Using GradTools to track graduate students' progress and map skills development

catherine — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 06:28:56 -0600

I met with usability specialist Michelle Bejian Lotia yesterday, to talk about GradTools and how we might use it at the University of Cambridge. Michelle works for the Usability, Support and Evaluation Lab at University of Michigan, which seems to be a very similar institution to CARET. In the context of our move to Sakai (known as CamTools at Cambridge), it looks as though GradTools may be the tool we are looking for to help us track graduate progress through the multiple processes involved in completing a research degree.

We have two specific issues that GradTools may help us to address. First, audit requirements. UK universities now have access to a specific pool of government money (known as "Roberts money", after the 2001 review of postgraduate research and training by Gareth Roberts) which they are required to use for graduate training and skills development. At Cambridge, the Roberts money is divided up between the Faculties, who decide amongst themselves how they are going to spend it. There is an obvious need to ensure parity of training provision across the institution, and to record, at least at the departmental level, the number of students subscribing to training opportunities. GradTools relies on external data (at Cambridge, this would be provided through our PeopleSoft system, run by the student information services division) so it does not produce "authoritative" top-level data that meets formal audit requirements. But with some development, it could be very useful as an informal / internal reporting mechanism.

Secondly, GradTools has potential to help us to deal with the decentralised nature of Cambridge, by bringing together information about graduate students from different sources, while giving students a personalised view of information relevant to them. At Cambridge, in terms of managing the admissions and degree completion / award process there is a certain administrative tension between Faculties or departments on the one hand and the Board of Graduate Studies on the other. According to the information I've had from Michelle, this situation appears to map to the structure at Michigan. Their experience of the benefits of GradTools as a fairly flexible and unstructured toolset gives me some confidence that it could also work well in Cambridge's complex, devolved environment.

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Using GradTools to track graduate students' progress and map skills development