Development of a web application for the resource management in the course “Cycle 2: Execution of production project” at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá

Abstract

The development of online tools has provided solutions to different activities, including academia. The Agronomy program at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia has updated its competency-based teaching approaches by encouraging the development and application of computational tools for analysis, modeling, and interpretation of data. A registration and follow-up system was chosen to automate tasks in the course “Cycle 2: Execution of production project” developed at the university farm (Marengo Agricultural Center), where technical, financial, and administrative variables inherent to the selected crop must be managed with monitoring and support by teachers and monitors. The aim of this research was to develop a web application for the academic-administrative management of certain components. This was mainly developed with Python and a PostgreSQL database. As an open resource, the app was hosted on GitHub and, for user access, it was hosted on PythonAnywhere. The Alpha version was validated by several students and academic staff involved in the course. The development of a web application consisting of three administrative modules was achieved and included an inventory management of supplies, machinery, and available tools; the allocation and management of the schedule of activities and list of requests, and the tracking of resource use through project costs. The web application is simple to execute, and its use will adjust the relevant processes of the productive projects of Cycle 2.