MASARYK UNIVERSITY INFORMATION SYSTEM

Information Technology Centre

Head: Ing. Michal Brandejs, CSc.

 

The Masaryk University Information System (IS MU) is an authenticated web information system covering nearly every aspect of university administration. Access to the public part of the system is at is.muni.cz. In the third year of the IS operation, the development of additional applications in accordance with requirements of individual faculties continued, together with the conversion of new large-scale administrative procedures (applications for seminars, examinations) to the electronic format.

 

At 31 Dec. 2001, the Information System registered 63,467 personal records; passwords have been issued to 34,008 active users. The system is regularly used (Dec. 2001) by 15,434 people, and another 21,833 logged into the system occasionally in 2001. Six hundred and sixteen people can be searched for under key words. A total of 15,495 people read messages on the Bulletin Board, and 4,212 people verified their personal data in the IS in 2001 and found them absolutely correct.

 

The steady growth in the number of active clients, and the ever more frequent use of the IS MU in everyday practice at arts faculties, have been noted with satisfaction.

 

Overall statistics

• Number of log-ins in 2001: 33,327,763

• Maximum number of different logged-in users in one day: 6,412

• Maximum number of opened pages in the system in one day: 291,856

• Maximum server response rate: 30,000 requests per hour

• Overall number of scripts (individual programmes) of the system: 582

• Information is stored in roughly 497 database tables and about 44 categories

• Number of publication records: 273,619 (of which 18,465 reported to the national Research and Development Information Register)

• Number of queries answered at contact address: approx. 1,500

• Length of time for which the system was not accessible: about 8 hours (2 hours scheduled shutdowns, 6 hours were downtime)

 

Overview of important applications implemented in 2001

 

                A significant number of applications have been implemented in a permanent form, some applications have been completed or parts of applications have been added at the clients' request; IS MU tools are used to the satisfaction of the academic community. Besides the routinely added several smaller service packages (statistics, etc.), work on applications in 2001 focused mainly on several new big agendas: Lists of Students (for the registration of themes for thesis, etc.); Timetable and Enrolment Procedure.

               

The list below includes only applications that were developed completely or predominantly in 2001 (for a full list, see 1999 and 2000 Annual Reports).

               

Timetable:

 

• timetable displayed

• (student / instructor timetables

• search for timetables of individual subjects, students, instructors, timetables for individual classrooms

• classroom reservations (printout, editing)

• my reservation

• list of holidays, even and odd weeks, teaching hours, import and export of timetables, historical data on timetables

 

Students' lists

 

• definitions, editing, package management (themes for lists)

• editing individual topics

• changes in the list of students assigned to a topic

• registration of students for themes

 

 

Enrolment procedures

 

• overview of available areas of study and their selection

• application forms (personal data, optional branch sections) and their editing

• checking content of application form sections

• checking content of notes

• checking application forms submitted

• definition and administration of individual rounds of application procedures

• administration of the list of open study combinations

• information texts: on the university, faculties, programmes, areas of study

 

Other agendas (especially for the student affairs department):

 

• list of changes between registration and enrolment

• classification of courses of study in different areas of study into interdisciplinary programmes

• printouts of matriculation certificates

• numbers of students, aggregate statistics

• other types of selection queries and printouts

• overview of classes in individual departments

• statistics on credits awarded

• editing registers of degree programmes, areas of study and specialization

• simplified search through the Catalogue of Courses

• personal pages editing (including English version)

• enhanced support for references to lists of publications

• support for the waiting list and register of travel distances for halls of residence applicants classification

 

Experience from everyday use of the IS MU in all areas of MU administration shows that it is possible and advantageous to update and modify applications being used, and especially to respond to the changing needs of the institution (the de facto transition to the credit system and student-managed studies mean changes in Study Regulations). The process of improvements and modifications therefore continues all the time. The tools, however, are basically the same, and the community uses them very frequently.

 

General patterns in the development of the system in 2001

 

Communication support, mail interface

 

A relatively frequent use of the web mail interface (mail.muni.cz) as the primary mailbox for the university community is a trend observed in 2001. Contrary to the original assumption that the IS MU mailbox would serve only as a temporary measure for those who have no easy access to e-mail at their faculty, it now seems that the university public prefers this integrated interface. For that reason, technical and application measures have been taken for a general overhaul of the mailbox system, and various user demands have been implemented (directories, attachments support, file administration, etc.). Together with a new application for sending e-mails to groups of addressees (employees, teachers, etc.), emailing has become a frequently used means of communication at MU, and it has been embraced by a significant part of the MU community.

 

Preparing for accreditation

 

Masaryk University is now in a phase of accreditation and re-accreditation of a large number of its degree programmes and disciplines. Many of the applications in the Masaryk University Information System assist authorized persons with the preparation of the materials for the accreditation and re-accreditation procedures (especially the Catalogue of Courses, agendas for CVs, publications and personal pages applications). A special new application has been developed (a register of degree programmes and disciplines under consideration).

 

Better link-up with other information systems

 

Work on connecting the IS MU to the human resources system continued, and the on-line transfer of selected personal data is possible.

 

Hardware used

 

The present MU Information System is operated on nine computers with a total of 12 processors, 3.5 GB of operating memory, and 32 G disk memory for backup data storage. In view of the increase in the number of clients, the number of operations performed in 2001 also increased. The current configuration has thus got close to the limits of its maximum performance. In order to guarantee good performance of the system that will allow easy access for the steadily increasing numbers of all clients, we are considering the possibility of upgrading the database server (currently the Sun Microsystems Ultra 450 with
four processors). The upgrade will provide sufficient power for the system's normal operations.

 

During the year, however, there are some occasions when students are competing for something (enrolment in the best seminar, for example). The information system then becomes a battlefield where hundreds of students are trying to win the best possible position in the competition. As a result, the system is overloaded, at the expense of all of its other users. One of possible solutions to this problem is to increase the overall power of the system. The changes in the configuration of the system that would be necessary would cost several million crowns. The result of it would be that the competition would take place within a few minutes after it starts (starting time is known well in advance), the result would more or less be a matter of chance, and the "best" seminars would be filled up in the first few minutes of the competition.

 

It shows quite clearly that this method of organizing competitions is not the optimum one, and would cost the university several million crowns. The operation of the system outside the peak load periods would then require only a fraction of the system's overall capacity. Another possible solution would be to change the regulations of such of competition, which are fully controlled by individual faculties.

 

User-friendly services

 

Efforts continue apace to make working with the system more pleasant for users; more graphic design has been incorporated, and student projects have been harnessed to create simple web games for relaxation.