UC Davis prides itself on the saying: One World, One UC Davis... And yet, why can't there be one website to locate all of your academic data?! There is My UC Davis, Schedule Builder, SmartSite, major websites, and myriad others. Trying to find a class these days can be an unnecessarily tedious task by the time you check which course you need to complete for your major, locate the checklist to see if it fulfills any other requirements, add it on Schedule Builder, go to Rate My Professor, etc. Well, UC Davis community, life just got a whole lot easier. How? Simple: UCDiscourse.com.
Two second year computer science majors, Minu Palaniappan and Andy Haden, with the help of the ASUCD entrepreneurship fund, came together and developed an easy-to-access website that encompasses all the resources a UC Davis student could ever need. This website allows students to check graduation status in regard to the checklist of GE and major requirements (including the topical breadth/core literacy requirements), view an enrollment graph and grade distribution of each class, build a schedule and manage conflicts, compare professors at Davis teaching the course you would like to take, and compare textbook prices.
In addition to all these proficient features, there are even more on the way. Some ideas that Minu and Andy are still discussing and hope to see in the future include: being able to share your schedule with friends, campus map that shows where classes are, texting features, and integrating Khan Academy. UCDiscourse is essentially a convenient search engine and discovery tool that centrally focuses on the success of each and every student individually in the midst of such a large body of scholars.
"We want to build a community around this website," said Minu. "We want Discourse to be the number one destination for course navigation. Discourse is run by students, and as a result, there is a more personal connection. There are no restrictions from the school or faculty that are stopping us from building awesome features. For example, Discourse plans to add texting notifications for users who want to know if classes are filling up or if pass time is coming up. The school doesn’t have the time, funds, or resources to build any of this. It's on us, students, to make the changes."
And UCDiscourse means what it says. Discourse wanted to investigate the impact Katehi had on the school textbook system in regard to Wiley (the publisher she moonlighted for). In its search for textbook data, the numbers indicated that Wiley was one of the most involved publishers on campus, legitimizing the concerns many had over Katehi's actions. While many people focused on Katehi's direct actions, UCDiscourse investigated the scene to find out just how much it impacted the students, adding clarity to the situation's ramifications to our community. To read more about this check out the article.
The academic environment created by UC Davis has cultivated confusion among a majority of students. UC Discourse is here to fix the severe issues that make it difficult to navigate through a major. This is the first complete service, for the students brought to you by the students.
