The Office of the Dean of the College will announce Monday the latest Internet tool to support the liberal learning curriculum, called Focal Point.
The application points users to the most important information about concentrations in a standardized format, and lets users filter the nearly 100 concentrations Brown offers to find the perfect match.
The page, accessible to the public through Brown's homepage, shows an icon representing each undergraduate concentration. Holding the cursor over an icon provides a brief description of that concentration. Clicking an icon brings up more detailed information about the concentration, including information about honors and capstones, links to e-mail advisers and a sampling of alums' career tracks.
The tool also links to the registrar's page for concentration requirements, gives the names of Departmental Undergraduate Group leaders, and shows statistics on the number of concentrators in the graduating class.
One of the primary innovations of Focal Point is its system of filters, which lets users narrow down the list of concentrations shown based on academic divisions, related interests and general career paths.
Chris Keith GS, director of information technology for the Dean of the College's office and a master's student in computer science, said the project has been in the works since early last fall when he started creating the underlying data system.
"I think this tool in particular speaks to a number of different communities," Keith said. He said he intends Focal Point to be used not just by current students and their parents, but also by prospective students and their families trying to understand Brown's curriculum.
A number of University administrators did the initial work of writing information for concentrations and linking concentrations to various filter criteria, Keith said, but department chairs and concentration advisers were given opportunities to weigh in through a soft launch to selected individuals prior to Monday.
Keith said the information on career paths stemming from concentrations is based on data gathered by Associate Dean of the College for Undergraduate Research Besenia Rodriguez through the Brown Alumni Association.
The team of administrators designing the program included Rodriguez, Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde, Career Development Center Director Andrew Simmons and Associate Dean of the College Kathleen McSharry, Keith said.
He said the icons themselves were designed by music student Peter Bussigel GS and most contain photos from departmental sites' banner images.
Currently, Keith updates Focal Point's information through an administrative interface when asked to by departments and concentration advisers who are also updating their own sites. But he said he is looking to find a way to give Focal Point the ability to push its content directly to departments' websites, provided the other sites use a standardized content management system.
Brown's homepage currently uses Drupal, a popular content management system.
"One of the cool things about the project is aggregating the data in a way that's useful," Keith said.
There are still a few tweaks to be made with the way users scroll through filters, but Keith said the site is fairly versatile in terms of cross-browser compatibility.
"I'd imagine, once students start to play with it, we'll get some very good ideas on how to improve it," Keith said. There have been no focus groups for the application because administrators wanted to release the site as soon as possible, Keith said.
In her speech to sophomores and their parents for Family Weekend Oct. 23, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron gave a demo of Focal Point to overwhelmingly positive reactions. Parents demanded that it be made public — and soon.
"This is for you, Mom and Dad," Bergeron said. "If your son wants to do ethnic studies, let him."
Sophomores and parents breathed a sigh of relief.
"The concentration does not limit future opportunities," she said. "I'm really pleased that there is some empirical data lodged in this tool that can help prove that point again and again."
