The End Of An Era: A Reflection

This post has been sitting in the works for a long time now. I have finally finished my final project for my Databases and Web Systems class. It feels like an end of an era of sorts. I have spent numerous hours dedicating myself to this project, and I have learned so much regarding project management, databases, what makes websites work, HTML/CSS, and so much more.

My final project was centered around COVID-19 and contact tracing for Hendrix College. My team’s client was Dr. Maslin, and we met numerous times to understand what she wanted for the website and how we could create a viable service for the need of contact tracing in classrooms. We utilized visual studio and RazorPages to create our website, which included user accounts, tracing history, an exposure notification system, and an interactive classroom map. Our goal was to use all these different aspects to help our college’s Contact Tracer keep track of students who were exposed via the classroom setting.

Well, that sounds all fine and dandy, but we didn’t have 100% functionality. We did our best to use the skills we learned in class to meet the needs of our service. With what we did know we made great progress with our website, but there’s always room for improvement. I think creating a website was a good idea for our project, but Dr. Maslin did mention a mobile app would be the most ideal, to which I agreed. We didn’t have the skills to make our service into a mobile app, but that is just another place to improve.

I’ve realized as well by doing this project that I have the ability to help meet needs in my community, and I hope to take these skills I’ve learned to volunteer my time to helping other community projects.