Business and Economics Interviews

Introduction

In the light of new academic opportunities, there are more and more advances in the sphere of information technologies for students and learners all over the world that facilitate their academic performance and improve their knowledge and skills. Recent observations, surveys and interviews indicate a change in the role of IT in students lives of students, who face both advantages and challenges of online communication and IT management. Thus, interviews with IT developers and students have shown that some of the problems relate to the lack of experience and knowledge as well as to technological gaps, such as inability to access the administrator for registering or faults of the system. As a result, students can be assigned extra subjects, regardless of the maximum accepted. Due to the pitfalls of informational technologies, it is essential to provide a report on the related mistakes, advantages, challenges, and solutions in order to promote IT improvement in the future and develop new training programs for both learners and advisors.

Summary of Interviews

To solve the problem, four interviews with IT developers and students were conducted. They reflect the major advantages and disadvantages, problems and complaints related to the new registration system, and a feedback on its effectiveness. The developers and students gave different response to the interview questions, especially those which referred to non-technical problems, such as the lack of knowledge or absence of specific rules and instructions for accessing the registrations system. Also, the interview contained questions concerning the problem of advisors approval, which is a time-consuming process because students fail to access to subjects until they receive approval. On the other hand, teachers approval is essential for understanding which subjects are necessary to take.

Interviews

Interview (1) with Mr. Sameer

1. Will you describe the benefits of the new system?

Now we have a ban system used for universities for such purposes for insurance information. We have decustomization based on our doing things. We tried to implement optimizing processes. We tried to eliminate errors we had from previous system. The banner system is in charge of many processes aimed at improving the overall process of information.

2. What are the differences between the old and the new system?

Old system is the one that we developed internally with our internal cybernetics

The new system is a banner system, which is used across hundreds of universities around the world. Banner is readymade system, which provides information to students, whereas old system was tailor-made, which is made from scratch.

3. How might IT department solve the problems?

The problems relate to browser and computer re-using. PC is blocking access to the banner system. Connecting to different networks to fix the browser is another important solution. For, nontechnical problems are solved through forwarding to the relevant departments because the IT department specializes predominantly at solving technical issues.

4. What is the feedback about the new system?

I think that the new system is more organized as compared to the old one. During the first semester, learners face challenges and the new system helps learners to cope with the difficulties.

Empathy Map

What People Say: 1. The system is efficient and is much better as compared to the old one. 2. It can improve the educational knowledge.	What People Think 1. The system still needs improvement, but there are non-technical problems which could not be solved by the IT developers; 2. Learners should be more knowledgeable about the new registration process.
What People Do: 1. The IT developers try to focus on the major gaps of the system and define what further potential problems can occur.	What People Feel 1. Many developers lack understanding why the registration system is not effective under certain circumstances.

Related Opportunity Statement

There is always an opportunity to introduce the online training course for students to understand what are the major challenges of using the new registration system.

Interview 2 (with Mr. Baher)

1. What are the pros and cons of the system?

The new system can improve communication and advisors approval is possible to provide the learner with greater awareness of the course, and help them to direct them into the right path. Receiving feedback is much more beneficial for learners. One negative point refers to the approval period of the advisor is limited. As example, a learner can receive approval too late for enrolling for the training program.

2. What are the problems that IT department is facing?

Most of them refer to the asking questions regarding the methods and essence of using the new registration system. However, it is not technical issue, but the lack of knowledge about basic essence of PC use. Registering the course could be problematic could be either missing of approval, or insufficient knowledge about the registering process.

3. How much the shelf book in the e-campus can help the IT department?

We have many benefits of shelves for learners and IT developers. Learners can have many suggestions, which directly come to the IT developers regarding the design of electronic books. Second, the presence of announcements related to the IT department, such as maintenance systems, e-shelf is, therefore, is popular among learners. Additionally, if campus miss information or books, it is possible to accesses the online database and find the necessary sources for the course. Therefore, it is important for the learners to understand how it can be improved through management of such techniques.

Empathy Map

What People Say: IT technologies are well-known and acknowledge among the learners.	What People Think The registering process could be improved as soon as learners expand their knowledge about the system;
What People Do: We have developed the new electronic system which will facilitate the enrollment process.	What People Feel IT developers feel that there should be improved solutions for managing the registration process with reliance on the complaints.

Related Opportunity Statement

There are new options for using online space and accessing the information, but the first stage of approval causes delays.

Interview 3 (with Mr. Mohd)

1. How the registration system works?

The learner is supposed to go the campus and plan where it is possible to see all the courses that have been taken, available, or then, they can choose what available course they can take. Then the learners go to the advisor to receive his/her agreement, and the next stage will involve registration. This is the distance variant of the registration system activities. After the advisors accession, it is possible to choose the session stuff, but previously, learners need only advisors approval.

2. What are the problems that the IT department is facing?

The problem occurs mostly with the new system of registration and it does not relate to technical problems, but to the learners knowledge and experience, while dealing with the IT system and online networks. Another problem can occur with the pauses in session, which requires the learner to log in once again, because it can be logged out after a while if a use does not access it regularly, or in the course of over fifteen minutes. Sometimes sections are not available.

3. How do you solve this problem?

We advise them to check another section, or ask them to check and respond. Sessions things could be solved by means of systematic instructions, such as signing out and signing in again. We try to check as much as possible, each aspect of the issue, regardless of the nature of the problem and relevance to our department.

4. What is the feedback about the new system?

From my viewpoint, it is time-effective, organizing their work effectively. It allows learners to divide the work, and provides equal access for learners to register and choose the courses. They could select the sessions and course they like regardless of their previous grades. All is confined to equal opportunity. The system is stable and non-counting. In the majority of cases, the system is beneficial for learners because it facilitates the process of registration.

5. What are the conditions for reducing the number of complaints?

If there is awareness for the learners to register to the course on time, it should be essential for them to choose the courses in a timely manner. There are worries; however, regarding the registering time, but the learners should keep pace of the registering date to make everything possible not to lag behind the registration process.

Empathy Map:

What People Say: The new system is well organize and can allow to facilitate the process of accessing the educational subjects and courses.	What People Think There is still space for advancing the program, and providing equal opportunities for taking the course.
What People Do: We are doing everything possible to eliminate the current disadvantages of the system, but most of them relate to the insufficient knowledge of learners.	What People Feel The system does not contain bugs, but the lack of training is the reason for the failure.

Related Opportunity Statement

There is an opportunity to remove the disadvantage, by advancing the new training program.

Interview 4 (with student Fatima)

1. What do you think about the new system?

I do not like it because, before you get add and drop, you should first send the advisors approval, but the latter could be unavailable, which takes time and difficulties. Hence, this system is not always equal for all the students because it is necessary to wait for the subjects to be approved. It was a total mess, because the majority of students who received approval from advisors earlier were privileged to take the subjects they want, whereas the rest has to take the one which were left because of the late response of the advisor.

2. What system do you prefer the old system or the new one?

The old system because of the fact it provides the specific them for accessing the system. It is not necessary to get approval, and everyone can get the subject they want as soon as they register without the need to wait for the approval. The old system is based on the principle first take, first, whereas the second system focuses on approvals, which takes time, leading to numerous delays.

3. What are the suggestions for meeting the complaints?

There are many complains, such as how to reduce time for waiting advisors approval. There are cases when advisors are not even in the country. Hence, there should be specific time given for them to address the questions. Second problem refers to the lack of experience and knowledge of accessing the online registrations system. They lack knowledge and training for doing it. Third, time conflict is also associated because it is predetermined by the faults in the system because it often accepts over 6 subjects from one student, which is not acceptable. These issues should be reconsidered and improved. It is much better them to focus on two sessions.

Empathy Map

What People Say: The old system is better than the new one. It takes time while waiting for advisors approval.	What People Think The system has bugs, such as the ability of taking over 6 courses, which is not allowed in the educational system.
What People Do: Learners have to wait the advisors decision before registering to the course.	What People Feel The old system is more organized because it did not require the advisors approval.

Related Opportunity Statement

Students are dissatisfied with the system because of the time taken for waiting for the advisors feedback and approval.

Journey Map

While developing interviews, I have learned much about the new registration system and identified serious gaps in its mechanism of work which required answers and further explanation. First of all, I was interested in the rationale for creating the new registration system because there must be certain underpinnings and reasonable explanations for introducing an advanced technology. Additionally, I have developed simple questions for the interview to carry out a comparative analysis of understanding of the essence of the new registration system as well as its impact on the overall quality of learning. Such an opportunity occurred among the IT developers and students from the campus. Thus, three web developers and one student from the campus agreed to answer the questions by e-mail. Although the results of the interview could not be considered as valid and reliable, they still contribute further evaluation of the quality of online techniques.

Brainstorming activities were carried out before the interviews were conducted. They were directed at obtaining general information about IT developers opinion about the educational process. Students participating in the brainstorming activities left their feedback on the new registration system and introduced a new perspective on the role of e-technologies in advancing academic achievements.

Problems Solution

With reliance on the above-presented interviews, several problems could be identified, such as the lack of compatibility between the manual use of the program and usability and the essence of the registration process. In other words, the two stages of the registration process are stagnated because of the need to wait for advisors approval. In order to solve the issue, the advisors should be notified of students requests either through additional mobile applications or via e-mail. Hence, IT developers should introduce a new function to the program.

Second, there is also a problem with the organizational process because the registration system permits choosing over 6 subjects, which should be corrected. This technical problem must also be considered by IT developers.

Third, the majority of learners experience problems with accessing the system because of insufficient knowledge and the lack of experience and skills. To prevent the issue, it is highly recommended that the web developers introduce a training program with detailed instructions. Alternatively, it is also possible to develop a specific training course for students and potential applicants to learn more about the new registration system, how it works, and what challenges students might encounter. Such a program will also help IT developers eliminate all bugs and introduce an improved registration system in the future.

Finally, the developers and institutions should also work on introducing new IT subjects that would facilitate the learning process and allow the students to expand their knowledge by means of online application. In such a way, students could become more computer-friendly and more aware of the digitalization and process which has become the major part of modern social life.

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