IT Study Group
Contents
Group Members
- abarbier@colum.edu
- dnoffs@colum.edu
- mmarquardt@colum.edu
- kwalters@colum.edu
- mcohen@colum.edu
- lminsky@colum.edu
- ahill@colum.edu
- crasinariu@colum.edu
- kellyzea228@sbcglobal.net
Area #9: Academic Portal
IN PROGRESS...GO TEAM!
Question #1:
In general, describe the institution’s use of academic portal technology. What are the primary services (e.g., calendaring, email, library systems, online learning, course materials) delivered to users via the portal?
Response:
Students: OASIS (Jenzabar ICS Product) Student registration, add, drop, withdraw from courses, course search, view academic record, view grades, run degree audit, view/update emergency contact information, view immunization, view previous educational information, access the National Student Clearinghouse for enrollment and degree verificaitons, view registration holds, view financial aid, view/pay bill, view student-worker payroll info, take online quizzes/exams, download syllabus, download coursework, post to forums, email faculty/classmates (Mike M.). Moodle: Coursework, Online course management tools, gradebook, blogs, wikis, FORUMS etc... The Loop: A new tool used on campus for calendaring and event management (David).
Faculty: OASIS: View faculty schedule, view/print class list, enter grades, upload course materials, setup online quizzes/exams, take attendance, email class, post to forums, post course information, upload syllabus, view course evaluation stats. For advising specifically, in addition to all of the above, we access the OASIS "client" (a different view from the portal, with a separate login) to clear students' holds who are out of academic compliance once they have been appropriately counseled; to change students' majors, minors, concentrations, focus, and catalog year, as appropriate; to view students' registration history; and to create "subaudits" (degree audit/advising guide).Moodle: Coursework, Online course management tools, gradebook, blogs, wikis, FORUMS etc... (David, Marvin, Mike M).
Many departments require some form of clearance via Oasis of all students at some point--even those who are not out of compliance--to ensure that they come for advising with faculty members.
Also here's what is says on OASIS:
The official campus portal of Columbia College Chicago. Oasis allows students to view course catalogues, register for classes, pay their bills, complete coursework, including online assignments, and see their grades. Faculty can use Oasis to post syllabi, handouts, bookmarks, reading assignments and maintain online gradebooks. In addition, Oasis contains a variety of useful tools such as an Online Advising Guide, Campus Group setup, Announcements, Calendars and many other features."
(Larry)
Staff: IRIS: through which faculty and staff can set up communication systems, store private documents, access email off campus, view their paychecks and personal information, etc. This portal is only used by faculty and staff and does not have anything to do with the OASIS portal. It requires a different logon from OASIS (Keri).
Institutional Advancement I understand that they have their own system for tracking potential donors and other work that they do, but I do not know much about it. (Larry)
I’m not aware of a calendaring service, there is email but a different system for students than for faculty and staff (why?), the library seems to maintain a completely distinct system from that used for classes. There is an opportunity to supply course materials but there are so many other problems with the Oasis system that this opportunity is largely under utilized (anecdotal) (Annette)
Email: Google mail for students and Exchange (colum.edu accounts) for staff and faculty
Question #2:
To what extent is the portal comprehensive? And, do users rely upon the system in a significant manner? Are they required to use the portal for certain services?
Response:
Students are required to use the portal to add, drop or withdraw from classes, pay their bill, update their address and emergency contact information. Faculty are required to post their syllabi (Mike M). Faculty are also required to use Oasis to post grades and provide clearance of students after an advising session. (Larry)
The questions are also so broad that to answer them conscientiously would require a great deal of work and presumes a breadth of knowledge possibly beyond most users (Annette).
I think that the Oasis portal is very comprehensive. Students rely almost totally on it for registration, add/drop, and withdrawal. Very few of these transactions are done on paper anymore. They are required to use the portal for these services, but there are always occasions when, for a variety of reasons, the transactions have to be done in the Records Office by filling out a form. These manual transactions are only a tiny fraction of the whole. Last month, 25% of the transcript orders came through the Clearinghouse transcript ordering service. The only way faculty can obtain a class list is off the web. The Records Office does not print them. They also must use the web for grading. There are always a few who submit a paper grade roster, but they are again a tiny percentage. The Registrar wants students to be able to order transcripts through the Oasis site, with their user ID and password as authentication so that a signature is not required. The drawback of the Clearinghouse site is that students still have to print out a signature form, sign it, and fax it back to the Clearinghouse. IT has been asked for a quote on the cost for this custom (Marvin).
We rely on the portal for many purposes. It is very comprehensive, but more features could be added, and current features could be improved upon. Its most important function is registration. It is used as our exclusive way to register students. Secondly, it is used for financial purposes. Students view and pay their bills through the portal. And third, for grade reporting purposes. Students view their grades only through the portal (they are not delivered through any other method) (Keri).
Users must use the portal for a variety of services ranging from gathering information, academic, to administrative and budget. The problem I see with the portal is not its comprehensiveness, but rather the difficulty of finding the relevant information. The portal could use an advanced search engine. (Constantin)
What's significant with our responses is that we're not talking about the classroom experience. Beside the required grading and advising clearance, my sense is that Oasis is not being used by faculty to enhance their teaching. Many tools are available on Oasis, but using them is cumbersome and slow (at least that's the perception). (Larry)
Question: We are only talking about Oasis here? Do we need to explore Iris? I only check Iris to see if my paychecks are correct and don't know enough about it, but it seems that most back-end work at Columbia is done through that portal. (Larry)
Question #3:
What kind of security/authentication is associated with the portal? Does it provide single sign-on capability?
Response:
A student only needs one sign-on, from what I am aware. As a staff member, I am required to remember 3 different logons: one for OASIS, one for the OASIS "client," and one for IRIS. The "client" password is forcibly changed very often (Keri).
The OASIS academic portal requires a user to sign in. It uses Microsoft’s ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode) for authentication. Currently, there is no single sign-on to this academic portal, however there is single sign-on capability for students once signed into the portal. There is a third-party application the college uses for student billing and student account payments. Once the student authenticates into OASIS, all they do is click on a link that authenticates them to this 3rd party. Student workers can also access the college’s payroll system (Peoplesoft) via signal sign-on to view their payroll information (pay stubs)(Mike M).
Students who request a verification or transcript through the Clearinghouse must sign into their site. The only problem is that students use their birth date as their password when they initially get access to Oasis. We do not force them to change it. This is a violation of FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). Because parents obviously know the student’s birth date, they can access the student’s records if they have the Oasis number. A complaint was filed with the Family Policy Compliance office, which administers FERPA, by a student at another school, and the office has issued a statement that using the birth date, and not requiring a forced password change, is a violation. Bernadette McMahon states that this change is coming in a few weeks (Marvin).
Oasis, IRIS, and e-mail all require different sign-ons and we can't go back and forth. (Larry)
Moodle currently requires a username and password that is separate from Oasis. We are working on tying this in to ADAM, so users can use their OASIS ID and password. The IRIS Password system is currently the strongest system we seem to have (David).
Obviously, we have several different systems each with its own sign on (Annette).
Question #4:
What kinds of transactions can be processed through the portal in an electronic manner?
Response:
Bill pay; registration; course authorization; clearing student holds; grade entry; attendance entry; comments entry; change in major, concentration, focus, minor, and catalog year; posting of handouts and syllabi; exam records entry (Keri).
Registration Add/Drop Withdrawal from classes Address changes Request for verifications (National Student Clearinghouse site) Transcript ordering (National Student Clearinghouse site) - NOTE: the link to the Clearinghouse Transcript Ordering Service is not on the Oasis portal but on the Records Office Transcript Page on the college website Grading (faculty)(Marvin).
“Transactions” seems a strange word to use here. Maybe “What can be done using the on line systems”. Unless we are really asking for financial transactions, class transactions (again, a strange word to apply here) (Annette). I agree that this is a poorly worded questions; I think that they're trying to get at "class" transactions, which seems to be minimal because people have trouble with the system. Also, do we need to talk about the "transactions" that take place via IRIS; outside of academics, that portal seems to be the one that supports the "business transactions" of Columbia. (Larry)
There are no electronic financial transactions processed directly through OASIS. Students access OASIS to pay their bill electronically but get redirected to a third-party payment vendor. Payments are then processed in batch once per day. Other payments can be made electronically for things such as housing deposit, admission application fee, transcript fee, etc through Columbia’s main website (Mike M).
Question #5:
To what extent has the portal been branded with the institution’s look and feel? How easy is it to navigate? From a usability standpoint, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the portal?
Response:
Creative and Printing Services have branded the Oasis and Moodle portals, although the Oasis portal is difficult to brand due to the .Net architecture. The Loop portal is also branded and easy to navigate. We tried to create a colored tab system, but could not use the style sheets as it "broke" Oasis (David).
The OASIS portal is branded with an approved logo (created and approved by Creative & Printing Services) and uses colors from the colleges approved color pallet. In general, seems relative easy to navigate however there are areas you cannot simply ‘go back’ to the previous page. You need to start over from the beginning (course search)(Mike M).
It does not seem to be branded with the institution's look and feel. It looks like it could be anyone's portal. It feels very "corporate." Students report to me that it is difficult to navigate. The text of key items to click on ("log off" and "register for classes" for example) is in small font and hard to find. It is also difficult to navigate because students cannot view their current schedule side by side when looking for another class. When registering, students are forced to keep clicking back and forth to see if a course they are considering conflicts with another course already on their schedule. This is the number one complaint we hear from students. Additionally, the advising guides are not reader-friendly. Students tell us all the time that the web view (through the portal) of these guides is difficult to read. It is text-heavy and the design is poor. Students don't understand the different boxes. It could really benefit from a designer's eye (Keri).
I really don't think that OASIS is well branded as "Columbia" (colors, design, and font) and does not support the brand: Columbia is positioning itself as being a leader in art and media education, but the Oasis is clearly not a leader in look, functionality, and innovation (Columbia's tag). Oasis also does not support providing an innovative educational experience for our students. As for branding/design, the following direct quote from a student says it best: "Since it (Columbia) is an art and design kind of school, Oasis should look just as good as the Columbia website. They have amazing and bright print materials and main website but then oasis is boring and all one color. It just doesn't fit with everything else." Another student said, "The appearance of OASIS is not visually stimulating at all, especially when compared to the Columbia website. The site is not easy to navigate or useful as a classroom tool; in fact most teachers don't use it at all, so most students I know only use it to register for classes and check their schedule. This semester none of my teachers have even posted the class syllabus or update the attendance record and last semester only one of my professors actually used the site the way it's supposed to be used. That's discouraging for students." (Larry)
I think the Oasis portal is fairly easy to navigate but could look better. The strengths are that it is easy to navigate. The only weakness I can report is how the system slows down during orientation when a large number of students are trying to register for the same classes (Marvin). A weakness is the inability to indicate to faculty or staff who are in a student's record, that the student has requested "Disclosure Refusal" through the Records Office. This means that the student has filed a form to indicate that he does not want any information, even directory information (Family Eductional Rights and Privacy Act), to be released to anyone. There is no method of doing this in the Oasis portal and faculty are not aware of the student's request.(Marvin)
Question #6:
To what extent is the portal used in contrast with other delivery mechanisms (e.g., in-person service)?
Response:
We deliver much of our information via the web for IAM, but struggle with individual student communication as many don’t use their loop account. But again, to make a meaningful response, each of these questions would have many subquestions and should be supported with data. Eg., How many students have seen an advisor this semester vs. had an email or phone contact with a faculty or staff? (Annette)
For registration, add/drop and withdrawal the portal is used 99.5% of the time. For grades, the same ratio. Verifications – the portal is used 2% for verification. This service is not very popular. 98% of the verifications are done in person or by fax or mail from the student Transcript ordering – 25% of transcripts are ordered through the Clearinghouse, 75% in person, by fax or mail. (Marvin)
The portal works for processes such as bill pay and registration. It does not, and should not, replace face to face interactions, such as advising, counseling, and teaching. (Keri)
My sense is that faculty try to use Oasis as little as possible, except when required for posting grades and such. I know that Oasis has a lot of features, but it's just not intuitive and easily useable for the bulk of our faculty. (Larry)
Question #7:
To what extent is the institution able to create “channels” of information that are pushed to various groups/individuals?
Response:
Messages/broadcasts can be created by the portal administrator that can be targeted to various groups (i.e. students, faculty, staff) which they see as they log into OASIS. Announcements can also be posted and directed to particular users.(Mike M)
This has not really happened via the portal necessarily. We have a new newsletter called the Loop that can target specific audiences and electronically send information. I believe it is a "shadow" system used in conjunction with the Jenzabar product. This area needs improvement. I also think we can do a better job of maintaining a "web" of electronic information about individual students that goes beyond grades, transcripts, and directory information. I would envision that this "web" would be accessible by college officials across campus and could include richer information about students including career goals, behavioral or disciplinary files, personalized 4-year plans, and faculty concerns or accolades, for example. This would help us to be on the "same page" across campus and do a better job responding to students who are experiencing difficulties or "at risk." Also, if this system were not just passive (like "comments" in OASIS) but actually pushed the information to the appropriate campus resource, when appropriate, that would be ideal. (Keri)
As Keri has stated above, the Loop appears to be the best tool for doing this. In fact, the Loop is a more robust system than people realize and can be used to manage events and to target specific campus groups for those events. Announcements in Oasis tend to be ignored or just "lost in the portal". (David)
Question #8:
To what extent are users able to personalize the delivery of the content that is delivered to them through the portal?
Response:
Students can access their own academic information. Faculty can obtain their own class lists and grade rosters.(Marvin)
I am not sure. My impression is that it is not highly personalized.(Keri)
Oasis allows some customization of content delivery via portlet management, but it is very difficult to do if you have not read documentation or attended trainings. Moodle is much easier and more "intuitive". Departmental wikis allow content to be customized by users very easily.(David)
Question #9:
Is the portal available 24x7, 365 days per year? If not, why? Response:
Other than planned, required maintenance and/or unexpected hardware failure, the OASIS portal servers are up and running at all times.(Mike M)
Yes, except when it "crashes" during heavy registration times, in which case it operates very slowly and sometimes not at all. (Keri)
Yes it is available all the time. I am always amused at the time of day faculty submit grades. I receive an e-mail when they submit grades and some of them are at 3 AM.(Marvin)
This may seem amusing on the surface but is actually not very fun to live out. It means that many of us are so overwhelmed with administrative and other duties that the only time we have available to tend to our courses, presumably the center of our academic life, is in the middle of the night.(Annette) It's also when Oasis is not overwhelmed by lots of users, so it is slightly faster than it's traditional snail's pace. (Larry)
This has been the area of greatest frustration for Oasis users, as it seems to crash or timeout or generate annoying ICS error pages (lines of technical data for programmers or IT staff that users should not be seeing) too often and at the worst times. Although Oasis has been more stable over the past year, with improvements to the way it handles traffic through multiple servers, it's past performance and reputation precedes it, with many potential users seeking alternative delivery and content software. (David)
Here's what is currently posted on Oasis:
"The Advising Guide is currently experiencing technical problems so we have temporally disabled this feature. We are working with the software vendor to resolve these problems and will post another message when the Advising Guide is available again. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
ATTENTION: Some of the features in OASIS will not be available beginning Friday, April 18 at approximately 6:00pm due to system maintenance. The maintenance should be completed by late Sunday evening, April 20. For more detail about what will and will not be affected by the maintenance, please see the Announcement titled: System Maintenance
Thank you for your patience and understanding."
In other words, to answer the question, no. And this is during registration when students and faculty need the guide the most. As for other portals:
Over Thanksgiving week, the wifi went out on the 8th floor of the 624 South Michigan Avenue building. The person at information help desk told me that it could not be reset because the person with the access had gone on vacation. And it took more than a week after that to get it reset. In corporate America, this would have been re-set within ½ a day. What other institution could get away with such inefficiency? Especially since student rely on the ability to get online to do their school work.
Then, a few weeks back, I lost all of my emails (both sent and received) on the Columbia Exchange (right before I went to class, they were there, but when I returned from class, they were gone). It took the help desk ½ a day to get back to me to tell me that “yes, indeed, your emails are missing” and that it would take them up to a week to get them back. I still haven't gotten it back.
(Larry)
Question #10:
Do various departments operate independent portals/websites? If so, how does the institution help ensure seamless access to various information resources? How many portals does the institution operate?
Response:
The serena collage system has been applied to all departmental websites to achieve a certain level of standardization. Some departments offer a great deal more via the web, and this individual initiative should be encouraged and supported. (Annette)
This is a very serious problem across Columbia. Yes, we as an institution have a history of departments managing their own information and that includes their own websites. There is a lot of duplicating of information, but that information is not always consistent, depending where you look. This is a serious issue that requires oversight, especially where college policies and curriculum are listed in multiple places. (Keri)
Some departments operate independent portals/websites. These are primarily controlled by each department as for content and access.(Mike M)
I know that some department's and individual courses are now even starting to launch My Space pages and some departments have blogs. (Larry)
Question #11:
What content management systems are in place for the portal? How is information kept up to date?
Response:
Serena Collage is the College’s content management system. It is used to manage the content on the College’s website.(Mike M)
The only information I change on the Oasis portal is messages to students on the registration pages. Mike Marquardt does this for me. I use Serena Collage to make changes on the Columbia website.(Marvin)
A lot of departmental information on the Columbia website is not kept up-to-date and I've heard grumbling (true or not) that it's hard to get the access to change it. (Larry)
Question #12:
Please provide a technical description of the portal (e.g., uPortal, Oracle portal, SharePoint).
Response:
Jenzabar Internet Campus Solution portal. Version 6.4 SP2 HF6. Written in .net (Mike M)
Moodle v 1.8 (Open Source). Serena Collage (5.13) (David)
Question #13:
On a scale of 1 – 100, with 100 being an ideal score, how do you rate your overall satisfaction with the institution’s academic portal?
Response:
Mike M - 90
I would give it an 80. I think it has improved our systems at the college much more than it has hindered us, but I think there is room for improvement in some key areas, mentioned above. (Keri)
I really think this does not work as a question without breaking down the various (many) systems, each of which might have quite a different rating.(Annette)
Oasis – 85% (Marvin)
Oasis - 79 (David)
Oasis - 10. The LMS is clumsy and difficult to use, the grade book is useless (not reflecting the grading scale of Columbia), there is no connection between the grading book and the portal for grade entering, etc..(Constantin)
Oasis - 10. It's a joke compared to what is out there today. It might have been the best solution when Columbia selected it and it corrected lots of wrongs, but it is hard to use for students (unhappy students = unhappy faculty) and it's clumsy and slow for us, because it is not intuitive. Here are some commests from students:
"The most frustrating thing about Oasis (aside from it being so unbearably slow) is how difficult it is to navigate. There is nothing intuitive about it's format. The font is too small, I don't understand why certain tools have been assigned to the headings they are under, and it's generally an awkward system to use."
Another quote:
"In regards to the Advising Guide on Oasis, I have to admit I've had problems with the service in the past. On a few occasions I have pulled up the guide only to be told I needed to complete classes I had already taken or a level I had already taken. I was lucky to have caught the mistake when it came to the level because I would have registered for a class I didnt need."
Another student quote:
"I don't really consider OASIS an academic portal because I usually don't have the opportunity to use it that way. I just use it for registration."
Based on the comments throughout this document, the ratings in this section, and what I've heard through the halls, it seems that our colleagues in administrative functions are satisfied with Oasis while those in faculty positions are not. It's not that one group is right and the other is wrong. I think it's more that Oasis better supports the needs of back-end administrators rather than the needs of faculty and students.
(Larry)
Average score for Oasis portal= 55%
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