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Use Mobile Guidebook to Evaluate this Session – M1.5 Allowing Students to Update Their Program of Study Online
Allowing Students to Update Their Program of Study Online
Daniel Strickland
Assistant University Registrar
The University of Alabama
• Changing student curriculum data (degree, major, minor, etc.) is a universal task at all institutions of higher education
• Registrar personnel should ensure that curriculum rules are followed per the institutional catalog
• This session will discuss the creation and implementation of an online process that follows established institutional rules using differing levels of security to ensure that student curriculum changes are submitted accurately and expeditiously
Introduction
• Institutional Background• Review of Prior Procedures • Goals for the New Online Process• Cross-Campus Collaboration• New Process Design• User Classifications and Permissions• Technical Development• Process Review• Reporting and Notification• Results• Summary• Q&A
Agenda
• Fall 2013 Enrollment: 34,852- Undergraduate: 29,443
• Ellucian Banner SIS• Active undergraduate major program rule records – 158
(Banner form SOACURR) • Active undergraduate degree codes - 27• Active undergraduate minor codes - 83• Active undergraduate concentration codes - 109
Institutional Background
• Students are assigned to their desired program of study at admission- Students coded to the active catalog at admission (published annually)
- Students may request to be placed under a subsequent catalog
• Students can pursue multiple degrees, majors, and minors- Students may add a second major within a single degree
• Colleges and departments assign advisors to students in the SIS
• Advising holds placed for undergraduate students prior to registration for the next term via automated process
Institutional Background
• Students contacted colleges and departments to initiate a curriculum change- Consulting was mostly for information purposes, not for permission
• Changes were submitted to the Registrar’s Office through a form submitted via imaging system
• Form contained information not validated against curriculum rules in the SIS
• Registrar staff manually entered the requested updates - Processed as many as 80 per day during advising season
- Amount of time and resources spent processing requests became increasingly problematic
Prior Procedures
Prior Form
• Curriculum error checking in the SIS was set to ‘Warning’ instead of ‘Fatal’ to accommodate student requests - UA allows students to pursue second majors within a singular degree
- Needed for degree audit and degree application purposes
• ‘Warning’ allowed for coding mismatches such as:- Wrong major to degree, wrong concentration to major, etc.
- Invalid major based on catalog term
- Duplicate entries
• Registrar staff had to contact colleges and departments with additional questions and clarifications for submitted forms
• Manual corrections processed from weekly error reports
Prior Procedures - Errors
• Replace the existing manual-entry procedure with an application that automatically updates curriculum information
• Reduce errors by enforcing curriculum rules at the time of submission
• Allow students to submit their own changes when possible
• Allow for multiple levels of user access when necessary- Advisors
- College Registrars/Deans
New Process Goals
• Ensure that all successful updates appear in an audit trail
• Create useful error messages for the application- Reasons for the error
- Where to go/who to call for assistance
• *Make life easier for the Registrar’s Office
Process Goals - Continued
• Prior to development, the Registrar’s Office met with each college individually to discuss the goals and parameters of the new application
• Student support staff from all areas provided valuable feedback that assisted in the design of the new process- User levels: student, advisor, college registrar/dean
- Rules unique to individual majors, minors, concentrations
• Active communication with all academic departments during the development process is crucial for a successful implementation
Cross-Campus Collaboration
• Curriculum updates can be submitted for currently enrolled degree-seeking undergraduate students- Not available for graduate, law, and non-degree students- Restrictions for athletes and distance students
• Creation of three user groups with differing security levels- Students, advisors, college registrars/deans
- Submissions available to the lowest level necessary based on the change requested
• Limitation of submissions per term
Process Design
• Implementation of college and departmental-specific rules
• Effective term of the update coordinated with degree application deadline (degrees conferred after fall, spring, and summer)- Prior to deadline: current term
- After the deadline: next term
• Changes not allowed for students with an active online degree application
Process Design - continued
Students – undergraduate, degree seeking• Can update their primary major• Can add or delete minors and concentrations
*Subject to departmental restrictions
Advisors• Can perform all actions available to students• Can add or delete a second major attached to the primary degree• Can update students to a subsequent catalog term
College registrars/Deans• Can perform all actions available to students and advisors• Can add or delete a secondary degree program
User Classifications
• Advisors must be designated as such in your SIS- Attached to a college/department for majors that require additional
permission
• Coding for special levels of access- College registrar/Dean designation
- Athletic advisors
- Distance students
• Designated in Banner through Faculty/Advisor Info Form (SIAINST)
- Faculty attribute block for special designations
User Classifications: Advisor Access
• Functional and technical staff collaboration- Design and appearance
- Rule creation and implementation
- Rigorous testing
• Oracle Application Express (APEX) used to design the application- Ease of user interface development
- Previous applications created using APEX
- Used PL/SQL integration for complex processes
• Placed in the campus-wide online portal (myBama)- Single sign-on
Additional technical information available upon request
Technical Development
• Students login to myBama and select the major/minor option under the Student tab.
• Advisors and support staff access via the ‘Faculty’ tab
Portal Access
• Advisors enter student ID or search criteria
• Students bypass this feature
Advisor Search Functionality
Initial Display
All curriculum data displays but what may be changed is limited by role of user. In this case,when accessed as a student, the catalog term and secondaryprogram may not be changed.
Select
• Select College if changing colleges for desired new major
• Catalog term may not be updated by students
Select College
• Only valid program offerings appear based on catalog• Sets degree and major1 codes
Select Program of Study
• Only active concentrations attached to the selected major appear
• All active minors appear
Select Concentration and Minor
Continue, Confirm, and Submit
Audit Entry in SIS
New major
User and date
• Enrollment reports can be run periodically by college support staff to determine students that have switched colleges
• Automated email notifications of major changes upon request
• Advising holds placed to prevent registration
Reporting and Notification
• An improved process that benefits students, advisors, and academic support staff
- Less runaround
- Changes immediately submitted
• Online submissions since implementation (October, 2011) – 57,138*- Online submissions effective Fall 2013 – 6,637
- Unique students for which submissions have been processed – 24,954
*Data as of 2/05/2014
• Improved Data Integrity: Near-elimination of curriculum errors
• Vast savings of time and resources by the Registrar’s Office
Results
• Allowing students to update their program of study online has many benefits
• An effective process allows changes to be initiated at the lowest level of permission and ensures that institutional rules are followed
• Cross-campus collaboration during the design phase is essential
• Governing rules must be well-defined and implemented by technical staff
Summary
