Welcome to IT?s next generation
Just like the floppy disk, the university’s ROSI (repository of student information) system has outlived its usefulness. Installed in the latter years of the 20th century, ROSI was implemented to mitigate the risk of Y2K.
However, instead of simply upgrading or rewriting ROSI, the university has begun planning and developing the next generation student information system (NGSIS). In order to ensure that students’ needs drive the technological development, the executive co-sponsors of the project are Professors Jill Matus, vice-provost (students), and Scott Mabury, vice-provost (academic operations).
The NGSIS mission is straightforward: make functionality and students’ needs the focal point and build a system that responds to those needs throughout the entire student lifecycle, from the prospective student’s experience to graduation.
“We want a system that will allow students to interact with the university and navigate all the processes they need to go through in the most comfortable and user-friendly way possible — truly a student-centred system,” said Matus.
The design concept for NGSIS is based on modularity, flexibility and decentralization. It must be able to accommodate new components, as well as change or remove existing components as requirements warrant. In addition to ensuring the system remains current, this design model will encourage greater input from across all three campuses and make it easier for the community to have a hand in developing the system.
“NGSIS is hybrid in many ways; we might buy off-the-shelf software, hire programmers externally, or hire students or do the programming internally,” said Mabury. “The idea is that the system should allow the addition of components, and we will acknowledge investments by divisions and where we see the value of a project for the entire university we will negotiate with the developers to make it available system-wide.”
The flip side to this is that improvements are being driven by insights from staff who work with the current system and interact with students on a daily basis. By mapping current processes against student needs, gaps can be identified and better processes developed.
“This is a very inclusive, collaborative process, involving expertise from across the university,” said Matus.
For example, recently a system-user group was formed to look at the current residence application process and make recommendations on the development of a new process. The group included registrars, student life professionals, housing office staff and IT staff. They identified how to better meet the needs of students by means of a process for residence application that is easy for students to access and follow and that will also allow data sharing among staff across colleges and campuses.
“We want to build an overall new generation student information system that allows us to adapt and improve how we use it, as opposed to being constrained by it,” said Mabury. “It goes right to the heart of the student experience.”
Key to the overall success of NGSIS is to have continual system development and improvement.
Follow upcoming issues of the Bulletin to read more about NGSIS and specific projects currently underway.
Provided by University of Toronto
