Physics and Astronomy Self-Paced Course System
The introductory course work offerings in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (part of the College of Arts and Sciences) attract a variety of students from diverse majors and colleges. The self-paced nature of the introductory Physics and Astronomy courses in particular, augmented with video instructions and instructor-led labs, study guides, and an automated student evaluation system, has put the department in a unique position within the college.
The Self-Paced Course System allows students to schedule their own labs over the web and take computer-based tests at their own convenience. Students can track their progress on the course web site, and instructors and lab assistants can use the web interface for grading, scheduling, and administering tests.
The Advanced Solutions Group took on the task of documenting the functional components of the Physics and Astronomy Self-Paced Course System and defining ways that it could be improved. During this process, it became very clear that the existing architecture could not withstand the current level of usage for much longer. To solve this problem, ASG defined an outline for a new architecture for the system.
Over the years, the student evaluation and tracking for these courses evolved from a combination of mainframe hardware that included the DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Rainbow PCs to Apple Macintosh/AppleTalk with a web-based front-end running 4D (a database management system native to the Macintosh platform). ASG helped bring the system up-to-date with an Oracle database and Java back-end running on a multi-platform network that includes Linux and OS X. ASG also redesigned the interface for a better, more efficient user experience.
For more information about the Astronomy Self-Paced Course System, contact ASG at info@asg.sc.edu.
