# 1 Introduction

## 1.1 Purpose

The software described in this document is the http://getreal.ous.edu website and associated support pages. This document describes requirements for Rev2 of the website, to be created in the summer of 2007.

## 1.2 Scope

The software product to be produced is Rev2 of the Get Real website.

The scope of the Get Real website is to provide a high school teen friendly set of web pages that are easy to navigate and at the same time provide sufficient depth and information about careers in computer science. The website will attract and encourage Oregon high school students to take coursework leading toward a baccalaureate degree in computer science (CS) at one of the seven Oregon University System campuses.

The goal of Get Real is to encourage more Oregon students to choose computer science and related majors, eventually increasing the number of computer science graduates from Oregon universities.

Benefits for using the site should include:

*   Personal and Career information from a broad spectrum of CS professionals.
*   CS course and other information from OUS campuses.
*   Timely and up to date information that encourages readers to return to the site.
*   A call to action and plans for students to follow to prepare for a CS career.

## 1.3 Product overview

### 1.3.1 Product perspective

This product is an update (version 2) of the existing Get Real web site version 1. The Get Real site runs as an extension of the OUS site (getreal.ous.edu) on OSU servers.

The Get Real site should work and be tested against IE, Firefox and Netscape.

There are no special hardware interface requirements.

There are no special software interface requirements.

There are no special communication interface requirements.

The website is constrained by available server space.

### 1.3.2 Product functions

Major features of the Get Real website include the following pages and subsections.

Existing pages/sections to be updated:

*   Exploring College
*   Jobs & Money
*   Real People
*   Women in Computing
*   Resources
*   I’m Looking For...
*   Articles

Proposed new pages/sections:

*   High School Courses
*   Search for additional information
*   Professional Organizations
*   RSS feeds of current CS information
*   Ask an Engineer, Ask a Prof – FAQ
*   Consider a CS minor in other professions

### 1.3.3 User characteristics

Users are typical Oregon high school students, grades 9 to 12. Three potential groups of viewers exist:

1.  Students interested in CS seeking more in-depth information about a CS career. This group is interested in the Real People, Resources, and Colleges sections.
2.  College-bound students not necessarily interested in CS who might be attracted to a CS career with the right information. This group is less tolerant of the site, wants a site that "spoke to them," and suggested graphic design changes, more white space, pictures, and easier-to-navigate pages.
3.  Students interested in careers as diverse as protein research, weather prediction, neurobotics, medicine, law or other sciences where a CS minor could contribute to a better understanding of data and information.

### 1.3.4 Limitations

The supplier's options are limited by the following items:

*   Bandwidth for video streaming.
*   Limited availability of Chancellor’s Office resources.

## 1.4 Definitions

[N/A]

# 2 References

The following documents and websites provide guidance:

*   University of Washington CS videos: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/prospective/download.html
*   engineergirl.org
*   WICS UO: www.cs.uoregon.edu/groups/wics/
*   University of Pennsylvania WIC archive: www.cis.upenn.edu/acg/wicarch.html

# 3 Requirements

## 3.1 Functions

*   **Exploring College**: A listing of the computer science offerings from Oregon University System campuses and other Oregon colleges.
*   **Jobs & Money**: Offers answers to the questions: “how can I contribute to society and how much money can I make with a computer science degree?”
*   **Real People**: A section outlining recent CS graduates and more experienced professionals in CS and related careers, showing them using their CS knowledge in diverse fields. The use of video or audio should be considered to help convey a personal message.
*   **Women in Computer Science**: A section to profile women computer scientists and engineers as people who work to solve problems and make the world a better place, while also being actively involved in their communities, raising families, and enjoying hobbies.
*   **Resources**: A section to explore a wide range of pre-college technology programs and courses for high school students.
*   **I’m Looking For...**: A list of focused questions and answers with links inside the Get Real site. Topics include money, people, and colleges.
*   **Articles**: A list of articles outside the Get Real site.
*   **High School Courses (new)**: A section to show recommended curricula for high school students interested in CS and related careers, with pointers to recommendations from OUS campuses and other university sources.
*   **Search for additional information (new)**: The site shall provide an internal search of the Get Real site and an external search of CS-related outside sites such as OUS campuses.
*   **Professional Organizations (new)**: A listing with links to ACM, IEEE, and key sub-groups such as SIGGRAPH, with pointers to student sections of these organizations.
*   **RSS feeds of current CS information (new)**: Selected articles from the chancellor’s office daily communications distribution, fed to RSS subscribers on the Get Real site.
*   **Ask a Grad or Prof – FAQ (new)**: A Q&A format where students can get feedback from the Oregon University System. Answers are posted in an FAQ section. A blog on CS careers would also be an option.
*   **Consider a CS Minor (new)**: Information for students in medicine, law, business, and other professions to provide visibility of the high value of having a CS minor.

## 3.2 Performance requirements

The Get Real site should be hosted on a server that can provide adequate response time. The response time should be rapid, similar to the www.ous.edu site, to accommodate the short attention spans of high school students.

## 3.3 Usability requirements

*   The site must be "teen friendly."
*   The site must be easy to navigate.
*   The overall site graphic design must be updated to include more white space and pictures.
*   Information must be broken into more readable chunks to avoid "walls of text."
*   Visually attractive information such as color, photos, diagrams, and charts should be used to break up the text.
*   Paragraphs on all pages should be shortened, and bullets and charts should be added where possible to accommodate faster page reading.

## 3.5 Logical database requirements

[N/A]

## 3.6 Design constraints

*   The design must adhere to CSS and other style conventions established in Get Real version 1.
*   Web design conventions should be consistent with the standards and conventions used on the OUS site.

## 3.7 Software system attributes

*   **Security**: Copyright and other security measures for Get Real should be the same as the OUS site.
*   **Maintainability**: The RSS feeds feature requires a weekly commitment of web design resources for editing the URLs to the feed.
*   **Portability**: The site must be compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape browsers.

## 3.8 Supporting information

There is a need to track and evaluate the “hits” and time spent on the website over time. Content, design, and navigation changes should be made as needed based on this evaluation.

# 4 Verification

## 4.1 Functions

[N/A]

## 4.2 Performance requirements

[N/A]

## 4.3 Usability requirements

[N/A]

## 4.5 Logical database requirements

[N/A]

## 4.6 Design constraints

[N/A]

## 4.7 Software system attributes

[N/A]

# 5 Appendices

## 5.1 Assumptions and dependencies

There are no development assumptions or dependencies.

## 5.2 Acronyms and abbreviations

*   **ACM**: Association for Computing Machinery
*   **CS**: Computer Science
*   **CSS**: Cascading Style Sheets
*   **FAQ**: Frequently Asked Questions
*   **HS**: High School
*   **IEEE**: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
*   **OUS**: Oregon University System
*   **RSS**: Really Simple Syndication
*   **SIGGRAPH**: Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques
*   **WICS**: Women in Computer Science