AssignmentOne

In this design project we are going to focus and analyze some of the issues concerning accessibility of resources around the campus of University of Toronto Mississauga. As students of the CCIT, DEM, VCC, and advocates for Drama, Fine Arts students we feel one of the lingering issues is our commute to Sheridan College to attend certain classes which are required for our respective programs. Only students within these specific programs must travel to multiple campuses in order to fulfil their program requirements. In comparison, students from other programs at UTM are not required to take courses at multiple campuses unless they themselves wish to take courses at various campuses. As a result, it is evident that there is a discrepancy within various programs, aside from paying deregulated tuition fees. Furthermore, students at the University of Toronto are not permitted to take online courses and this is another problem area, which we feel that the university needs to pay special attention to among others. These are a few examples that form the notion of inaccessibility to education for certain students. Thus we ask ourselves the following question: Why is it that certain students must commute more than others to attend mandatory classes? Why not centralize classes to one vocational institute in one location, unless the student wishes to attend other campuses under his or her discretion? Why is that certain software required for these mandatory classes is only available at the Sheridan Campus and barely existent at the UTM Campus? Ultimately, it becomes an issue of inaccessibility and inequality among the student body. Through our group’s progressive design, we hope to tackle this issue with some problem solving that will reflect in an innovative yet a comprehensive final design project. **__ Problem Scenario __** It is the beginning of a new semester and summer has come to an end to bring about the cold chill of back to school and the beginning of an academic year is no picnic for any student. This timeframe is filled with excitement and nervousness for many students. This is the story of five students who are enrolled in the Communication, Culture and Information Technology, Visual Studies and Digital Enterprise Management Programs. A couple of weeks into the school year students Ryan, Ramy, Sama, Alicia and Rupinder have come to realize the concerns regarding accessibility of resources on campus. For instance, the shuttle bus service to Sheridan College is not frequent at all to suit the needs of these students. Often at times this has caused these students to be late for their class at Sheridan. Furthermore, while coming from Sheridan the frequency of the bus is also a problem because certain classes end at 4:00pm in the afternoon and students are required to wait until 5:30pm to catch the shuttle bus back to UTM. Most of the time, after waiting an hour an half for the bus to arrive, the buses get full and most students are left stranded to wait for the next bus, which does not come until 7:15pm. (Appendix A) In addition, access to Mac Labs in UTM is also another issue of resource accessibility for these students. Most of the time the Mac Lab in the CCT building has classes going on and thus leaving the students with no where to go to finish their assignments and labs. Furthermore, the campus library is also a concern for the students. It is the biggest facility on campus that holds the most number of computers, but due an overwhelming amount of students on campus, finding a computer in the library is next to impossible. Also, the library hours have proven to be a difficult situation for students. For example, closing the library early on most days and especially on the weekend is a problem scenario when at times meeting with your project members to work on assignments and to prepare for midterms. In addition, the issue of inaccessibility also applies to the unavailability of online education (courses) at the University of Toronto. Students are not offered any online courses and this is a problem for many students who plan on going away in the summer but still wish to continue completing credits as a means of fulfilling their program and graduation requirements. Moreover, many students are also taking other majors or minors and scheduling of the timetable sometimes restrict students from taking certain required courses, providing online courses would help students involved in these problem scenarios. Another issue involves having to take mandatory courses held at the Sheridan campus and often at times is conflicting with courses held at UTM. There are cases in which time does not permit for students to enroll in a UTM course as well as a Sheridan course in the same day. With the limited/infrequent shuttle bus timings, students have to ensure they have a minimum of an hour to get from one campus to another. This is a major issue as often times the course times conflict with one another, thus making students not be able to enroll in both courses, resulting in the student being behind in completing mandatory program requirements. The former mentioned scenarios are problems, which we would like to address to help solve issues surrounding accessibility on campus. **__ End-Users __** One potential end-user who experiences this issue are students enrolled in CCIT, VCC, DEM, Drama and Art History Programs, with busy schedules and without their own source of transportation. These users also include: · Males and females · Students of any age · Students who currently work part-time, low paying jobs during their time off from school to help pay for their education, food and other expenses. · Students who are enrolled in other major and minor/s programs, and the commute to and from Sheridan College affects their ability to attend classes at UTM or St. George campus. · Students who are very skilled at using different types of technology. They rely on internet and mobile communication devices in everyday life. · Students who are followers and practitioners of the creative field. Their projects involve design, interactive media, animation, sound and fine art history and art studio classes. · Students in these programs study semiotics, management, finance, critical media, popular media and pop culture. As part of their projects these students are required to work in groups while analyzing advertising, television, movies, video gaming, internet and music. Therefore, inaccessibility to resources such as equipment, technology and study space at UTM is a potential challenge for these students. **__ Context __** There are design solutions already existent to our problem/s but these solutions are not sufficient to solve the former mentioned concerns. For instance, students are provided with a shuttle bus but often at times it proves to be time consuming. Furthermore, there is a Mac lab but it does not come with all the required or latest software that is being taught at Sheridan, and often at times going to Sheridan is a hassle and many students come from far away cities/towns. In addition, the lack of sitting and computer space and the hours of operation are also a problem to the existing design scenario. Relevant technological, design and social dimensions could include computer networks such as Elara, used by students when they are in Sheridan, internet, digital displays informing students about the number of computers available in the library and updating the lab to have recent adobe software. **__ Conclusion __** Our main aim for this design project is to help bring awareness surrounding issues involving students and lack of accessibility to resources to create a convenient and resourceful campus for all students. One of the main issues of concerning students is the requirement of taking courses at both UTM and Sheridan. It is a big hassle for students to get from one campus to another, which raises the issue of accessibility of shuttle buses. There are usually 3 to 4 shuttle bus trips, placing a time constraint on students. Another accessibility issue is the lack of Mac Labs available for students at UTM. Often times, students are forced to stay at Sheridan to complete an assignment because UTM does not provide specific Mac Labs for those students, rather the students have to plan out their work/study time according to whenever the Mac Labs are available. In addition to this issue, UTM does not provide the latest versions of Adobe Software that are most often required for courses at Sheridan. It is evident that the end-users involved in this issue do not have the time to be concerned of what their university institution does and does not have to offer. They are paying for these resources in the tuition and therefore, they should get the best resources available to fulfill their program requirements without any difficulty or inconvenience. We aim to embark upon this issue through an effective final design project.
 * __ Introduction & Definition __**