Introduction
 

In connection with the University’s recent contract with PeopleSoft for an integrated, campus-wide information system, the Division of Cooperative Education has begun development of its own requirements. This document describes the steps taken and the results.

The Division of Cooperative Education is comprised of three departments: Career Services, Cooperative Education, and International Co-op. The planned new system will integrate information across the Division and with the University’s future PeopleSoft Student Administration System. It will provide the ability to implement new business processes in support of student career development and practice-oriented education.

The goals of the Division’s new system are to provide accurate, centrally stored information; to automate administrative transactions, thus freeing up time for quality interactions; and to take advantage of the Internet’s "World Wide Web" for remote student access where appropriate. The system’s "high tech" foundations support a "high touch" solution, which enhances and extends the important contact between students and coordinators/counselors.

At the heart of the design is a single source for student, company/employer, job, assignment, program and evaluation information. Each department within the Division will have access to a more complete picture of the student’s academic and career plans, allowing staff to be highly proactive in anticipating student needs.

The system design makes extensive use of the Web for student, alumni/ae, and employer access. In addition, many of the underlying features of the PeopleSoft design will be utilized, including letter generation/mail merge, workflow, checklists, query/reporting tools and more.

Key business issues within Cooperative Education are currently being internally discussed and debated - such as job sharing among colleges and how relationships with employers are managed. A range of possible models has been considered during this initial system design phase. The system must be able to support new future policies as well as the policies that are in place today.

There are some important planning issues facing the entire university, including the Division of Co-op, as the campus embarks on implementation of the new client/server PeopleSoft applications. For example,

• There is widespread agreement on the value of an information-based system. But how will all of that new information be entered and maintained on the database?
• Many students are already quite proficient in computer use and online applications, such as e-mail and the Web. Other students are not. The same can be said for external organizations, such as employers. How will we meet the expectations and needs of both groups?
• Replacing the university’s numerous individual databases with an integrated, shared University database is the right goal. But when compromises have to be made regarding how data is stored, updated and accessed, what will be the process for making those decisions?

To help guide the requirements definition process, our committee evaluated feedback previously gathered from employers and students, researched "best practices" in cooperative education and career services, and discussed the University’s strategic initiatives and direction. We actively encouraged feedback from all Division staff by making committee reports, weekly document updates, and a project "suggestion box" available on the Web.

This System Requirements Document contains the following sections:

1. work process overviews for Career Services, Co-op, and International Co-op, which describe how the new system will support the major activities within the Division,
1. a system requirements overview by major function,
1. and specific requirements for each distinct user role: staff, students, alumni/ae, employers.

The detailed Software Requirements Specifiation can be found HERE.

You can review all submitted comments HERE.

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