Usability, requirements analysis and feasibility study, to update the UCD student portal, Blackboard, through the integration of a digital collaboration tool. Complete Research Paper Scully, Nicole and McEntee, Mary-Elizabeth UCD School of Business, Ireland, Nicole.scully@ucdconnect.ie and mary.mcentee@ucdconnect.ie Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse the current student portal utilised in University College Dublin and to assess how this digital product can be updated to benefit its user base. To conduct our analysis of a suitable update to the portal, we conducted both primary and secondary research. Our primary research took the form of a questionnaire, interviews and observation research. The secondary research conducted for the purpose of this paper included analysing a case study and a literature review. Our research led us to conclude that embedding a collaboration tool into the current product would make it a more user friendly and engagin
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tracy Kidder’s, The Soul of a New Machine, particularly as it tied many concepts discussed during the module together. Topics and themes which stood out for me were Management and the Importance of hard work. The management style visible in the Eagle project was Mushroom Management. That is, management appeared almost absent. The “kids” were given a general idea of work expected of them and then they were expected to complete the work independently. No one knew who to go to and any issues that occurred between the “microkids” and the “hardy boys” needed to be negotiated among themselves. It can be argued that this management style brought out the best in the “kids”. Many of them commented on the level of responsibility they were given, something they would not have received at rival companies, such as IBM. Something which stood out for me was the way that Carl Alsing announced that it was Tom West who built the Eagle. To me, this underlined th