Category

Technology
Training/Education

Submitted By

Megan Stephenson, megan.stephenson@colorado.edu, Director of Academic Operations and Student Records, College of Arts and Sciences, Student Success

Project Team

Megan Stephenson, megan.stephenson@colorado.edu, Director of Academic Operations and Student Records, College of Arts and Sciences, Student Success
Cindi Lee, cindi.lee@colorado.edu, Application & Report Developer, Office of the Registrar

Project Description

The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) is the largest college on the UCB campus and is responsible for processing many student-initiated academic record update requests in Campus Solutions (~6,600 per year). We partnered with the Office of the Registrar to streamline a process which benefits both undergraduate students and university staff. The process includes an online OnBase form for A&S undergraduate students to declare an A&S major or any undergraduate student on campus to declare an A&S minor, and a robot to automate the record changes, associated academic advisor assignments and student notification upon the completion of the request. This process requires significantly less manual work to ready the spreadsheet for the robot. The OnBase form allows for immediate notification to the student when the change has been made and automatically saves the request form to the student’s electronic dean’s file.

Project Efficiency 

The former process required students to submit a paper form and for staff to manually make the changes in Campus Solutions. That process was not inclusive as it required students to submit it in-person. Additionally, it was not an efficient use of staff time, as it required staff to review each paper form, follow up with students should something on the form be unclear/inaccurate, and manually access, edit and save each student’s record in Campus Solutions, and convert the paper forms to be save in the student’s electronic dean’s file. Creating a process accessible to all undergraduate students Reducing use of paper forms, automated inclusion of form to students’ online dean’s file, immediate notification when processed Allowing A&S to utilize our staff’s amazing talents toward other innovations and processes Improving timeliness of updating the academic record, benefiting students wishing to enroll in restricted classes, and allowing academic advisors the ability to advise students accordingly

Project Inspiration 

  1. Creating a process inclusive and accessible to all undergraduate students due to no longer being required to submit a paper form in person.
  2. Reducing paper waste, automated inclusion of form to students’ electronic dean’s file, immediate notification to student when processed.
  3. Allowing A&S to utilize staff’s amazing talents toward other innovations and processes.
  4. Improving timeliness of updating the academic record, benefiting students wishing to enroll in restricted classes, and allowing academic advisors the ability to advise students accordingly.

What Makes You Happiest about this Project?

Scalability: Not only have we realized operations improvement for A&S staff and students, but we have also been contacted by other colleges on campus with interest in potentially implementing the same process for their units. In addition, a similar process improvement built off of the A&S/RO project was implemented by campus for processing Intrauniversity transfers (IUT) for students requesting to declare, drop or change from one college, school or program on campus to another. Maximizing Staff Resources & Talents: Allowing staff to use their time more efficiently. Improving student success: “Student Success is Our Success”.