North Carolina State University
Digital transformation for higher ed syllabus process.
Digital transformation is changing how businesses operate. Business processes once executed manually can now be accomplished using digital methods. The most recognized strategy is to save time and thus money. But NC State had a digital transformation project in mind with a different goal, standardization. By creating an automated process for the generation of course syllabi, the university could ensure each student across each of its hundreds of course offerings would receive the same level of quality information desired regarding a specific course.
At a glance.
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University, known as NC State, is the largest four-year university in the state of North Carolina. It is also one of the world’s leading public research universities. Founded in 1887, NC State now has more than 34,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff.
Discovery – Design – Development – Deploy – Delight
The ask.
NC State has a large quantity of diverse course offerings, which are summarized to students via a syllabus. However, a legacy of flexible policy caused an inconsistency in syllabi quality. NC State leaders wanted to create a new electronic process to centralize and standardize syllabus entry for faculty. The application needed to be built with flexibility for changing configurations and easily adopted by users.
The solution.
Knowing that user adoption would be challenging, Atlantic BT began by performing paper prototype testing in the design phase. This allowed us to better identify user issues and craft improvement opportunities. Our UX team created an interface for simple administration and use by faculty. Working closely with NC State’s development team, we architected a solution using a JSON-based configuration method, which provided the desired flexibility and ease of configuration.
The end result.
Atlantic BT completed a full digital transformation of NC State’s course syllabus development process. The application is easy for faculty to use and provides the level of consistency from course to course that the University desires for their students. Atlantic BT also created a strategic implementation plan based on the results of the previous prototype test results, ensuring a flawless application launch process.
