Maine's Public Universities - University of Maine System

Process 1 – maintain course catalog

Single source of the application of academic policies and procedures for a given period including basic financial aid, admission, student billing, housing, student life, curricula and course descriptions

-All campuses possess a course catalog -Subsequent step after catalog is built is to use PACE to maintain degree audit

-Participants who are involved in production -Some campuses publish catalogs that cover a one-year period, while others publish catalogs that cover   two-years (UMFK and UMPI have two-year catalogs) -Catalogs are provided on various media (i.e., web, paper, CD) -Maintenance (most are updated via word processing, although not aligned with ISIS) -UM hardly uses degree audit, while UMA does not use it at all

-Will PSSA accommodate complex core requirements?  

-Academic policy including common course naming, course numbering, summer sessions, and academic calendaring (such as issues regarding student refund schedules, housing refunds, financial aid (due to winter term treatment), dismissals and suspensions, summer as a header or trailer) -Confirm common content -Explore common format and similar presentation -Examine providing catalogs on web in addition to providing them in print -Consider assembling searchable database -Consider establishing common core requirements to facilitate intra-system transfer

Process 2 – maintain term section file

Create course sections for a given term (and create final exam schedule)  

All course schedules are available on the web via WebDSIS and on campus web pages      

-Section creation methods
-Room scheduling methods
-Timelines and procedures for collecting information from departments
-Method of posting and tracking course fees
-Some campuses post other campuses’ distance education courses, while   others do not
-Course guide assembly and media
-Some use Prerequisite Checker, while some don’t
-Methods for creating Final Exam Schedule

-Does PSSA provide interface with room scheduling software?    

-Examine how distance education courses might be better maintained to address:
          -academic authority issues and collection of grades
          -availability of single class list
          -ability to track maximum enrollment and manage waitlists
          -need to simplify coding/data entry requirements-Consider common course catalog  

Process 3 – register students

Add, drop and withdraw students to and from sections

-All maintain ISIS tables through Registrar and Business Offices
-Registration process is highly decentralized
-All campuses provide same variety of media (I.e., WebDSIS, IVR, in-person, phone, mail)    

-Policies for establishing registration priorities -USM uses IVR tables to process credit card payments -Some campuses use wait lists, while some don’t -Timelines for add/drop/withdrawal    

-Will PSSA provide a multi-campus aggregated schedule? -Does PSSA flag and track multi-campus enrollments and enrollment changes?

-Consider common academic calendar
-Consider common registration timelines
-Consider ways to manage registration priorities for multi-campus students
-Examine registration models that will allow students to register easily at multiple campuses and display aggregate schedules    

Process 4 - Collect and process grades

Collect and process grades; process course repeats; and process academic actions, such as probation, suspension, dismissal and Dean’s lists    

-All campuses complete this process -All campuses use subset of grades from common grading table    

-Utilization of mid-term grades
-Grade submission deadlines
-Methods for inputting final grades
-Repeat policies/procedures
-Treatment of developmental courses
-Selection criteria for and processing and posting of probation, suspension, dismissal, dean’s lists and other academic awards
-Academic forgiveness policies
-Collection of last dates of attendance for L grades    

-Does PSSA provide web collection of grades? -How many campuses have faculty who use grade book programs to record grades?  Will PSSA facilitate this capability?

-Consider common Probation/Suspension/Dismissal policies
-Consider common Repeat and Academic Forgiveness policies
-Discuss common treatment of developmental coursework vis-à-vis GPA and Dean’s List calculations
-Consider ways to ensure multi-campus students are considered for Dean’s Lists and other awards
-Consider ways to ensure multi-campus students are considered appropriately for Probation/Suspension/ Dismissal actions
-Consider common grade appeal process  

Process 5 – maintain student records

Maintain current student status information, including demographics, addresses, etc.

-Completed manually and by a wide range of participants

-Directory information (USM does not include student addresses in public directory)

-Explore establishing audit trails and history for various field changes (e.g., multiple changes of major by a single student)

Process 6 – maintain and release information including transcripts

Transmit individual requests for student data

-All campuses perform this process and essentially in the same fashion -Ocasionally campuses process batches to meet internal requests

-Some campuses charge students a transcript fee at the time of request, while others include it in a unified fee -DSIS enables students to generate their own enrollment verification letters, however, most campuses (not UMF) provide electronic signaturing

-Will students be able to obtain transcripts via the web under PSSA? -Does PSSA allow installation of official transcript request process on web?

-Evaluate possibility of automated inter-campus grade transfers -Explore common transcript

Process 9 – certify students to internal and external agencies

Certifying athletic and veteran benefits

-Processes regarding veteran benefits

-Participants -Methodology for processing athletic benefits depending upon NCAA division

-Will PSSA interface with NCAA compliance software?

-Evaluate time consuming process for tracking multi-campus veterans on each campus

Process 10 – conduct required reporting

Produce accurate and timely reports and clean data

-All campuses must provide 4 types of reports, i.e., (1) Approximately 10 federal reports   times/year;  (2) SEVIS/ National Student Clearinghouse reports (3) State system-wide reports including Peter Anderson’s enrollment statistics reports (4) local campus reports such as lists of majors and labels, etc.

-USM SIRS, UM and UMPI institutional research, UMFK and UMM registrar, UMF combination of institutional research and registrar

-Does PSSA have capability to perform trending (i.e., viewing data snapshots at equivalent periods of time and tracking cohorts across that period of time) and retention reporting? -Does PSSA have capability to turnover routine requests for ad hoc query reports on-demand during the day?

-National Student Clearinghouse reports impact multi-campus students (all campuses treat multi-campus students as native students) -Explore redesign of state system-wide reports -Explore common definitions for all reporting activities including defining an associated database -Investigate possibility of assembling better reporting for students by site -Develop system for unduplicated headcount -Explore possibility of establishing on-demand, daytime ad hoc query reporting including designated query report providers -Examine unified timing of reports to achieve common data collection dates -Investigate trending and retention analysis -Establish common field usage and field  definitions -Explore centralized reporting to create efficiencies and consistency -Collaborate with other PSSA educational institutions to share solutions

Process 11 – manage non-credit systems

-UMM uses ISIS to create sections, register students, generate class lists, process add/drops, produce grades, produce certificates, etc. -UMFK uses ISIS to perform needs analysis, update tables, create sections, register students, schedule rooms, determine fee structure, publish schedule, process add/drops, produce certificates, etc. -UM and UMPI same as UMFK except use database other than ISIS -USM uses 2 distinct processes for huge number of students, i.e., (1) equivalent to UMFK on ISIS for billing purposes and (2) Equivalent to ISIS functionally but on homegrown database

-Will PSSA replicate capabilities of USM homegrown database?

-Explore system-wide solution that is as robust as USM homegrown system

Process 12 – schedule non-academic events

Manage space

-2 sets of participants, i.e., requestees are handful of organizations on each campus and requesters are a wide-variety of entities and individuals -All registrars schedule public classrooms, while specialized rooms are scheduled by a variety of personnel - Space is held until academic schedule is finalized, then space is open to all -Same steps except UMM and UMPI use auxiliary services to coordinate AV use

-UMFK registrar schedules all classrooms and president’s office schedules one conference room, while all other spaces are scheduled by facility office -USM academic departments maintain specialized rooms, registrar schedules public classrooms -Databases vary, i.e., USM, UMM and UMF use R25; UM uses S25E, predecessor to R25; UMPI uses its own database; UMFK uses EMS-lite vendor software

-Will PSSA interface with R25, S25E and other campus databases?

-Centralize space management in one office on each campus -Explore possibility of web-based scheduling

Process 13 – coordinate commencement and graduation

Graduate students

-Processes and steps are very similar -All campuses have only one ceremony

-Participants, i.e., who certifies that graduation requirements have been met? (Academic departments perform this task for larger campuses, while registrar handles this task for smaller campuses) -UM, USM, UMFK, UMA print at least a portion of their diplomas, while UMM, UMPI, the law school and UMF do not - all experience tremendous difficulty when trying to identify those who applied for graduation but did not graduate -UM has a unique diploma hold for unpaid accounts; UM notifies student of this hold by snail mail -slight differences on method for determining who is eligible to participate in ceremony -USM has a December pinning ceremony for nursing, UMFK also has a pinning ceremony for nursing, UM has a December reception and graduate hooding ceremony the evening before commencement -UMFK hands out diplomas to undergraduates, law school hands out diplomas, and UM hands out doctorates

-Explore common graduation application and associated tracking on web-DSIS -Explore possibility of workflow – especially suitable for this process

Process 14 – maintain course file

Maintain course database

-Registrar is major player – serves as collection point -all perform process similarly, but timing for doing the process varies -Some campuses perform this process simultaneously with Process 2 - Create sections

- Some campuses attach fees to courses, while others attach fees to sections

-Does PSSA track and manage cross-listed sections/ courses? -will PSSA perform automatic recalculations of charges based on changes to course file?

-Explore system-wide table as central clearinghouse for common course designators -Explore possibility of faculty course planning process being front end of this process and the cataloging process to ensure seamlessness -Ensure course descriptions are part of database

Process 15 – process transfer credits

Process transfer credit from other UMS campuses and institutions outside UMS; process transfer credit from: Tests (CLEP, AP, DANTES), Portfolio assessments,
Foreign credentials, and Military training and experience  

-All campuses subscribe to 10 UMS Transfer Principles
-All campuses display course UMS course equivalencies in WebDSIS

-Minimum acceptable grade from outside UMS
-Acceptable scores for CLEP, AP and IB
-Processes for portfolio assessment and evaluating foreign credentials
-Evaluation of credit for military training and experience
-Display of transfer credit (e.g., block credit and display of grades)
-Some colleges post all acceptable credit, while some post only credit applicable to degree program
-Management of articulation agreements
-Some colleges use DARS to process traditional transfer credit, while some post directly in ISIS  

-How will PSSA handle transfer process? -Examine PSSA capability for workflow related to posting of transfer credits (e.g, coordinating information flow amongst admissions, registrar, academic advisement and financial aid) -Will PSSA accommodate total credits attempted and earned versus actual credits accepted?  Can we have a sub-database for transfer credits?

-Consider consistent minimum acceptable grade from outside UMS
-Consider how to ensure transfer credit awarded at one campus is not lost when transferring to another campus
-Consider uniform display of transfer credit
-Consider most useful way to display course equivalency information
-Link course equivalency information to course catalog information
-Explore ability to track total credits attempted versus total credits earned from transfer    

Process 16 – conduct orientation and/or initial registration

Orient incoming students and parents

-Campuses have an additional intake step for walk-in/ad hoc advising

-USM has formal group processes and informal one-on-one processes -UM and UMF omit advisor assignment step -UMM assigns advisors prior to orientation session -UMF registers students on a separate day, USM registers students on same day as orientation, while UM does both -Variation in length and timing (UM has 6 formal  orientations during summer)

-Does PSSA have capability to assign multiple advisors?

-Investigate electronic chronological student files (to capture conversations and other contact with student, information about high school record, financial aid details, etc.) to supplement physical file folders (FERPA and HIPPA) -Explore options for scanning and other forms of electronic input (UM and UMF will soon scan financial aid documents, while USM already does so)

Process 17 – facilitate course selection and registration for continuing students

Register continuing students

-All campuses conduct this process similarly -All perform advisor assignment updates prior to registration

-For each campus, participants differ by department -Although RANs are not used by all campuses, they are used inconsistently by those campuses that employ them

-How easy is it for PSSA to perform a multi-campus course search?

-Ensure that advisor has easy web access to list of advisees -Provide user-friendly registration method for multi-campus students -Ensure advisors are aware of ITV and online courses that are similar to classroom courses; make courses offered by all campuses available to all students 

Process 18 – conduct assessment of student skills, interest and abilities

Determine academic placement, interests and abilities related to student’s overall academic plan

-All conduct this process similarly

-Can PSSA accommodate placement test score look-up and interpretation? -Will PSSA provide ability to store inventories of potentially shared equipment?

-Explore common student file for ADA accommodations to ensure uniform standards (FERPA and HIPPA) -Explore consistent placement tests, recording methodology and instruments

Process 19 – monitor student contact and progress

Document chronological contacts with students

-All perform this process similarly

-Some campuses use degree audit inconsistently, while others do not use it at all -Participants

-Explore workflow for this process especially related to changing a major -Discuss degree audit consistency -Discuss uniformly named required forms -Investigate electronic chronological student files (to capture conversations and other contact with student, information about high school record, financial aid details, etc.) to supplement physical file folders (FERPA and HIPPA)

Process 20 – educate advisors

Provide advisors with opportunity to attain necessary skills and receive information

-Some campuses do not evaluate the effectiveness of their programs -UMM focuses on web-DSIS training -Some campuses place more emphasis on this process than others

-Does PSSA provide training track?

-Explore multi-campus views of students -Facilitate proactive way of providing training -Discuss levels of quality advising and advising philosophies