Archives
Survey to gather feedback on student systems
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The Student Services Assessment Project, part of the UB 2020 strategic planning process, is looking for input from the university community as it conducts its ongoing evaluation of the information technology systems that support student academics and student life at UB, and explores ways to improve and integrate them.
The Decision Director survey, available online beginning Monday through July 6, will provide an opportunity for faculty and staff to weigh in on which functionalities of student systems they think are the most important and to share ideas on system requirements.
Kara Saunders, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education and the Student Systems Assessment project manager, noted that the survey will contain needed and desired functionalities for recruitment and admissions; course catalog and scheduling; grading; records and registration; advising; degree audit; financial aid; student accounts; student affairs, including career services, extracurricular activities and housing; reporting (Infosource); and self-service portal (MyUB). Survey respondents will be able to look at any or all of the items, indicate how important they think the requirements are and if the current systems have those functionalities.
"Once we receive feedback from the university community, these requirements will be circulated to student-systems vendors so that they can tell us whether and how their systems can meet our requirements," Saunders said.
The survey will build on information gathered from workshops that have been held during the past few months focusing on business process review in numerous areas, among them admissions, financial aid and scholarships, records and registration, student accounts, professional school concerns, reporting and compliance, orientation, continuing education and academic advising.
Documentation from the workshops is available on the Student Systems Assessment Web site.
Saunders encouraged UB faculty and staff to complete the portions of the survey in which they are interested. "Your valuable input will help us to evaluate the systems and choose that which best meets our needs," she said.
To take part in the survey, click here to complete the online registration form. Anyone who already has received an email indicating that they have been registered need not complete the online registration form.
Training sessions on the use of Decision Director will be held from 1-2 p.m. Monday and 9-10 a.m. Tuesday in 201 Capen Hall, North Campus. Eash training session will be followed by two-hour open working sessions in which participants can work on completing the survey, discuss requirements with colleagues who are in attendance and ask questions of the project managers.
Anyone planning to attend a training and/or open working session should R.S.V.P. to vpue@buffalo.edu.
The Student Systems Assessment Project, part of the UB 2020 IT Transformation, was initiated because of concerns raised about the current system's flexibility, functionality and lack of integration among different, but interconnected, offices. In addition, plans to increase UB's student population by 10,000 and add 750 new faculty members would strain the system's technology beyond its limits, Saunders explained.
The university has been working with Moran Technology Consulting to conduct a review of its business practices, look at requirements for the new system, and evaluate vendor software and response toward selecting a new computer system.
Open vendor demonstrations were held at the beginning of May, with representatives from SunGard's Banner, Oracle's PeopleSoft and SAP's student information system demonstrating how their systems work in "a day in the life of" students, faculty and staff, Saunders said.
Moran and project staff also have been assessing the university's readiness to implement a new student system, meeting with a number of campus constituencies to conduct the Change Readiness and High-Level IT Assessment steps of the review process. In these steps, guiding principles and a communications plan are developed and potential risks facing assessment and implementation are explored.
A draft of the results of the Change Readiness Assessment was presented at an open meeting held May 11—click here for that presentation. Results of the High-Level IT Assessment will be presented to the CIT Town Hall meeting on July 13 and then posted to the Web site.
UB also has been consulting with peer institutions that recently adopted new student information technology. "We're learning a great deal about the vendors, as well as the complexities of software implementation," Saunders said.
She added that so far, the Student Systems Assessment Project "has given us all a great deal of insight into the ways that UB provides services to students and areas in which we can improve. We're looking forward to gaining an even better understanding of the campus' strengths and needs through the survey."
Anyone with questions or concerns about the project may contact Saunders at kcs23@buffalo.edu or 645-6003.