The case for
Frugal Sheets
©
Fabian M. Suchanek
2
Paris-Saclay admitted the students without any digital infrastructure:
• no software for managing grades
• no software for registering students
• no software for managing courses
=> huge overhead
in organizational work
The Challenge of Infrastructure
Research 47%
Teaching 5%
Co-resp. Mention
Informatique 5%
Other admini-
strational tasks 15%
Responsibility
M2 26%
My work emails sent in 2016:
50%
organizational
load
3
Our Proposal for IP Paris
Put the infrastructure in place
BEFORE admitting the students!
But don’t we have Synapses?
4
How Synapses handled grades in 2017
Study
Inspector
Synapses
System
Diploma
System
Head of
SOEIST
school
Lecturer
sends
Excel
returns
Excel
adds course grades
enters grades
manually
Jury of
Master’s
program
computes
final grade
as average
of grades
Google
Sheets
Final
grade
entered
manually
Software
bridge
Head of
Computer
Science
Field
for veri‐
fication
asks to
verify
sends
corrections
co‐
rrects
PDF
List
Printing
verifi‐
cation
sends
corrections
Student
manually prepares
transcript
5
How grades will be handled
Study
Inspector
Synapses
System
Diploma
System
Head of
SOEIST
school
Lecturer
sends
Excel
returns
Excel
adds course grades
enters grades
manually
Jury of
Master’s
program
computes
final grade
as average
of grades
Google
Sheets
Final
grade
entered
manually
Software
bridge
Head of
Computer
Science
Field
for veri‐
fication
asks to
verify
sends
corrections
co‐
rrects
PDF
List
Printing
verifi‐
cation
sends
corrections
Student
manually prepares
transcript
Synapses will one day take care of this...
...but not of this
(think IP Paris& shared programs
with Paris-Saclay)
6
What Synapses does not handle
(Email exchanges about information needs for the Mention Informatique at Paris Saclay in 2017)
7
(Email exchanges about information needs for the Mention Informatique at Paris Saclay in 2017)
The bulk of the administrational
headache is not handled by
Synapses — and will never be!
What Synapses does not handle
8
Plus all the offline forms...
...that we use at the “meilleure école du numérique en France”:
!!!
9
Plus all the offline forms...
...that we use at the “meilleure école du numérique en France”:
It is not sufficient to have a vertical
for each form — we need a general
solution!
10
Our Proposal
Provide a Google Sheet that (1) is hosted in France and
(2) allows reading and writing rights for each cell.
Example: Collecting lab grades for a course
Each lecturer can
write their column
Each student
can read their line
This is not handled
by Synapses
This is not handled
by Synapses
11
Our Proposal
Provide a Google Sheet that (1) is hosted in France and
(2) allows reading and writing rights for each cell.
Example: List of M2 programs
Only the responsible
can update their line
Everyone can
read this information
12
Our Proposal
Provide a Google Sheet that (1) is hosted in France and
(2) allows reading and writing rights for each cell.
Example: Research Missions
Each researcher
can read and write
their line
Only the n+1
can give their OK
13
Good news!
We already implemented a fully functional prototype:
Thanks to:
• The PAF team
• Julien Romero
• Fabian Suchanek
• Support from DSI
This could be where Télécom ParisTech takes the lead in NewUni!
But: The prototype needs extension, debugging, and maintenance.
It also needs an extension to handle workflows!
14
See what we could gain:
My email exchanges with study inspector in 2017
Information
request
Grade
update
Synapses
Approve
applicants
Student
following
other
(jury, rooms, housing)
50% are just
updating/
requesting
tabular information
=> FrugalSheets