A desktop application to learn the actual workload of the students

The use of European Credit Transfer system (ECTS) provides a reference standard for exchange students across the European Union (EU). It helps more transparency and compatibility to compare the self-study period and performance of students from the different educational structures. However, the implementation of ECTS and re-design of courses according to ECTS can be comparatively problematic in most countries. Teachers generally would like to learn the actual workload that is necessary to successfully complete the course(s) of the study program because, this is a more realistic evaluation for the duration of study, except the teaching time. In this study, we describe the design and implementation of a Windows Vista sidebar gadget tool, namely “Helo Gadget”. It runs like an instant messenger on the desktop and interactively collects data from the users. It periodically asks what the students are doing at that moment and saves the answers in the database. The statistics generated by the tool can be used to improve performance of the students and calculate the necessary course credits. The proposed tool enables teachers to monitor the activities of their own students and see these meaningful statistics of courses and students in a daily routine.