Data Warehousing in Higher Education

Specifications for the online Directory

1. Performing Maintenance

• Regenerate the online directory
• Join the directory
• Login to modify your details

1.1 Join the Directory

• Click click here to join the directory in the introductory text before the directory index.
• Fill in the fields on each of the three forms, noting the required fields, and submit.

1.2 Maintain Your Details

• Click login to modify your details in the introductory text before the directory index, and enter your email address as username and your password.
• Make any changes or enter data in empty fields on each of the three forms and submit the data for processing.

1.3 Add a New Contact

• Click login to modify your details in the introductory text before the directory index, and enter your email address as username and your password.
• There will always be at least one blank set of fields for entering new contact information.
• A password will be generated randomly.  Check the Send password via email? box to request that the password be emailed to the new contact.
• To add more than one new contact, enter the details for one contact at a time and submit for processing.  Then login again to enter the next new contact.

1.4 Remove a Contact

• Click login to modify your details in the introductory text before the directory index, and enter your email address as username and your password.
• Removing a contact from the listing is rather primitive at present.  Blank out the last name of the contact you wish to remove, and submit for process.
• You cannot remove the Primary Contact.  If the person you wish to remove is currently designated as the Primary Contact, then chose the correct person as the Primary Contact (Click the appropraite radio button) and submit for processing.  Then login again and blank out the name of the person you wish to remove.

1.5 Request Password Via Email

• If someone at your institution wishes to login to the site, but has forgotten their password, as long as there is at least one person who remembers their password, that person can login and check the Send password via email? box.  Submit for procesing, and an email will be sent to that person with their password.

2. Data Structures

(I will include a description of data dependencies and relationships.)

3. Categorization of Subject Areas

I have taken the free text that had been entered on the Georgetown site and categorized the subject areas into eight major groups:

As I have categorized the subject areas on the Georgetown site, I have come up with nearly 70 separate subject areas across the eight groups.  I would welcome suggestions on how to improve this.  Since the data were not my own and were not collected by me, there my be groupings or simplifications that I missed, or I may have misappropriately categorized some items.

4. Contacts

• The person who enters the data initially is asked for a password.  This will be used along with the email address to login to maintain the details for that school.
• The database can hold any number of contacts for a given school, and these can all be maintained via the web interface, with the proviso that new contacts can be added only one at a time.