English Learning Center
1. List of key people of ELC pertaining to the IEP project.
NameTitle
Betty BickelDirector of English Language Center
Kazumi HasegawaDirector of Marketing Research
Josie PennAdministrative Assistant
Kanokrat SureesongTechnical Assistant
2. The key people’s response toward the new system.
- Betty Bickel - Sheis heartily looking forward the completion of project and the time and money savings that are brought by the new system.
- Kazumi Hasegawa - She is eager to experience the efficiencies of a computer-based system.
- Josie Penn - Sheis enthusiastic about the efficiencies that the new automated system would bring to the current manual processes.
- Kanokrat Sureesong– She is ready to implement the new system.
3. Brief introduction of ELC project.
ELC is experiencing problems with its academic processes resulting from its paper-based system. The functions of admissions, registration, enrollment, schedule creation, and evaluation are time consuming and error prone. Costs keep increasing as more resources are employed to perpetuate the inefficient system.
Based on the requirements of the ELC administration, we designed an academic database system that will assist in the admissions process and automate the functions of registration, enrollment, and schedule creation for the IEP program of the ELC. The system will furnish reporting tools to assist in planning and evaluation activities. The system will also provide a repository for standard operating procedures and policies.
Learning Resource Center
The following is the user list and project overview for our group.
Andrea Spratt, Assistant Director
Learning Resource Center
(supportive, ease of use)
Tamika Weaver, Coordinator for Program Operations
Learning Resource Center
(supportive, ease of use)
Theresa P. Davis, Director
Learning Resource Center
(supportive, no disruption of work practices)
Thomas Taylor, Assistant Provost for Enrollment Services
Enrollment Services
(supportive, cost)
Project Overview:
The Learning Resource Center (LRC) provides tutorial services for the
University of Maryland Baltimore County's (UMBC) campus community for a
variety of courses and topics. One service provided by the LRC is individual
tutoring. Individual tutoring is usually established as a once-a-week session
to last the entire semester. To arrange these sessions, the LRC must
coordinate the schedules of the students who need tutoring (the tutees) with
the schedule of a tutor who can provide tutoring for the specific class that
the tutee needs help with.
The problem with LRC's current scheduling system is that it is very time
consuming. The current system requires the tutee to complete one form, the
tutor has to complete another form, the administrative staff has to complete a
third form, and then the information from all three forms must be entered into
an Excel spreadsheet. As a result, the administrative staff at LRC needs to
spend almost 4 weeks coordinating these schedules. The LRC staff is very
frustrated with the current scheduling system because it takes so much time.
In addition, because it is a manual system, scheduling changes are difficult
to make where the need arises. Many errors have been made in the past because
of the duplicated work, which is a major problem.
This project will address the needs of the administrative staff that oversee
the scheduling for individual tutoring. We will propose the development of a
computerized scheduling system that, given a list of times available for the
tutee, will conduct a search algorithm to determine which tutors are available
to tutor a specific class, when those tutors are available, and match their
time to the tutee's time.
Automated Nurse Staffing Office System Improvement for Suburban Hospital Orthopedic, Neurology and Trauma Unit.
Suburban Hospital is a community-owned hospital serving Montgomery County and the surrounding areas of Maryland. It is a not-for-profit organization providing a comprehensive range of wellness, diagnostic and treatment services to address community health care needs throughout the continuum of care.
The Orthopaedic, Neurology and Trauma Unit at Suburban Hospital is a 30-bed unit, which provides nursing care for acute orthopaedic, neurology and trauma patients. The unit has 40 employees.
Dissatisfaction with the current scheduling system and procedure has been identified as one of the leading causes of the high turn over rate of the nursing staff at suburban Hospital. No or minimal involvement of staff members in the scheduling process leads to conflicts, frustration and dissatisfaction. The lack of flexible scheduling also makes the hospital a less desirable place to work in this competitive job market. As the nation wide nursing shortage continues, the hospital and its departments need more flexible scheduling system which gives nurses more control over their work schedule, and can also be used as a recruitment and retention tool.
Decision makers
B. Anderson (Nursing Director)
M. Davidson (Unit Nursing Manager)
C. Roberts (Assistant Manager)
N. James (Staffing and Scheduling Coordinator)
J. Brown (Chief financial officer)
G. Smith (MIS department)
- Johns (Scheduling Committee)
R. Williams (Scheduling Committee)