Educational InnovationsEducation

Measuring Scientific Research Trends Using an Online Management System

Applied Science University: Education_bh Innovation and Excellence

Celebrating educational innovation and excellence across institutions in Bahrain. Read all about the incredible innovations enacted by them only on Gulf Insider’s platform – Education_bh.

Please share a brief background of your innovation.

Scientific research is a major pillar in terms of its strength, power, and support for the success of any academic institution. It’s crucial for university rankings and academic promotions. This calls for a methodological approach to reflect on the convincing vision of scientific research to be recorded and managed. 

Recently, the Applied Science University – Bahrain (ASU) went from 37th place in 2020 to 19th in 2023 among others in the Arab QS region. In order to improve this rank and meet the need for research management, a new system is created to overcome the limitations and challenges of the current system.

In addition, the existing system can be enhanced through new publications management processes and functionalities. After building the online scientific research management system (OSRMS), many tests were carried out to ensure that all functions work correctly. The development of a new system would support the research management of the university, which would create a system that can manage the publication process in general. The search function, which seeks to reduce time & effort in searches for any publication, provides additional information about each publication. 

Additionally, the system includes an online submission process, which benefits staff by allowing them to submit publications more conveniently than in the past. OSRMS is generating different types of publication reports which will be contributing to the correct documentation of different research statistics at ASU. As a result, these statistics might be used to identify improvement areas, that in turn can support the university to improve and achieve even more.

How was it planned?

The idea came from a graduation project for one of the Computer Science students. Her project was upgraded to ‘funded’ upon her graduation. There wasn’t an automated system for scientific research actions at ASU, and the deanship of scientific research and graduate studies was in high demand and need for this system. The idea was refined and tailored to fit into the university systems and requirements.

Did you face any challenges in implementation?

Yes, in the beginning, when the implementation was first done using VB. NET, which was not the implementation tool for the University systems. So it was a challenge to change the whole implementation to be done with the main tool various systems at ASU use.

A brief assessment of your results

The graduation project was completed successfully with it being published in an international journal and its upgrade to a funded research project. It was made eligible to apply for the second phase of funding to add more functions to the system which is now completed and launched and being used by the ASU academic staff. 

Two comprehensive workshops have been conducted to teach the lecturers on using the system. A number of helpful reports and statistics are generated from the system which facilitates the deanship of scientific research and manages different actions with respect to the research.

In hindsight, what were the most valuable lessons learned? Could things have been done differently?

One of the key learnings is that motivated students can achieve the unexpected. The support from the University led to the completion of the project along with a plan to add AI components to the system in its 3rd phase. 

Comments

Related Articles

Back to top button