Proposal for Howdy & Ecampus Tutorial Video`s

Proposal for Howdy & Ecampus Tutorial Video’s
To: Student Orentation Committee
From: Abdulrahman Al-Rumaihi, Aous Mechmoum – Mechanical Engineering Students
Date: April 23, 2015
In this project we plan to familiarize the incoming students with the Howdy and
Ecampus websites that TAMUQ students use on a daily basis. The problem with the current
system is that students that came off high school are dependent on professors guiding them
keeping them up to date with classes. There need to me a smoother transition for student that
are entering university to prevent confusion and increase the freshmen students awareness of
independent university life. We plan on providing tutorial videos that fully explain the different
features of these sites in addition to their use in university. In this proposal we will firstly clarify,
the history of this problem. Secondly, we will talk about what will be achieved by implementing
this system. Lastly, we will explain the future use of tutorial videos in TAMUQ.
The problem associated with using TAMUQ related websites is that they are confusing
and not self-explanatory. It is known amongst the student in TAMUQ that these websites are
difficult to use and navigate through. One solution to improve the website would be to change
the website template or design so that it more user friendly. Although this solution would
improve the interaction between student and the website, it would not solve the problem of
informing new students to the different aspects of the site. Student need to know how to use
the sites to their advantage rather than simply navigating through the site. Freshman students
have a hard time wrapping their heads around the TAMUQ system, which includes, checking for
holds before the pre-registration period, knowing their assigned time to register for classes,
checking midterm and final grades, changing KINE class grade type, checking grades for the
Home works, quizzes, and exams as well as the important announcements by the professor, the
list goes on and on.
By providing tutorial videos that explain HOW and WHEN to use the various tabs in the
site, the function that each site serves can be summarized to the students. Not only would this
clarify many aspect of the university system to students, it will also save their time by investing
it in actual university work. These tutorial videos consist of simply recording the screen of a
computer monitor where each site would be projected and thoroughly explained using a mic to
record the audio. The software used to make the tutorial videos possible is Camtasia which
allows the screen and audio to be recorded simultaneously and in turn offers an informative
video to the students. The tutorial video links for both websites can be found bellow:

Howdy website tutorial video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4SuKaxLINA

Ecampus website tutorial video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPu7ntPDV6k
With the approval of providing tutorial videos to TAMUQ students come many future
improvements and plans. Future plans and improvements comprise of providing better quality
videos to students, by recording the audio in proper studios where surrounding noise will be
damped as much as possible in addition, access to professional audio set. Furthermore,
animation and effects will be incorporated to entertain students and at the same time make
them more engaged to the video. The aim is to go beyond tutorial video for Howdy and
Ecampus, we plan on providing tutorial videos for all aspects of university, such as, booking
appointments in academic advising office or academic success center, connecting to a printer
using laptops, and accessing software’s (SolidWorks and Matlab) offered by the university on
laptops. By providing tutorial video’s for all aspects of the university for students, the sooner
they can get settled in and the sooner they can start achieving good grades.