Update from the Teaching Office Database System

Here is an update on what has been achieved by the Teaching Office Database (TODB) project as it enters its final stages.

We have worked with the Engineering Department and six other Departments to develop customised versions of the Teaching Office Database (TODB) system for them. Many enhancements made along the way have been ‘retrofitted’ to systems which were visited earlier in the development cycle.

All of these 6 ‘new’ departments plan to use TODB for the next academic year and have claimed for the funding to cover their costs involved in participating in the project. Three of these now have their own copy of the software which they are running on their own servers. The other 3 are in the process of doing this. I have met with or arranged to meet with the Computer Officers from each department to make sure they feel confident to host and support the system. A mailing list for these computer officers will be set up to facilitate interdepartmental communication about TODB queries.

A generic version of TODB, which is designed to be easily customised, has been developed and will be released under an Open Source Licence. Accompanying documentation will shortly be evaluated by an independent member of CARET. This includes a User Guide which is linked to a Help button in the application, an Installation and Configuration Guide, a Developer’s Guide and a ‘How To’ Guide intended to point to the solutions to normal requests and queries.

We have recently had an enquiry from a new department who are interested in adopting the system. They have seen the generic system and feel that they will be able to take this ‘off-the-shelf’. This would seem to be verification that this process has produced a useful and tuneable product.