Unified Digital Campus Wharton County Junior College

Unified Digital Campus Wharton County Junior College

Path to Unified Digital Campus • Where we? • Where are we now? • Where are we going in 2004 -2005? • 2006 and later?

Where we? (prior to April 2002)

Older System with Limited Capabilities • “Central Administrative Computer System” with multiple independent databases • HP 3000 (11 years old, unsupported, discontinued by HP) • All registration completed in person on campus (no web registration, no telephone registration) • Only static information on web

Non-integrated MIS • Student system – developed in-house over 20 year period • Payroll system – developed by a consulting firm in the 80’s; maintained in-house • Business Office – Mitchell Humphrey (unsupported and no A/R) • Financial Aid – Computing Options • Human Resources - none

Proprietary Hardware • All systems ran only on Hewlett Packard HP 3000 hardware • The database (Turbo Image) was proprietary to HP 3000 • Reporting tools and other software maintenance cost was based on CPU

Business Office • Paper requisitions • Budget reports for departments printed once a month and distributed by campus mail. • Accounts Receivable on Quickbooks • Printed student bill contained only one term. • Did not have a method to send bills to students • Limited access by budget managers to view accounts online • Limited integration with the Student System and Payroll System

Fixed Assets • Stand alone system on a PC in a DOS d. Base application • No interface with Finance System • Every item purchased that needed to be in the system was hand-entered. • No method for recording depreciation

Registrar’s Office • • • All registration completed in person No web registration No telephone registration Transcripts requested in person Pre-printed an advising transcript and degree audit for advisors • Grade mailers

Financial Aid • Financial Aid Office at the Wharton Campus was the only source of student’s financial aid status • Limited integration with the “homegrown” student system and the finance system. • WCJC scholarships not dynamically linked with students’ enrollment

Human Resources • Everything maintained by hand. • Attempt at creating a Micro. Soft Access system. Never fully functional. Never maintained.

Budget Development • In-house written system supported by Institutional Research • Static link to Payroll • No link to Accounting System. All budgets had to be entered by hand into the Accounting System.

Planning and Assessment • System developed and supported by the Institutional Research Office. • Existed on a stand-alone PC • Annual updates for each department had to be hand-entered in the IR Office. • Only access was through printed reports.

Documentation for Users • Registrar’s Office – no documentation or training materials • Financial Aid Office – vendor documentation only • Finance Office – vendor documentation only except for year-end closing • Fixed assets – vendor documentation • Payroll Office – none • Purchasing (shining star) – well maintained procedures manual

Feb 2002 Beginning of Project WOW! – WOW! Wharton On the Web Motto: “Whatever it take” Board approved – Purchase of SCT Banner and Oracle Database – Purchase of HP 9000 server and other required hardware

Acceleration April 2002 WCJC becoming an Unified Digital Campus • • Hardware installed Oracle database installed SCT Banner System installed Training from Hewlett Packard on HP-ux for technical staff (Unix operating system) • Start of functional and technical training for Banner from SCT

Timelines Met Implementation (Windows of Opportunity) • September 1, 2002 – Finance • January 1, 2003 – HR/Payroll • February 20, 2003 – Financial Aid • June 23, 2003 – Student and A/R Upgrades • December 6, 2003 - Oracle 8 i to Oracle 9 i • February 23, 2004 – Banner 5. x to Banner 6. x

How did we get here so quickly? • The choice of SCT Banner, an excellent integrated software system meeting the needs of the College • Team leadership, hard work, dedication to the College from many, making the implementation successful. • Strong support from the President. • A well-designed network infrastructure that has excellent support from the IT staff • SCT’s commitment to our success

Banner Team Leaders • • • Gus Wessels – Finance Team Conrad Kieler – Payroll Team Judy Jones – Human Resources Team Richard Hyde – Financial Aid Team Albert Barnes – Student Team Bryan Ngo – Database Administrator Dennis Barnes – Technical Team James Bullock – Computer Operations Manger Pam Youngblood – Texas Consortium Beta Testing Coordinator for HR/Payroll State Reports and Institutional Research Team Leader • Bunner Fertsch – Coordinator of Training

Team Members • • • Business Office Staff Registrar’s Office Staff Payroll Office Staff Human Resources Office Staff Programmers Institutional Research Office Staff IT Department Continuing Education Office Staff Student Services Staff including Housing

SCT’s Commitment • • Well-designed methodolgy for implementation More than 25 module-specific list serves Action Web Action Line Texas Consortium Connection Support of SETA (regional users’ groups) Summit Fosters communication with SCT and users

Highlights of improvements in functionality as a result of the implementation April 2002 – June 2003

Purchases • Purchase orders entered on-line by end-users routed through approval queues • Eliminated requisitions by end-users, “lost in campus mail” requisitions, data-entry by Business Office staff. • End-users can track and “push” Purchase Orders through the approval process • Acknowledge receipt of goods can be entered online • Capitalized and computer purchases are automatically added to fixed asset system

Finance End-of-Month Reports • Reports sent to the “e-print” server. • Security in e-print same as in Banner (fundorg-acct-prog) • Budget managers can print, save as PDF, or download into Excel • Can select all, salary accounts only, instructional orgs only, etc.

On-line Queries by End-users • Online queries showing adjusted budget, expenditures, encumbrances, and balance • Budget managers have access to up-to-theminute budget/expenditure information • Has eliminated all except emergency insufficient fund (NSF) over-rides requests

Student Payments • Web-payment with credit card • Student can view charges and their payments over secure website. (dynamic) • Coming in August 2004, payment by personal check on web • Bills are printed with population selection for mailing • Bills show student’s current schedule and full amount owed, even if from previous semester

Students Web • More than 65% of students are registering on the web. • Grades are no longer mailed – available to students on the web. • Dynamic degree-audit for student on web • View catalog description on any course in the schedule • Request an official transcript on the web. It is automatically printed in the Registrar’s Office. • View and print an “unofficial” transcript on the web. Other • Student housing assigned and billed • Only students accepted in an Allied Health program can register for courses in the program.

Faculty and Real-time Class and Student Data on Web • • • Class rolls Student’s schedule Class roster with a student’s phone #’s Student’s degree audit Enter final grades Can post office hours

Students and Financial Aid Office • Students can view their awards on the web • Students can view a checklist of additional information needed from them regarding financial aid • Additional automation of award and other letters to financial aid applicants in progress.

Student Loans by EFT Electronic File Transfer • No more paper checks for Student Loans • Credited to Student Account • Excess will be included in student refund check • Improved tracking of checks and verification by Financial Aid that student is eligible for loan.

Payroll Office All employees can access the web to view or print – Their check history, benefits, retirement, sick leave, vacation, personal days and job information • • 941 Tax Reporting is simplified Direct deposit of payroll checks Vacation days, sick days are automatically tracked Check stub has very detailed information

Human Resources • • Tracking of applicants Each position defined in database Interfaced with budget development As in all Banner modules, excellent control of security of records

Commitments Met • Not hardware vendor dependent. • Robust database with advanced capabilities • No changes were made to base-line Banner in the implementation. • All modules were completed on schedule. • We upgraded and are at the latest version of both Banner and Oracle. • We have training materials developed for all modules and are adhering to our training plan. • High-level of security of the database is maintained. • In-house documentation development continues.

Benefits Realized to Students, Faculty, Administration, Employees, and Job Applicants • • Services available 24/7 from anywhere on web Formerly manual tasks are now electronic More information readily available Increased staff time available to work one-onone with students, faculty, and staff as needed Data entered only one time and shared by many Significant improvement in data integrity Communication Plans developed for modules

More Banner Modules July 2003 -June 2004 • • • Workflow Trac. Dat Planning and Assessment software Strategic Enrollment Management software State Reports Develop local needs reports with new reporting tools – Internal Functional Reports – Reports for decision-making

Workflow • • Electronically automates tasks and flow of information based on user-defined rules. Examples: – – • • Student drops below full-time financial aid, housing, and athletics are notified Coordinate the New Hire Process with HR, Payroll, Security, Office Assignment, Telephone, e-mail, … Reduces processing time, errors, and omissions Facilitate more effective communication campuswide

Assessment and Planning - Trac. Dat • Web based software allows the linking and tracking of College Strategic Goals, college-wide Operational Goals, college-wide Initiatives, and department/office desired outcomes. • Can track planning and assessment at a courselevel if desired • Can link documentation • Can track long-range and short-term projects

Strategic Enrollment Management • Summarizes data to support both point-in-time and longitudinal analyses of enrollment by individual courses, majors and minors, degree programs, and across the institution as a whole. • Enables exploration and identification of critical demand trends, model academic load relationships, forecast expected enrollment outcomes based on recent history, evaluate alternatives, and select the more effective operational alternative.

State Reports • Reports are developed by the Texas Consortium Connection (TCC) • Coordinating Reports for Students and courses CB 1, CB 4, CB 6, CB 8, CB-A, CB-C, CB 2 • State and federal reports for HR/Payroll. WCJC is a beta partner with TCC to develop these reports.

Reports for Local Needs • Reports to check data integrity of data imported from legacy Reports for functional users examples • – – – • Graduation Check course fees Veterans Reports for decision making examples – – Enrollment trend reports to predict number of sections needed at each campus Predict revenue from student tuition/fees for next fiscal year

Implementing Banner Changed our Mind. Set • Increased understanding of the procedures, functions, responsibilities, and inter-relatedness of each of the offices in the Administrative Services area. • We begin looking at other ways to use electronic processes to help us – – – Continue to improve services to students Be more efficient Save on paper and copier costs Provide more timely and complete information to each other Improve communication

College Internet (www. wcjc. edu) • Added instructional department pages to better communicate with current and prospective students • In the process of adding/redesigning administrative pages to provide more complete information • Added a “celebrations” page

Instructional Web Server • Faculty members will have course material available to their students electronically for each of their sections. • Training is starting this summer so that faculty can maintain the instructional pages directly. • Planned to be fully operational for fall 2004.

Use of Intranet • Committee Agendas and Minutes • Forms (travel, equipment repair request, 51 other forms…) • Banner Training Materials • On-line system for work requests to IT • Board of Trustees packets • Reports from Institutional Research Office • Weekly calendar of activities

Eliminated “to everyone” e-mail (almost) Set up e-mail groups for target groups such as • Faculty • Technical Staff • Administrative Staff • President’s Cabinet • Various committees

Monthly Board reports • CD with Board agenda items and financial reports • Financial Summary Report presented with data projector (and also displayed on Board members’ laptop computers)

We have made substantial progress toward our goal of an Unified Digital Campus these past 2 years. But, we are not finished ….

Projects Scheduled for 2004 -05 • Complete EDI. Smart Electronic Transfer of Student Transcripts • Web Admissions for CE Students • Web Admissions for Credit Students • Complete additional workflows • Event Management • Track Student Recruits • Complete Faculty Workload Module

More for 2004 -05 • • Direct deposit of Payroll Checks “Live” Employee Directory on Web Continue training on the use of Trac. Dat Continue setup of meta data for analysis in SEM Master syllabus on web for every course Faculty grade book on web Location Management Continue to develop documentation of standard operation procedures for Banner in each functional office

How will be continue to move forward toward our goal? • Continued strong partnership with SCT • Continued efforts to capitalize on the functionality of Banner. • Continued leadership, hard work, cooperation, communication, and dedication to the College from all team leaders and members • Increased technical knowledge of Oracle, SQL-Plus, web and reporting tools • Stay current with Banner and Oracle upgrades. • Maintain and enhance our network infrastructure.

Future Considerations • “Luminis” is a campus portal system, that provides a single electronic entry-point with comprehensive portal features, applications, and infrastructure to supports student academic and administrative communication contacts including email, targeted announcements, and course management. • SCT Connection for Web. CT supports the faculty’s ability to create and teach customized courses and provide campus and academic information that is accessible 24/7. • These two products are integrated with Banner Student thus assuring privacy and timely information exchange.

Questions or Comments?

Wharton County Junior College • Three primary campuses – Wharton – Sugar Land – Richmond • • Fall 2003 Credit Enrollment – 5, 906 Administration – 38 full-time Faculty – 141 full-time 72 % of sections taught by full-time faculty

Trac. Dat Planning and Assessment Management Software • • • Offers college-wide assessment capabilities and will support the near-automatic generation of academic program planning and accreditation information within a framework for continuous review and quality improvement. At every level of the College, we can define desired outcomes and specify a schedule for review of improvements that are “tracked” over a designated time cycle. Supports academic planning using assessment data for course, curricular, and program improvements. Assessment measures such as teaching effectiveness, learner proficiencies, instructional and clinical accomplishments, and other accreditation and program measures will be related to specific goals, which document progress.