Month: September 2017

On September 15th we held an Information System Open House. We had the following project summaries posted and asked the staff and faculty who participated to vote for the ones that had value for them, were most valuable to college operations, should be prioritized.

Following are the projects listed in order of votes by Open House participants.

Better Support for Fiscal and ABB 18 Votes

Use Cases

• As a fiscal manager I would like to see where the course plan affects the budget.
• As leadership I would like to understand how future course plans will impact ABB allocations.

Implementation Plan

• Identify triggers with fiscal implications, create reports that surface these conditions.
• Add metadata to the system that allows categorization using ABB metrics. Example instructor roles.

Issues to Address

• Some ABB inputs are out of scope of the courses database, for example ABB credits are based on the major of student who enroll in courses, not the unit offering the courses.

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Person Search 17 Votes

Use Cases

• College faculty and staff would like to know what relationships a person has with the college. “Who is Jane Doe?”

Implementation Plan

• Search interface for people that shows results over various college information systems.

   

  • Prospective students in Recruitment
  • Applicants in Applicant Review
  • Students in Student database
  • Instructors in Courses
  • Grant personnel
  • Faculty & staff

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Faculty Commitment Database 12 Votes

Use Cases

• Budget managers would like to have a record of commitments made to faculty for operations, budgeting, and forecasting. Specifically need to track items that can not be represented as encumbrances in UW central financial systems.

Implementation Plan

• Commitments database would be accessible by the COE fiscal office. Commitment records could be edited and reported on.
• System would integrate available UW person, appointment, and financial data to provide context and minimize user effort.
• Additional requirements gathering is needed…

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Put Course Plans on College Websites 10 Votes

Use Cases

• As faculty I would like courses I teach included on my page on the College of Education website.
• As administrator of a college program I would like courses related to the program listed on the program website.

Implementation Plan

• Provide current courses and upcoming course plan as a web service.
• College of Education website and program websites can consume this service to include up-to-date course information on their website.

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Keep Me Informed 9 Votes

Use Cases

• We would like prospective students to be presented with an approachable and concise form when they express interest.
• Developer would like to have program list and program descriptions up-to-date in the Recruitment database.
• College recruiters would like prospective students to accurately communicate their interests.

Implementation Plan

• Let the college public website be the guide to college programs. Prospective students can click “Keep Me Informed” button on a program web page.
• Button leads to a basic form that only asks for name and email. Secondary form prompts for additional prospect information like address and demographics.
• Subsequent clicks on “Keep Me Informed” buttons no longer prompt for input, just show programs prospect has expressed interest in.

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Include Minors in Student Database 8 Votes

Use Cases

• Advisors would like a list of students in the ELS Minor
• Advisors would like to used Tracked Issues feature with ELS Minor students

Implementation Plan

• Change population definition for student database to students who have College of Education major or College of Education minor.
• For all students in population display all of their UW majors and minors.
• Show all majors and minors that are included in degrees earned.
• Create a list of students with ELS minor.

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More Documentation 6 Votes

Use Cases

• As a new employee of the college I would like self-guided learning tools to help with the college’s information systems.
• As a current user of college’s information systems I would like clear explanations about purpose and meaning of systems.

Implementation Plan

• More written documentation of college database available on a web site. Possibly in the COE Wiki or COE IR Blog.
• More getting started video tours. These will be linked on the web site and included in the orientation Canvas course.
• Better inline documentation. When building tools plan for new user to get the instruction they need.

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New Home Page 6 Votes

Use Cases

• As a reviewer I would like to easily find specific applicants and have the important tools clearly highlighted.
• As an administrator I would like database features listed so it’s easy to scan for the tool I need.

Implementation Plan

• Revise Applicant Review home page in the style of Student database.
• Show search bar on home page by default
• Highlight important reviewer tools with visible buttons
• Move menu options into site map displayed on home page

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Better Tool for People Inputs 6 Votes

Use Cases

• Tech staff would like to be able to set ticket fields with people quickly and accurately.

Implementation Plan

• Person inputs replaced with type-ahead fields, user begins typing and matching persons are suggested. Input is matched against name and UW NetID.
• Who ticket owner (client is)
• Who assigned tech is
• Who watchers are

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Room Info in Room Schedule 5 Votes

Use Cases

• College faculty and staff would like to see any special instructions when scheduling a room. For example video conferencing help on the Zoom room schedule.

Implementation Plan

• Add room notes to MRBS room schedule tool. When you look at the room schedule for a specific room or area helpful notes are displayed above the calendar.

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Data Warehouse for Application History 4 Votes

Use Cases

• Applicant Review database must be brought into compliance with UW document retention policies. This means deleting non-admitted applications after 1 year.
• As a program administrator I would like to know how applications have changed over time. Examples: number, demographic, academic background, admission rates.

Implementation Plan

• Automated systems that purge applicant files after document retention deadlines.
• Create an application data warehouse where anonymized versions of old applications can be stored for analysis.

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Sleeker Tools for Adjusting Committees 3 Votes

Use Cases

• As a reviewer I would like the system to accurately reflect the applications I am reviewing. 
• As a program lead or administrator I want to adjust review committees quickly without a lot of clicking around.

Implementation Plan

• Provide reviewers a list of committees (default reviewers per program) they are assigned to.
• Assign review teams from a list of applicants to a specific program. Suggest recently assigned teams.
• Add a “Not Reviewing” recommendation. This would hide an applicant from reviewer’s My Applicants list.

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Mailing Lists 3 Votes

Use Cases

• College recruiters would like configuration in recruitment database to clearly express the behavior it affects.
• College recruiters would like prospects to have the option to change interests instead of globally unsubscribing.

Implementation Plan

• Convert unclear configuration concept "Interest Audiences" into Mailing Lists. Convert "Interests" configuration in to COE Programs.
• COE Programs can be associated with Mailing Lists.
• Automated email campaigns will be sent to Mailing Lists.
• College recruiters can extract list of prospects based on Mailing Lists or Programs.
• When prospects use an Unsubscribe link they are given option to remove Mailing List subscriptions (presented as "Interests") or to unsubscribe globally.

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All Test Scores have Pass / Fail 3 Votes

Use Cases

• Administrative staff looking at student test score would like clear indication of whether scores are sufficient.

Implementation Plan

• Update imports to ensure all available agency Pass / Fail evaluations are brought into system and displayed in all test score contexts.
• Implement pass/fail rules in system where that is applicable.
• Provide interface for administrative staff to set Pass / Fail in other conditions. Our main case here is edTPA which has Pass / Fail criteria that change over time, by evaluation, and by state and UW campus.
   

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Better Rubric Score Reporting 2 Votes

Use Cases

• As a reviewer I would like row-by-row comparisons of rubric scores entered for different applicants to my program in support of making and entering decisions.
• As a program administrator I would like to download rubric scores for external analysis.

Implementation Plan

• Revise rubric score data model to better support viewing multiple scores at once and extraction of data.
• Option to download all scores entered using a specific rubric.

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Spreadsheet for Program Review Teams 2 Votes

Use Cases

• As a program lead I would like to download a spreadsheet that I can use with my team that includes more fields relevant to the review and decision process.

Implementation Plan

• Provide a download spreadsheet option tailored to review teams.

   

  • Include assigned reviewers and their recommendations
  • Include comments
  • Include GPA

Issues to Address

• Some fields don’t lend themselves to two-dimensional spreadsheets, how can these be displayed usefully.
• Certain field need context to be meaningful. For example meaning of GPA is impacted by degree, timeframe, school, etc.

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End Communication 2 Votes

Use Cases

• College recruiters would like recruitment database to include persons currently interested in college programs with out manual maintenance.

Implementation Plan

• Make prospective student records dormant when we receive and application from the same email address.
• Make prospective student records dormant when they have not expressed interest in the last year.
• Separate the dormant and unsubscribe conditions. Dormant has a different meaning that recruiters may choose to override.

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Streamlined Instructor Approvals 0 Votes

Use Cases

• As an instructor I would like streamlined tools for reviewing and approving my courses. Important fields should be surfaced and it’s easy to provide feedback.
• As the curriculum coordinator I would like to know who has reviewed their planned courses and see any feedback they provide.

Implementation Plan

• All in one tool for instructors to review courses before UW time schedule construction. Important fields are displayed, one click Approve button, room preference fields are one that page.
• Course approvals are displayed in the course offering detail in the workflow box. Approval whos and whens are included in log.

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