A WEB APPLICATION FOR GROUP WORKDeveloper : Junxin Xie

Advisor : Dr. Samantha FoleyCo-advisor : Dr. Kenny Hunt

IntroductionThe Group work web application is for students and professors of university of Wisconsin-La Crosse to manage group work assignment in the class easier and more convenient.

• Group Formation Tool.• Schedule Tool.• Report Tool.• Notification & Reminder Tool

BackgroundGroup work assignments are an important part of classes in college to prepare students for the workplace. Students are frequently required to collaborate with other people in the university or in a company.

One manual way to manage group formation process usually involves three

steps:

1. Write down all students’ name on some small pieces of paper.

2. Put these papers into one black box. And take out a number of paper each

time depend on how many students you want in one group.

3. Repeat the second step until all students are divided into some groups.

Overview of RequirementThe primary objective of this project is to develop a web based application that automates the manual steps of the group formation process we mentioned.

Why web-based application?

Besides that, what else this application can do?

Professor

Student

Admin

Group FormationThe group formation tool will provide three different patterns to divide students into groups: • Random Group

• All students are divided into several groups randomly and professor can decide the number of groups that he or she wants to have in this assignment. Different groups can have the same topic in this pattern. Groups will have to select the topic by themselves.

• Random Topic Group• Same as random group, but each group will have a different topic.

• Free Group• Students form groups themselves through inviting friends to join them.• These groups can choose the same topics or not.

ScheduleThe second core function is Schedule tool. When all students have been divided into their groups, the professor will can provide a list of available time slots for students to sign up for the presentation or demonstration.

Anyone who is in the same group can sign up the presentation time for the whole group.

Once signed up, it means the time of presentation for that group is confirmed. Nobody can modify the time except professor.

The selection of time slots follow the rule of “first come first serve”. Two different groups can’t select the same time slot.

ReportThe report tool is used by professor to organize all kinds of information which can help professor monitor the whole process of group assignment.

1. The professor can get a report of students who didn’t select topic in one assignment.

2. The professor can generate a report of all groups that one assignment has.

3. The next report is to report groups which didn’t sign up yet, so the professor can notify them to sign up in time.

4. The last two reports are merged into one option on the home menu. One is report all presentation times of all groups in one assignment. The other is report all files that uploaded by all groups in one assignment.

Notification & Reminder The notification tool is used by professor to communicate with one

student, one group, or all students in the class. The professor can send message to student directly or reply other students’ message.

The reminder tool will automatically send an email generated by the calendar to users to remind them when the date of presentation is closing.

TechnologiesProgramming Language: • Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript• Back-end: java, SQL

Framework:• Front-end: Bootstrap, jQuery• Back-end: Struts2, Hibernate3

Server: Linux Server

IDE: MyEclipse

Database: MySQL

Challenge

Not familiar with the mechanism of Google authorization system.

Configure Linux Server.

Future Work Automatic E-mail Notification.

Mobile View of Website.

Improve the UI design.

Improve Search Methods.

Register Student

AcknowledgementsI would like to express my sincere thanks to my project advisor Dr. Samantha Foley for her valuable guidance and patience. Especially, every time the system occurs bugs, she will help me to locate it or gave me enough time to fix it.

I also want to thank Dr. Kenny Hunt, who give me a lot of help and provided the support for this project.

Thank You!~