Two recent U of T alumni are working to make planning a degree much easier. Project Augur (pronounced ‘aw-gur’) is an online application that will help students make better course choices by clarifying requirements, mapping one’s degree, and offering calculated suggestions.
The project is run by Joel Koroniak and Sean McIntyre, both 2010 graduates. Koroniak studied philosophy and manages the program. McIntyre majored in computer science and is the project’s lead developer.
Currently U of T completes degree auditing, where registrars evaluate a student’s credits and requirements to see if they have fulfilled their subject posts. With many rules such as prerequisites, corequisites, exclusions, and breadth requirements, students pour over timetables and calendars in an attempt to select the right courses.
The aim of Project Augur is to create what McIntyre describes as a “sandbox environment.” Students will have an application separate from ROSI in which they can simulate a timeline for all years of their degree. Courses are added to the timeline and appear as boxes. The application automatically checks requirements and shows if all the ules for the course are followed (blue box) or if it falls outside the rules (red box). The connections betwen all course requirements are linked and are re-checked as each course is added to the timeline.
“It doesn’t enrol you in courses. You go on and it simulates your degree for you,” said McIntyre. “So you can make a plan [for] your next four or five years at the university and [figure out what you] plan to take.”
He added that the program could be used as a counselling tool, imagining students going through their plans with registrars to be advised on the best choices.
According to McIntyre, the application differs from Degree Navigator because it uses a timeline and thus can tell if rules are being violated. He also said algorithms are under development to include course descriptions and information from timetables and anti-calendars. There are also calculated course suggestions in the works that advise students based on their academic history.
It is this idea of an academic advisor that prompted the program’s name.
“An augur was an ancient Roman priest, a prophet of sorts, who would predict the future by watching the flight patterns of birds,” said McIntyre. “The notion was that the system would be able to predict your future and help you plan your future by watching you, what courses you take, what POSts you take. That’s why the logo’s a bird.”
The project started before the summer of 2009, when the two were roommates.
“[Joel] had seen that I was working on a spreadsheet program. I was typing in my grades for various assignments and estimating future grades and how it would affect my overall CGPA,” said McIntyre. “He thought it would be a good idea to make it an application, and we had spare time so we said ‘let’s give it a shot.’”
Last academic year, the two completed some of the program’s coding. In May, they developed the program for four months while being paid by the university. The pair worked in the offices of Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration, the division that maintains ROSI.
“This had some obvious benefits, such as being able to use U of T servers and have access to up to date and accurate sets of data,” said Koroniak. “Currently we’re in the process of migrating the project to the Next Generation Student Information Services group, which will be able to give us access to the aforementioned data and servers with less red tape.”
Until the pair finds its space within administration, the two continue to work full-time on developing the project with no income. Nevertheless, they are glad to be working with the university, said McIntyre.
“The plan was to do it as an independent system. After a few presentations we got suggestions and realized there was actually a meaningful partnership to being established with the university.
“I was surprised, personally. It was really exciting to find out that they were really into the idea of having these kinds of progressive software deployed to students as rapidly as possible. It’s been a really enriching partnership.”
Prior to the university’s support, college councils contributed to the project. Last academic year, ICSS, UCLit, VUSAC, and WCSA each donated $500 and SMCSU held a fundraiser pub night. TCM did not contribute to the project. The councils were told the application would be available to students for the start of this academic year.
“Our plan is still to release this service to U of T students as soon as possible, as well as work with student councils to ensure any growth and maintenance is still focused on student’s needs,” said Koroniak. “Unfortunately, working within any institution as big as U of T, these things always take more time than anticipated.
“We hope to re-start a dialogue with the various councils which supported us within the next month or two. By then we should have a clearer understanding of how U of T’s IT groups will be able to support us, how much longer development will take, and how we can start getting students involved in beta-testing the program.”
The two hope to launch the project at the end of this academic year, starting with the Faculty of Arts and Science. In the meanwhile, they encourage students to visit their blog and contribute feedback.
“We want students to engage, give feedback,” said McIntyre. “We want to give people a sense of what they’re doing. We want people to know and be excited that this system is coming out.”
And why have the pair invested so much time and energy?
“I think it’s something that we both see as a way of giving back to a community that we were very recently a part of,” said McIntyre. “It’s something that always irritated us while we were [at U of T]. Because these things are not that difficult to build. And if you can do it, I say why not.”
