Over three years ago, University of Georgia administrators decided that The Key (a long provided service to students) would no longer contain professor names, limiting its usefulness for UGA students.  Two friends and I resurrected The Key on a temporary website, maintaining the files that UGA previously published (one had been smart/enterprising enough to save all the previous data tables to a hard drive).  And then nearly two years ago, we opened a new website, UGAKey.com, to host a new version of The Key.  You can see the history of The Key here.

And today, we launched the second iteration of the UGA Key.

This second iteration, which I am calling UGA Key 2.0, was sorely needed.  The previous (first) version of UGA Key depended on a whole lot of javascript run inside the browser to function.  This provided some great functionality, but it took a long time to load and didn’t work on older or slower systems.  Another major problem was that the Key data was hosted on a different server than our own.  I don’t want to get into the details, but we were dependent on a separate web service keeping their API open and not having any downtime.  Plus, it was a pain to import new grades.  Not a great situation.

So I began working on a new version of The Key sometime in the past year (there have been a lot of starts and stops).  We put all the grade information in a database on our own server and began using an open source database front end to show that data.  We were even able to integrate a database of course syllabi that several groups at the University of Georgia had been working on.  We launched a beta of the new version in April.

And this past week I made a major breakthrough, fixing a sorting problem that was plaguing the grade data tables in the new version.  Incidentally, it also decreased the amount of time it takes a data table to show up in a web browser by about two-thirds (you have to remember to use the correct database structure and data formats- numerical versus variable characters in this case).

Over the weekend I worked on the design and style of the beta.  And last night (this morning, Eastern), I was comfortable enough to launch the new version and fulfill the promise I made on Twitter to launch this weekend.

This is really exciting event, and it’s also quite a relief.  But it isn’t the end by any means.  We still need to add as many course syllabi as we can find, and there are a few other tweaks that I would like to make.  I would also like to sell some advertising to Athens businesses and student groups, since the UGA Key is such an easy way to communicate with students (shameless plug – interested in reaching UGA students with your ads?).

Long live The Key!

The Beta Key includes several new features, including course syllabi and professor search across all departments and data.  Course grades now include data from fall 2008, so the site contains grades since fall 1999 (that’s ten years of grades).  This new frontend at the Beta Key should be more accessible than the current Key (we’ve had several issues of students not being able to see Key data pages).  For more information, see the announcement post here.

Students can try out the Beta Key at http://beta.ugakey.com.

UGA Key is one of my pet projects, and I work on it with my good friends Noah Mink and Paul Ruddle. Updating it is a pain, but we got it finished recently, just in time for drop/add for University of Georgia students.

To keep up-to-date with UGA Key news, check out the UGA Key News page.

And to see my previous coverage on the UGA Key, see my UGA Key tag.

A copy of the column is after the jump.

I would like to take the time to respond to Jeremiah Johnson’s Aug. 21 letter, “SGA crucial to Key changes, campaign.” Johnson’s letter made me laugh when I read it because our student government association has done absolutely nothing to “Save the Key.” Johnson did create a group on Facebook that did bring to light the issues with The Key to many students, but that is the extent of anything that even remotely could be contributed to our illustrious SGA.

Let me review the history of The Key for Mr. Johnson. In March 2006 the University administration decided to immediately take offline copies of The Key that included grades from 1999 through 2006. The Black Tie Party previously had downloaded these pages and made them available again on their own Web site. SGA did not make these grades available, but instead linked to the Black Tie Party Web site while stating they had “Saved the Key.”

In April 2006, University President Michael Adams said SGA would now be responsible for The Key. In those 17 months, which grades has SGA made available for students?

SGA has put online grades for four semesters, the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years, in two separate locations.

And the 2006-2007 grades available were incorrect initially and remained that way for over a month until they were corrected by the University.

Now SGA won’t even link to the one place where students can find all The Key grades (UGAkey.com), and instead they have made a link to their shortened-version of The Key impossible to find on their Web site. You would think SGA would want to show off The Key they worked so hard to save.

Myself and several others decided to create UGAkey.com, and we asked SGA representatives for the all of the recent grade data for The Key. They refused to give it to us.

We were told students wouldn’t trust an independent Web site for The Key and that if we wanted the grades, we would have to make The Key available through the SGA Web site only.

The problem with this is the grade data is an open record, protected by the laws of the State of Georgia. We filed a request with the University, which was legally obligated to give us the grade data we sought over the objections of our SGA.

Is this the type of student government we need at this University, one that works against students gaining access to the full Key while touting they have done the most to “Save the Key?” I think not.

Say what you want, Mr. Johnson, but SGA actually has worked against those wanting to make The Key available for their fellow students. While you were cursing at The Red & Black’s coverage of SGA’s amazing effort to “Save the Key,” some students have worked tirelessly to make it available again.

Chris Lindsey is a senior from Grayson and co-founder of UGAkey.com.

I am a little disappointed in the R&B in this story and some other issues, but I will post on those later today.

Right now, I am off to my first class of this new semester.

*UPDATE – August 17, 2007*

I’ve decided not to write another post about this sad article by the Red and Black. Every experience I have ever had with the R&B has been very disappointing. Suffice it to say, I will not work with the Red and Black again.

PS – At least Athens World gave us a good review. And it looks like they actually looked at the site before writing their post.

The Key was originally published by UGA’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness, but was taken down in March of 2006 (for the full history, see here). The University of Georgia Student Government Association originally did not fight to keep The Key online, but later told students they had worked with the University to ensure that The Key would be made available to the student body by SGA.

The Key was never fully put online by SGA. Parts of The Key were placed online at three different websites, each with a different format, thus incredibly hard to use and be useful.

I worked with my two friends, Noah Mink and Paul Ruddle, to put The Key back online in a usable form. I think it can be considered the first web app any of us has created, and I think it has turned out pretty well.

So, if you have been wondering why I have been quiet lately (here and in my offline life), it is because I have been putting this together.

Here’s the press release regarding the new website:

NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2007

Contact: Paul Ruddle
229-444-4327
contact AT ugakey . com
http://ugakey.com/contact.html

UGAKey.com, a website containing grades for most University of Georgia courses since 1999, is now online.

UGAKey.com contains grade distributions, listed by professor, for undergraduate courses taught at UGA from Fall 1999 to Spring 2007, not including summer sessions, labs, or sections with fewer than ten students. The website also includes plus/minus data for courses taught beginning in Fall 2006.

The website was developed by UGA students Chris Lindsey, Noah Mink and Paul Ruddle.

Developer Chris Lindsey says, “The Key has been scattered across cyberspace for over a year. It is hard to believe that other organizations on campus, especially the Student Government Association, have yet to make it easy for students to find this grade data online in a single location. Now UGAKey.com is available for all students to use and will stay available in perpetuity.”

Developer Noah Mink has always wanted to make sure The Key was available to students and previously worked through the Black Tie Party to do so. Noah says, “People like to say, ‘somebody should do something.’ I got tired of this mindset, so I’m glad we were able to get this done.”

The website also includes a history of The Key since 1995.

Future plans for the website include adding a course evaluation system and including course syllabi.

UGAKey.com is not affiliated with the University of Georgia or University System of Georgia. The developers urge students to take multiple factors into consideration when planning a course of study at UGA.