Project Overview
Contents
Introduction
The iars-bears project involves the design, development, and implementation of a web-based application to collect, store, and report on student-athlete data. The application will be used by the Compliance office of the Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreational Sports (IARS) department.
Background
The department of Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreational Sports (IARS) provides athletic opportunities and support services each year for almost 1,000 student-athletes competing in intercollegiate sports. The department is comprised of coaches and other units that administer student-athlete admissions, housing, financial aid, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, and rules compliance. These units work closely with their counterparts in central campus units to manage student-athletes' progress through the system. Staff in both IARS and various campus units work directly with student-athletes on a regular basis. (Source: Proposal for Student Athlete Database prepared by Elizabeth Miles, Dan Williams, Jim Harris, Barbara Morgan, Dec. 16, 1998.)
The department's vision and mission statement place student-athletes at the center of all its functions. To ensure consistent high-level achievement, the department seeks initiatives that will improve services and enhance the average student-athlete's experience. The department is also interested in participating in new collaborations and partnerships consistent with the vision of administrative excellence for the Berkeley campus. (Source: Proposal for Student Athlete Database prepared by Elizabeth Miles, Dan Williams, Jim Harris, Barbara Morgan, Dec. 16, 1998.)
Problem Statement
At the beginning of each academic year, the Compliance office of the IARS department collects student-athlete to update their records. This is accomplished by distributing paper-based forms that student-athletes must fill out and submit to the Compliance office. Upon receipt of the forms, administrators manually key-in some of the form data into a FileMaker Pro application. This application tracks student-athlete information and status in terms of eligibility, compliance, financial aid, admissions, and other factors. The rest of the data not entered into the application are only available on the paper-based form so these are filed away and kept for 6 years for retrieval and in compliance with NCAA regulations.
With about 1,000 student-athletes and 7 mutli-paged forms per athlete, transcription of data from paper into electronic form is a slow, tedious, and error-prone process. Because the FileMaker Pro application is only available on the intranet, data is inaccessible to student-athletes. Data is also not readily available to administrators if they are "on the road" and cannot connect to the local network. Generating multi-paged forms for 1,000 student-athletes requires heavy usage of paper. Finally, because not all data is entered electronically, data retrieval can sometimes take longer because it entails locating forms that have been filed away.
Proposal
The iars-bears initiative will implement a web-based application that will allow the Compliance Office to provide electronic versions of paper-based forms. The forms can be filled out and submitted by the student-athletes over the web. Data submitted will be stored in a database and accessible via a web interface. Data access by both student-athletes and office administrators will be controlled by an authentication mechanism that enforces various security-level permissions. Finally, the web application will feed form data to the existing FileMaker Pro application via a realtime data transfer.
Value Proposition
The creation of the a web-based application for the Compliance office will increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve quality of service.
Increase Efficiency
- Eliminates hours of manual data entry by administrators by shifting the task to student-athletes as they fill out online forms
- Eliminates the need to maintain and scour through files of paper forms to retrieve some student information because all form data is stored in one online system
- Enables student-athletes to update their own data directly without having to go through coaches or administrators
- Allows reports to be generated against data which were previously only available on the paper forms
- Expands data availability by allowing access via an internet connection
Reduce Costs
- Eliminates unproductive time spent by administrators performing data entry
- Eliminates the need to use paper to create forms
Improve Quality of Service
- Offers administrators immediate visibility to student-athletes with incomplete requirements by eliminating the lag time between form submission and data entry into the online system
- Promotes data integrity by eliminating redundant data collection across several forms, eliminating error-prone data re-entry by administrators, and preventing submission of invalid and incomplete forms by student-athletes
- Alerts administrators to any data changes or updates that may need attention or processing
- Enables student-athletes to have more control over their own data by giving them view and update privileges
- Provides a convenience for student-athletes by pre-populating online forms with data from the prior year
AS-IS VS. TO-BE
The following diagrams illustrate the changes that will be introduced by the proposed web-based application to the current business processes of collecting, updating, and viewing student-athlete data.
Collecting Data
In the current system, administrators distribute paper-based forms to student-athletes in order to collect data. Student-athletes fill out the forms and submit them to administrators who manually key-in some of the form data into a FileMaker Pro database. The rest of the data are not entered electronically so the paper forms are filed away for future retrieval. The forms are kept for six years in accordance with NCAA regulation.
In the proposed system, the administrators inform student-athletes of the existence of a student-athlete website where they can electronically fill out forms and submit them online. The data is stored in a database and archived for the required six years. Some of the data are also copied to the FileMaker Pro database in realtime.
Updating Data
In the current system, administrators generate a list of student-athlete data that need to be updated. The list is given to coaches who in turn ask students to correct any outdated information. Coaches return the updated list to administrators who then enter the updates into the FileMaker Pro application.
In the proposed system, coaches ask students to go to the student-athlete website to update any outdated information. When student-athletes make updates online, administrators are notified via e-mail of what data has been changed, who made changes, and when changes were made. Specific types of updates are also copied to the FileMaker Pro database in realtime.
Viewing Data
In the current system, student-athletes have no way of directly accessing their information after forms are submitted. Administrators can access some student data and run reports by through the FileMaker Pro application, but only when they are connected to the intranet. Because not all student-athlete information is available online, they sometimes have to reference the paper forms that have been filed away.
In the proposed system, student-athletes can directly view and manipulate their data via the website. Administrators also have access to data over the web without needing an intranet connection. This means coaches can access student-athlete information while they are “on the road” as long as they have internet access. Finally, there is no need to retrieve information from two different sources (electronic and physical files) because all information is electronically stored in one central location.
