Summary
Highlights
The presentation introduces Vantage, a unified platform developed by Eminent Defs for the UJCE. It aims to solve the problem of students lacking proper work experience and the UJCE's outdated system, which relies on manual processes and disparate platforms. Vantage offers a web and mobile solution for managing projects, events, and student participation, incorporating gamification to incentivize engagement.
The demonstration features four roles: Jane Doe (new student volunteer), Kundai (existing student volunteer), Ndongi (student assistant), and Tangen (UJCE manager). Jane Doe's experience showcases easy registration, access to UJCE news, and an achievement page where she earns initial XP. She can browse and apply for initiatives, earning more XP for her first application. Both general and degree-specific initiatives are available, offering different skill development.
Ndongi, the assistant, demonstrates how to create new activities within an initiative. This process includes selecting the initiative, adding a title, description, and setting an active date. A key feature is the activity heat map, which uses historical attendance data to suggest optimal volunteering times. The assistant can edit activity details, such as venue, and send notifications to inform students of changes, as shown with a venue change example.
Kundai, an existing volunteer, checks her notifications (including the venue change). Her achievements page displays her current level, total volunteer hours, XP points (1 hour equals 100 XP), earned badges (like 'hands-on hero'), and certificates. She can also see her milestones and the XP points they contribute. Kundai volunteers for an activity to increase her XP and views her volunteer history, which can be filtered by initiatives.
To track attendance, the assistant generates unique QR codes for both signing in and signing out of an activity. Students like Kundai scan these codes upon arrival and departure, receiving a confirmation slip which details hours earned. This system ensures accurate recording of volunteer hours and contributes to the students' XP and activity completion.
Tangen, the UJCE manager, has a comprehensive dashboard showing pending initiatives, published initiatives, active students, and total volunteer hours. The dashboard includes monthly engagement metric growth for new students, activities, and hours, indicating trends like declining participation. The manager can approve or reject initiatives, manage assistants' privileges, manually add students, and access detailed reports on student performance (sortable by faculty, hours, and completion rate) and initiative performance. The system also provides an SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) contribution analysis, highlighting areas of focus and suggesting strategic adjustments for other SDGs.
The web portal provides a community hub where Kundai can see and comment on announcements. The website offers all the functionalities available on the mobile app, including viewing initiatives and achievements. A unique feature of the web portal is the ability to request recommendation letters and generate a CV. The system uses UJCE data and personal information to create a comprehensive CV, guiding students to maintain and update it effectively. The generated CV includes personal details, skills, projects, and certificates.