Requirement Gathering Process
In order to gain a deep understanding of the requirements of the system, we conducted semi-structured interviews with several prospective users, the TA, and the lecturers. These interviews were a valuable source of feedback, which allowed us to better tailor the system to meet the needs and expectations of its users.
We specifically chose to use semi-structured interviews, which are a flexible and efficient way to gather information from a wide range of users. They allow participants to speak freely and openly about their experiences, which can help identify key pain points and areas for improvement. The interview questions are open-ended, but the interviewer follows a general outline to ensure that all relevant topics are covered. By allowing participants to speak freely and openly about their experiences, we were able to identify key pain points and areas for improvement.
Given the nature of the interviews, which typically lasted around 20 minutes each, we have included some of the most important takeaways in this report. Our hope is that this information will provide some insights we gained from our research, and serve as a useful resource for anyone interested in the development of similar systems in the future.
Interview with TA
Our interview with TA is conducted in person. She is a 3rd year BSc Computer Science student at our university. She is currently working as a TA for our module, COMP0016 System Engineering. This is her first time being a TA for a module, and we were eager to get her feedback on how we can improve the module, especially from a usability standpoint.
During the interview, we asked her about the use of spreadsheets to manage students. While spreadsheets are commonly used, they can be time-consuming and have the risk of accidentally deleting important information. We also mentioned other alternatives such as Smartsheet, a modern project management tool, or Canvas, one of the largest teaching and learning platforms in the world. However, our TA believes that these tools do not really solve our problems and can be more complicated than vanilla spreadsheets. She mentioned that cost to purchase and maintain external applications is an important factor to consider.
We then asked our TA about the most important feature that she thinks we should include in our module. She emphasized the need for a centralized application that has everything in one place. This would make it easier for TAs to submit weekly feedback for teams and individual students. The system should address the problem of spreadsheets, which are entirely manual while retaining their strength of being versatile, simple to use, and collaborative. Our TA’s ideal solution is a simple-to-use and versatile platform without much prior learning that can actually address the current issue.
Interview with Lecturer
Our interview with the lecturer is conducted online via Zoom, where we discussed various topics related to his experience as an experienced lecturer and module leader of COMP0016 System Engineering at UCL. During the interview, he shared his insights on the practical pain points of TAs and students when running a module, which is crucial to help us improve our project.
In response to our question about the kind of communication or feedback he is expecting to receive from TAs each week, he mentioned that he wants to see a weekly feedback report from TAs. In the report, he looks for a one-sentence summary for each team to know the performance of each team. He expects to see good-performing teams, under-performing teams, and the average performance of all teams. This way lecturers can address issues such as consistently under-performing teams or student absence promptly.
When we suggested implementing comparisons between teams or individuals in a chart to address the issue he raised, he agreed that it would be a helpful feature. In addition to that, he requested us to include the ability to export the weekly performance data at the end of the term. The data would need to be put onto the examiner’s report. He also expressed a desire to see students assessing their TAs at the end of the term. This would help the lecturer to understand how they could help students more effectively and identify any under-performing TAs.