paper -
92 The Right Tools for the Right Jobs: Developing a Student Management System
J. P.
Brannan, Cornell University
James Landis, Cornell University
Many campus IT organizations rely heavily on student
employees and part-time employees in HelpDesks, Labs and other work groups.
Though each type of group may be managed differently, managers face some common
tasks:
*
Hiring a traditionally high-turnover work force
*
Tracking employee training and expertise
*
Scheduling part-time employees
* Tracking time worked by part-time employees
*
Keeping records of employee performance
*
Managing how part-time employees can swap shifts with others
*
Doing it all cheaply and effectively without taking up a lot of time.
The presentation will describe how Cornell has met
these challenges by implementing a student management system that can be used
my multiple groups on campus with minimal cost. Relying on open source
solutions including Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL, Cornell has successfully
deployed a modular student management system that allows participating
departments to pick and choose which modules they use including:
*
On-line job applications and hiring processes
*
Employee information tracking
* Setting a "standard" employee
schedule
* A
tool allowing employees to swap shifts
*
On-line management of schedule parameters (hours of operation, number of
employees, etc.)
*
Employee performance records
The presentation will describe the issues involved in designing and implementing a student management system and how Cornell successfully addressed them, deploying the system with a web interface within 10 weeks of the project's inception. It will illustrate how various "home-grown" administrative tools were combined and shared across departments within Cornell's IT organization, saving staff time, standardizing and streamlining adminstrative processes.