Component
1: Strengthening Student Information Systems
Component
1 will occur during Years 1-2 of the project.
As
detailed in the Comprehensive Development Plan, SEARK College’s
student information system is obsolete, difficult to operate, maintain
and administer, and incompatible with current technologies, making
our delivery of information-based services such as advising, early
alert / referral, and progress tracking nonexistent or ineffective.
The College proposes to purchase and implement a new relational
database system for student and related information needs.
The
complete Student Information System will include components for
student information and reporting. The student information component
will store and track data on all students enrolling at the College
such as student names and contact information, enrollment, transcript
data, financial information (including tuition, fees, and applications
and awards of aid) assessment and placement data, advisement information,
progress tracking/referral information, and related information.
The reporting component will include a query system to retrieve
information on course and program enrollment and student success
to aid in program evaluation and decision-making.
The goals for the Student Information System include:
To utilize technology that is current yet proven (to ensure support
and cost effectiveness).
To utilize technology that has widespread acceptance (market share)
to improve the College’s ability to obtain qualified personnel
for technical support and enable the College to customize existing
capabilities and create new functions of the system.
To utilize technology that is generally compatible with other
related technologies to enable the use of additional application
programs with the system.
To utilize a system that has sound Internet capabilities, i.e.,
to be able provide for a browser interface for staff access and
online registration and enrollment in courses for students.
To maximize the use of “open source” technology (free)
in order to minimize the College’s future expenses.
To support the delivery of effective information-based student
services that improve retention and graduation, including advisement,
progress tracking, early alert / intervention, degree audit, and
financial aid information.
In
addition to this system, the College proposes to build an additional
instructional program assessment system. As described in the CDP,
SEARK College has instituted a formal assessment program whereby
all courses and programs are required to develop instruments and
standards to determine whether students are indeed acquiring course
competencies. For example, the assessment system will collect and
compile data revealing the extent to which nursing students are
demonstrating the competencies tested in the nursing licensure examination
or computer networking students are demonstrating the competencies
required to pass the CompTIA Network+ certification exam. While
this assessment process is invaluable in evaluating and improving
instruction, it produces a voluminous amount of data and has special
information analysis and evaluation requirements. No vendor-supplied
products address SEARK College’s needs in this area, and so
we propose to build the system internally.
STATUS
At the end of Year 1 (Sept. 30, 2004), Southeast Arkansas College had made great progress toward the completion of Component 1. A product and vendor had been selected and the products installed and configured. The products are the Colleague and WebAdvisor systems from Datatel, Inc. of Fairfax, Virginia. The college had purchased three major components of these systems: Finance, Human Resources/Payroll, and Student system. The Finance system went live in July 2004. The Human Resources/Payroll is scheduled to go live in December 2004 with the Student system is scheduled to go live in the spring of 2005.
