The Formal Report Proposal assignment was the first step in the process of creating the Formal Report. It consisted of several components. In the first part of the assignment, students were asked to come up with an idea for a formal report which could be researched through the use of surveys and / or interviews. Students were then asked to draft a full proposal for the formal report surrounding this idea. The proposal was meant to introduce the topic of interest, provide a problem statement and proposed solution. Details surrounding the scope of the research were to be provided, along with the methods for conducting the research. Finally, students were asked to comment on their qualifications to conduct this research successfully.
This assignment was quite rewarding to work on. It was initially difficult to come up with a topic, however once the this was determined the rest flowed fairly naturally. I chose to perform an analysis on the feasibility of converting Computer Science courses at the University of British Columbia to be delivered in a hybrid delivery format. This is a method of course delivery that allows students to attend either in person or online – whichever suits them better. I came up with the idea after realizing I was commuting to school some days to attend only one fifty minute lecture. The time I spent commuting far outweighed the amount of time I was in class. Asking around at the school, it appeared that I was not the only one to experience this. I figured that if classes allowed students to attend either online or in-person, then some students would be able to save a significant amount of time some days by avoiding the commute. I wanted to focus on Computer Science courses since most lecture and lab material is already well suited to both in-person delivery and online delivery. If there were a good department to pilot the hybrid course delivery model, it would be the Computer Science department!