As a precursor to the system going live, there needs to be a mass information campaign to inform both relevant staff and students of the change in status. Thus, the email system could be used to forewarn relevant staff and students of the changeover, and this could be reinforced at staff meetings, in student publications, on notice boards throughout the university and lecturers could be tasked with briefing students at the beginning of lectures. I would also suggest that a helpdesk be set up to assist with any student queries and concerns.
I would recommend using the parallel system and to initially base it within one department only (in essence a pilot scheme). This will accommodate both the old and new systems at the same time and is, I believe, the safest option. As for Direct Changeover, such a venture is far too risky in my opinion when dealing with such huge numbers of dependant users. The three-phase system is unnecessary as there is no real hurry for implementation. In the first instance, the parallel system should be used to service a couple of thousand students and hence should not be too great a number to manage and study compared to full implementation. This will allow time for students to get acquainted with the system and hopefully address any problems which can later be avoided when the system goes live across the rest of the campus. Staff too will also have to be educated on the new system. Recent information obtained from the internet newsgroup: alt.technology.smartcard (1999) suggests a number of recommended guidelines. For example: “To identify, recognise and respect the privacy expectations of users and make applicable privacy guidelines available to them and take appropriate disciplinary measures with [staff] who fail to adhere to such standards.”
As the pilot scheme will only concern a fraction of the entire student population I don t think set timing is as crucial as would be the case with a system such as Direct Changeover. However, it may be helpful to implement this first stage at the start of semester two, giving staff seven months to iron out any difficulties between then and September and to allow for the remaining infrastructure (such as additional card readers) to be installed. As card readers are installed, each should be rigorously tested and all types of information be loaded onto the card.
In concluding, the evidence appears to be strongly in favour of the implementation of smart cards.