PACT+Analysis

People, Activities, Context, Technology
// **People** // - Students who interact with the Portal on Blackboard at UTM. - Faculty (Professors, TA, Administrators) who use it to communicate with the students as well as input marks. - Computing Services, whose job it is to maintain the Portal. // **Activities** // - Grades can be viewed - Work can be submitted - Communication through discussion board and class email features - Downloading class information such as the syllabus and lecture slides and presentations - Announcements made by the Professor // **Context** // - Portal is meant to be a twenty-four hour access point for students and professors to communicate. - However, many times it is inconveniently down due to maintenance or slow load times due to overload or inadequate throughput. - It is also used to check grades, however some professors have issues uploading marks which can potentially cause problems regarding course drop dates. - Lectures slides sometimes take long to load, which can cause problems before test dates or when students are in a rush. - Discussion Board does not update immediately after posting. When it does update, it sometimes shows the content two or more times. // **Technology** // - The need for fast, reliable software that does require maintenance as often. - Buy more bandwidth to allow quick loading times or create efficient sites that require minimal load time. - A method of compressing uploaded files to allow them to be downloaded quicker.