CSC 301 Web Programming

CSC 301 teaches web application development. Students designed web-based software that improves the work of local nonprofits. As each organization has different needs, students had to understand the specific mission of the nonprofits, evaluate their current technology, analyze their requirements, and design and implement solutions using programming languages for the web (PHP and MySQL). By doing this, students worked on real-life projects and developed new applications that the nonprofits can use, for free.

Note: The class was divided into teams, with each team having a nonprofit client. The class then selected one of the nonprofits to receive $2,000 in addition to the web-application solution provided. Students for the Creative Aging team included:

• Randy Clark
• Levi Schanding
• Alex Christen
• Robert Mitchell

The Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project is unique in fostering student engagement in real-world projects and providing them with the opportunity of serving the local community.

In the case of Creative Aging Cincinnati, students developed a web application for facilitating the nonprofit in managing their programs and generating reports. The web application enables them to track sources, programs, facilities, and attendees, and measure their impact on the community.

As reported by students, “collaborating with my team and our partner nonprofit has been a great exercise in project management and client communication!”

This is extremely valuable for a programming class, in which students usually focus on the “product” only. Instead, having them collaborate with the end users and co design a solution that suits their needs is crucial for preparing them to succeed in their job.

In addition to expanding their technical knowledge and fostering their problem solving skills, the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project improved student engagement with the topics discussed in the class: students empathized with the mission of the nonprofit, which, in turn, increased their commitment to and quality of deliverables.

Creative Aging's mission is to provide arts and humanities programs that have a positive impact on the quality of life of older adults in Greater Cincinnati. The Creative Aging team brings local professional artists, performers and educators to present one-hour programs at senior centers, retirement communities, adult day care centers, and nursing homes.

Over the years, Creative Aging Cincinnati has provided well over 9,300 programs and touched the lives of over 375,000 seniors. The organization will use the funding to support these offerings to the community.

Beverly Ross, executive director:

“Our organization was chosen to participate in the NKU philanthropy project with a group of students in IT. I was excited to work with them on creating a much needed tracking database for our organization. With our very little knowledge as to how a program like this would look, we met virtually with Randy and another member of his team. We met for over an hour and after the meeting we were very excited about the ideas that the students presented.

“They were very willing to help create a program and had ideas to add items that we didn’t realize were possible. The students are extremely knowledgeable in this area and professional in their approach. We met one more time virtually and now we are working to set up a virtual meeting with our website company to see if any of the data can be linked up together.

“It is a very exciting opportunity for our organization, and we have been very impressed with the group we are working with. We look forward to working closely within the next month as they create and we implement our final product.”