University Website for Intern Tracking System - Coursework Example

Robert Morris Website for Intern Tracking System Introduction Management digitalization has become the driving force behind the current automation of online streaming tracking system as this is seen to come with greater benefits for every success oriented organization (Bishop 112). Virtual communities are making it necessary for firms to pass and get the immediate feedbacks using the current search engines which have ensured better management. Websites has seen greater benefits arising from the minimized time cost as the information are kept in the data base which are backed up and hence can easily be retrieved any time at least costs. Current RMU Manual System Evaluation RMU is found struggling with manual intern’s management system which has proved to be cost-ineffective as it is attached to increased mailing, faxing and time cost spent in conveying information and interestingly, prolonged time spent in retrieving such information (Bishop 176). The current systems based on faxing through the hard copy and forms cannot precisely achieve a sound interns tracking system by the respective stakeholders such as is the University Careers Services and Faculty Advisers for the undergraduate and graduate students who earn course credits pegged on the complexity of the assigned duties and amount of hours spent working. To this end, the paper aims at automating the RMU’s interns tracking system through developing a website that will streamline the internship management process. This is aimed at ensuring that information will speedily and precisely flow amongst the university stakeholders as well as these local firms to which the students are attached based on a cost-effective mechanism. Steps in Developing RMU Website Identification of the domain name This refers to the identity of the website and in particular the name to which the website will be referred and it calls for the annual fee payment as a registration to have the intellectual property right to use this name. Arriving at the name has nothing to do with the acquisition of a website as most people will think. Success of a website depends on the ability to choose a precise and domain name as this has presented a lot of challenge to most people. One is not expected to use same domain that has been used by others. Site definition and planning As RMU seeks to develop a website, consideration should be taken to determine the pre and post- effect of the developed website (Wasny 100). Proper budgetary in terms of the resources constraint and the organizational public relations as this comes with both negative and positive effect on the mentioned areas of organization. The first thing to come up with is the developing charter that will enable one to remain within the topic. In this stage I will seek to determine the goal of website its objective and subsequently start my collection of the necessary data and their respective analysis which will reveal my budgetary requirement for the whole process. The goal and the objective as per the RMU is to develop a website that will enable the intuition to automatically track and manage the internship in term of the earned course credits as well based on the hours spent. Consequently I will identify the site design tailored to meet the University expectation. Site production This is basically determined by the size of the organization and will either involves a substantial in-house or content size technology support as or the RMU being a larger organization substantial in-house technology support will be inevitable. I will further define the process managers, primary content experts, liaison to outside contractors and a webmaster or editor (Wasny 230). The technological requirement will also be defined as to what operating system and the browser to employ and for our case we will use windows and Firefox. There is also the need at this stage for the developer to identify the kind of the bandwidth network that will be applicable for the intended site and based on this the preferred network for this University will be the will Ethernet. Information architecture This calls for detailing the content in terms of the existing and new content and move a notch higher to understand the site’s organization structure and to this end, I will sketch out the content architecture. This will be followed by the coming up with a test prototypes as this will help me decide on the user interface as well as the site navigation. Site maps, tables of contents, thumbnails as and outlines will also be ascertained. I will also come up with the connection speed supported, web server its resources and develop multiple designs and the design specification. I will further develop my proposed programming support the particular features of my site and also draw my schedule to for implementation the site design and its construction. Site design This aims at the approval of the created site page design and grid, as well as the graphic design which gives the site it look and feel. The commissioning and the establishment of photography, illustrations, and audiovisual content are then done. Attention is made in this level to put everything ready for the actual suite production including, search engines, programming, data base design, and data entry. I will ensure availability of content components including finished HTML templates. Functional programming such as completed data base tables and programming interactions prototype will also be put in place at the end of this stage for actual website production (Nata 156). Page template is very crucial for the adding new pages in the site from already existence of some elements of navigation and site graphics. Templates should match the set standards about page text and content graphics. In this case the developer seeks to use the Adobe Dreamers which has seen to offer better and a highly rated templates as well its unique feature of standard recycled library site HTML as well as the graphics which ensure consistency of the site through a platform of easier establishment of new site pages. Precaution should be taken to compare this RMU website with the Web Accessibility Initiatives requirements that incorporates the special needs and the disadvantaged groups to navigate and use the website. Site construction The construction of the website is done with the as the web pages and constructed and subsequently filled out with the predetermined content. The completion of the web pages is the following by the linking the programming and the data base. The completion of linking is then preceded by the testing by totally independent person to determine the workability of the site at a primary level. This is done in order to help assist in determining the areas of strength and shortcomings of the design and the efficiency and the effectiveness of the established site which makes the developer to make the necessary adjustment to ensure easiness in terms of the accessibility to meet the Web Accessibility Initiative. Based on the magnitude of the criticism, the site is refined further and to this end, URL is publicized to meet a wider coverage. Being a new website, I will assist the Universality with the initial maintenance of the site until they are fully adapt to the functionality of the site after which they assume the daily updates as well as maintenance for the basis of keeping pace with the trends. Site marketing There is a need to make a website in line with marketing campaigns and strategies and ensure that it is pegged at the corporation of all communication programs with URL appearing in each piece of marketing collateral and the correspondences originating from the RMU. Being that this is going to be a local encounter based on the internship, the URL will be tailored in to be listed in the standard indices such as Google and Yahoo where these interns are expected to spend most of their surfing times. It is noted that during the marketing, URL should always appear in mostly accessed new material in order ensure a wider audience coverage. Marketing should be conducted in a manner to ensure that the website’s URL appears in the press releases, poster and billboards as well as well direct mail campaigns as these will ensure a wider coverage which makes the effectiveness of the new site to be achieved. Tracking and Evaluation Analysis of the server logs reveals the number of people viewing the site which help one determine the effectiveness of the site as well as a qualitative data. This further reveals the most attractive pages and browsing version that the interns as per this case were using to view this site. The intern’s geographic location will be determined from the further examinations of the logs and this will help the University to track the exact locations of their interns. The success of this website is based on the detailed analysis of the logs. Maintaining the site A close attention is called for to ensure that the assigned site editor will continuously vet and coordinate the content stream. The site editor should also ensure that graphic and editorial standards as well as keeping an eye on harmonious linkage between programming maintain the site by grooming. The ever changing in the links which make them perishable and hence site editor should frequently update such links in order to ensure continuous in formation conveyance. The editorial team are to be well equipped to ensure that the University policy remains the basis upon which the site content circumvents and also that the content is in line with the land policies and to check that the content is free from violation of the copyright regulations which can lead to massive financial losses preceding the lawsuits. The editor should also ensure that the broken links are minimized as this has a tendency to distort the search engines making retrieval hectic which may lead to communication breakdown and hence failing to meet the required tracking goal of the University. Backups and site archives Hardware failure poses greater threats to most websites if not backed up, this calls for the site editor to ensure a higher level protection of their websites from hitches resulting from such failures. Frequently ensure the website is safe from being wiped and if possible this should be done on a daily basis but your webmaster stands a better position to help you retrieve your back up schedule (Bonner 98). The site editor should always ensure that their site is free from these threats and a further precaution should be taken during external backing up to ensure that the external medium is also free from attacks as this may lead to a total loss of the information already archived on the site which will interfere with the normal daily transactions. Conclusion Effective informational conveyance is the key to success for any achievement oriented organization. The ability to ensure a continuous information flow amongst the organization stakeholders and the outsiders is pegged at the establishment and maintenance of a backed up website that is daily backed up in order to ensure no wipe outs of the site as may lead to communication breakdown resulting from catastrophic hardware failures (Bonner 123). More pros than cons have been realized by those firms that have developed their own websites resulting into reduced cost that are felt by the manually managed firms. Internship tracking of RMU will thus be greatly impacted as website will offer a closer and an efficient way managing interns both in terms of the course credits earned as well as the number of hours worked and the their academic progress. Work Cited Bishop, Alan J. Second International Handbook of Mathematics Education. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. Print. Bonner, Dede. Leading Knowledge Management and Learning: Seventeen Case Studies from the Real World of Training. Alexandria, VA: ASTD, 2000. Print. Nata, R. Vocational Education: Current Issues and Prospects. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2003. Print. Wasny, Garrett. How to Conquer the World: A Directory of 8000+ International Business Resources on the Internet. Rockville, Md: Government Institutes, 1999. Print. Read More