is required and many other questions. I am hoping that by Jan/Feb we will have the process completed and I will begin developing the software.
There will be variations between colleges but I am moving away from a model which supports massive variation in how an APEL process can be undertaken. I think with close collaboration and support from UPC Faculty it will be more successful approach to have as much standardisation as possible.
As with everything this still could all change
To lighten up the post here are some early system screenshots which I am using to aid system design and usability.
Now our baseline report has been completed we have had time to finish off some of our other materials.
This newsletter is just going to print, its primary aim to spread the word of the project around and for use at some of the events we’ll be attending/ possibly running over the coming months. You can view the newsletter here.
The team have been busy working on our baseline study which we are hoping to get finished for next Monday although we anticipate this to be an ongoing piece of work.
Yesterday we had Ruth Drysdale, Tish Roberts and George Roberts visit us from JISC. We had an excellent meeting through the afternoon discussing our progress and plans so far.
We all went away happy with our progress and invigorated to continue our work with the baseline study. We also had a really nice buffet with lots of local goodies as seen here
This website will be used to host all information regarding the PineAPPLe Project. This website is currently under development so expect a lot more content soon.
In the meantime have a look at this video by Dr Neil Witt and Dr Harriet Dismore providing an introduction to the project.
