University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo Gets IT Together for Non-Profits with Groove 2007
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Company Overview
The University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, has developed a unique graduate course in project management that gives students hands on experience while aiding worthy causes. This 13-week course involves students working online with Third World development agencies, including specialists in the field, on projects that apply management and information technology skills and knowledge. Situated within the university’s Master of Management Sciences – offered by the Department of Management Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering – this International Project Management and Development elective puts students directly in touch with NetHope Inc., a non-profit IT consortium serving non-governmental organizations such as Save The Children, the International Rescue Committee, Plan International, CARE, and The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Business Challenge
This course is designed to help students collectively solve IT challenges faced by member organizations. This cooperative effort helps groups under the NetHope umbrella better serve their communities, be they impoverished women in war-torn countries, people suffering the consequences of a natural disaster, or entrepreneurs struggling to get their businesses started in nascent economic environments. This helps students understand their project management challenges while also funneling student solutions back into the non-profit organizations.
“Since students are spread across numerous time zones, team-focused projects can turn into scheduling quagmires. It’s troublesome for students studying project management, because project management relies on strong teamwork,” says Peter Carr, Director, Master of Management Sciences Online, Faculty of Engineering. “We needed a solution that would facilitate teamwork while also providing the flexibility students generally seek from off campus courses.”
The University of Waterloo sought a communication and collaboration platform that would give these students a way to work together and share information, regardless of where they are. The solution would also have to accommodate the various times of day the students might access the coursework, given their busy work and professional schedules. As well, the solution would have to be easy for the students to install on their computers, and it would have to be simple for them to learn to use.
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Solution
To meet those requirements, the university chose Microsoft® Office Groove® 2007 for the International Project Management and Development elective. As a collaboration software program that helps teams work together, no matter where they are, Groove 2007 doesn’t require users to share an intranet. Whether working for different organizations, remotely or even offline, users can access workspaces from anywhere to save and use documents and tools, such as a file-sharing engine, discussion boards and business forms. Because all of the Groove 2007 pieces reside in users’ computers, if a user is working offline, Groove 2007 will automatically synch with other users’ machines once he or she is connected again.
“Groove 2007 was the best solution for the International Project Management and Development course because it supported the various ways students can participate,” Carr says. “It doesn’t matter where the student is, or what time it is. The students can access their work, chat with classmates, reply to discussions, read up on background material – it’s like being in the classroom without having the boundaries of physical walls holding anyone back.”
In addition, Groove 2007 provides lecturers an area to post and share materials, such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentations. It also provides a real-time question-and-answer section where students can post and monitor queries, and a place for required reading material. It also incorporates meeting notes and agendas, a decision log listing all of the decisions the students have made collectively, and a links area with connections to helpful Web sites. Individual students can further customize the interface to highlight specific discussion threads and meeting notes, as per their needs.
According to Carr, Groove 2007 took just seconds to install on students’ computers, and the interface was similar to those of other Microsoft-based software, so it was easy for the students to learn how to use the collaborative platform. But perhaps the most notable feature for the Waterloo participants was the synchronous/asynchronous nature of the solution.
“One person will post something at two in the morning, and someone else will respond to it at two o’clock the next afternoon,” Carr says. “That creates flexibility. They’re all in the workforce, and they all have busy personal lives too. The program can accommodate their lifestyle.”
Business Benefits
Without Groove 2007, the International Management and Development course would not have been as valuable. As in other online courses previously offered by the university, students would have reviewed recorded lectures and completed assignments alone. With Groove 2007 the students can be much more interactive and effective, especially since teamwork and collaboration are integral components of successful project management. Groove 2007 is now used to teach all of the courses in the Master of Management Sciences degree program.
Keeping connected, without a connection
The synchronous/asynchronous nature of Groove 2007 lets students make best use of their time. Whether connected to the Internet or not, Groove 2007 lets students post and respond to questions, which are uploaded to other users’ computers the next time the user connects to the Internet. That means students can access information when it’s convenient, but they can also collaborate in real-time when required. The alerts and presence notifications in Groove 2007 let students know when their classmates are online or in the workspace. Such details simplify the communication process and cut down on the number of back-and-forth messages that the students would otherwise use to understand their correspondents’ true situations – are they only online, or online and in the workspace? The flexible collaboration system supports all sorts of work times and preferences, which means anyone anywhere can participate.
Groove 2007 also fit into the software-plus-services paradigm that best meets modern collaboration needs. For instance, the University of Waterloo sought a program that would operate quickly and support external connections. While a Web-only application would have offered the latter, it would not have been fast enough for the students.
“If you’re using a Web-based tool, to navigate from one entry in a discussion to another, there’s a delay,” Carr says. “With Groove 2007, students are able to jump quickly from one discussion to another. It lets them work as quickly as they like, and as collaboratively as they need.”
Flexibility that bends to each user’s needs
That students can customize their workspace interfaces means the course based on Groove 2007 is specifically tailored to best meet each person’s requirements. That spells an intuitive, simple collaboration tool that doesn’t frustrate the student, and in fact facilitates his or her productivity. For instance, if a student wanted to be alerted about messages and discussion posts regarding project scope creep or stakeholder engagement before anything else, she could set alerts so that whenever she accessed the Groove 2007 client on her computer, the application would highlight those messages. The student wouldn’t have to sift through all of the other messages to find the ones most relevant to her. That spells a better use of time.
Improved integration
The integration with other Microsoft software means the University of Waterloo can leverage its existing investments and further develop its IT infrastructure on the standard Microsoft ecosystem of which Groove 2007 is now a part.
By selecting Groove 2007, the University of Waterloo is giving students an education in effective computing skills as well as effective project management. “They are advanced collaborators by the time they finish the program,” Carr says.
The students also gain an excellent appreciation for the important projects that the international development agencies in NetHope carry out. And the university has found the right solution to support its innovative course. “This is the first time that an online environment has been used to enable students to contribute to a development project, while continuing to live and work at their home location,” Carr says.
Next step: Groove plus SharePoint
The University of Waterloo is implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, and plans to integrate that with Groove 2007 to support course administration. Bundled with Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007 forms, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 will allow the institution to easily enroll and withdraw students from courses, and school administrators will have a simpler way to track those changes as they work their way through the administration system.
Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office System is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.
For more information about the Microsoft Office System, go to www.microsoft.com/office
For more information about the Groove Virtual Office System, go to: www.groove.net
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about University of Waterloo products and services, call (519) 888-4567 or visit the Web site at: www.uwaterloo.ca
