When graduation functionality is rolled out this fall, the first academic circle for the first class of students in the new Student Information System (SIS) will be completed. And yet, a new circle already has begun for a second crop of prospective students expressing an interest in U.Va. via the SIS Portal; a second round of applicants preparing to submit applications to U.Va. through the Common Application; and currently enrolled students who soon will prepare to course enroll for spring term.
A retrospective review of the SIS rollout and SIS activities over the past few months reveals that:
- The SIS is now the system of record for University students; transcripts have been produced from the SIS since August 20th.
- As of September 4th, 14,121 undergraduates had enrolled in 207,855 credits, and 4,543 graduate students were enrolled in 48,639 credits, using the SIS.
- Financial aid packaging for new and returning undergraduates and for new and returning professional and graduate students is in progress in the SIS, and loans for new and returning undergraduates, professional, and graduate students are “anticipated” or have been certified and disbursed.
- A Graduate Recruitment and Admission Management System (GRAMS) is available to the graduate schools in architecture, arts & sciences, commerce, education, engineering, and nursing.
- Grading has been completed successfully in the SIS for the first classes concluding since the system roll-out.
A number of enhancements have been implemented in response to SIS user requests (an enhancements list will be maintained on the SIS Help Center website):
- Class search allows for searching by department and College area requirement
- Class search provides links to syllabi in Collab and to faculty evaluations
- Permission List functionality allows for the automation of instructor-permission enrollment
- Additional advisor types allow the schools to track thesis/dissertation/research advisors, etc.
- A new interface with Collab allows grades to be uploaded from Collab to the SIS
- The Student Center view of unofficial transcripts can be viewed by administrative staff
- The Common Application facilitates processing of applicant information
- The display of class search results shows authorized/actual enrollment
- Alumni can access the SIS to view their unofficial transcripts
The Student System Project team continues to review issues reported to the Help Desk and to work with undergraduate and graduate admission offices and schools, the University Registrar, Student Financial Services, and other SIS users to address issues that arise. For example, unanticipated issues arose from the initial setup of the add/drop calendar and course waitlist functionality. While a manual workaround was developed for this semester, the schools have met to discuss changes that will prevent these issues in the future.
The first academic cycle for add/drop using the SIS in fall 2009 reflects a new system up and running; the second cycle will reflect improvements to system set up and business process in response to the learning curve of the first cycle. |
