Smoelenboek project

Project description

The main research question is: what does Fontys need from Smoelenboek and how can Smoelenboek be improved?. This research aims to investigate the specific requirements and expectations that Fontys, an educational institution, has for the Smoelenboek application. Additionally, the research seeks to identify potential areas of improvement for the Smoelenboek application.

Context

Dienst IT builds and maintains 200 applications for Fontys institutions with them. mMain goal is making sure that the Fontys card (operations) is working and any other technical aspects regarding ICT. Dienst IT has 140 employees who offer services for more than 4.100 Fontys employees and 42.000 students ​(Fontys)​. From 2019 Dienst IT collaborates both within and outside Dienst IT ​(Zandberg, 2021)​. They focus on:

Demand management

Short cycle improvement

Multidisciplinary teams

Learning organization

One of the applications is Smoelenboek which is a class book for students and teachers. What makes this application unique is the fact that profile pictures are being used from the Fontys cards. Therefore, teachers know which students take their classes and how the anticipating students look like. This application was designed 10 years ago and doesn’t keep up with the current standards (regulations, new systems, etc.). Even though Smoelenboek is outdated, there’s still a demand for this application.

Results

Canvas will be the solution option for institutes that already adopted Canvas as their class book application. Smoelenboek, on the other hand, will be the option for institutes that do not use canvas. According to discussions with information managers, some institutes that use Smoelenboek also use Canvas, such as sports schools and engineering. In that instance, the institute can select the program that is best suited to their needs, but in the case of Engineering, the major class book is Canvas, thus it is appropriate for them to stick with Canvas. whereas Power Apps will be the solution for institutions that are now using Smoelenboek as their source of a class list and the course-based learning. A prototype will be required because the Smoelenboek application has been hard coded for the past ten years with no more updates.

The new version of Smoelenboek in Power Apps will have the same features as the previous version, which also applies to the guidelines that will be followed for its integration and development. The Power Apps version will be based on the original architecture, which in the case of Smoelenboek is part of the LMS and within its Power Apps upgrade it becomes suitable for the Microsoft 365 ideology which Fontys is aiming to follow.

About the project group

Company SEE is originates from 9 participants. But within the given 2 projects per group, there is only 4 group members who worked on Dienst IT project. All of the members are coming from ICT & Business background with 2 being from course based and another 2 from demand based. Even tho, we are coming from a bit different learning experience, we manage to find compromises and communicate with one another which makes the team dynamic strong and open for new ideas. Each of the members took part in the evaluation of the project, starting from research and ending with testing. All of the sem 6 was dedicated towards the Dienst IT project with at least 8 hours per day of work and constant meetings with the client.