Portal Growing Pains: Aligning to Your Institutional Goals

William P. WilsonDirector, IT Strategic Planning & AssessmentMark AlbertWeb Programmer/Analyst

Institutional Goals

Overview Exemplary Use of Technology

First-Year Orientation Support Life-Long Connections

Career Connections Classroom Connections

Student Services

Gettysburg Portal History

Launched in 1997 for students, employees, and faculty

Alumni added in 1998 Parents added in 1999 Accepted students in 2001 Applicants in 2002

Orientation Process

IT recognized First Year Orientation process as a candidate for change

Approached College Life with concept of electronic forms and information

Convinced Office of Student Activities and First-Year Programs to try web-based forms on a trial basis. Paper formed mailed with an web option.

First-Year Orientation

Goals for 2004 Web-based forms as option for paper (10

forms) Web-based forms automatically populate

fields we already had information for Increase accuracy, improve participation

rates (e.g., Volunteering), get 60% returned electronically, more timely access to information to offices

Customer Concerns

IT would not be ready in time It was new and therefore scary Office was convinced web-based was the

way to go but felt students would be slow to adopt this approach resulting in more data-entry for the staff

IT Sales Pitch

Pre-populated data where available provided better data and service

More web-based than paper More timely reporting of data Better data (fewer data entry issues) Forms located in portal that students

were already using for other communications

Orientation 2004

Mailing sent to all new students in May with a June 20th deadline

Packet contained Five required forms

Course Registration, Advisor Letter, Housing, Grade Report, Advising Worksheet

Nine optional formsVolunteer Day, Ascent Trip, Music Interest, Purchase options including t-shirt, newspaper, and more

Orientation 2004 Results 98% of forms returned via web More forms submitted by deadline Higher participation in optional activities Data reporting became more timely Integrated Credit Card payment option

increased revenue Trust established & improved process

Orientation 2005

No paper forms Would use data to populate our ERPs Collect more information Better reporting Improved user interface More campus-wide involvement

spearheaded by College Life

Orientation 2005 Changes

100% web-based forms Cost savings in form printing allowed for

upgraded quality of printing of other materials

Increased communications with College Life and new students because of web-integrated communications within the module – including Instant Messaging

Campus Benefits

Students use the portal for more things during the summer, reducing training needs

Information to offices sooner Provided an impetus for better business

process for data collection Student use of College e-mail prior to

arrival on campus

Student Satisfaction

I really enjoyed sending my forms on-line because then I didn't have to face the frustrations of papers being here, there, and everywhere. I thought the way the forms were organized was wonderful and it was really easy to figure out how to fill them in.

It was really easy to fill out the forms and was really well planned out and simple.

Overall, I found CNAV to be easy to use and very convenient. It is a much better alternative to paperwork.

Student Criticism

Make the online registration for classes easier to navigate and understand.

Please make it more Firefox compatible. I had a lot of problems saving forms, etc.

There were a lot of technical problems at first and it was frustrating when the site wasn't running at the time they said and I was not able to get some of the forms, but all of the tech people were very helpful and encouraging.

Orientation Overall Results

Increase in participations 2003-2005 Ascent Trips: up 75% Senate T-shirts: 28% 64% Charge Authorization: 60% 80%* Music Interest: 3% 23% GIV Day: 34% 57% Newspaper Subscriptions: 9% 26% Yearbook added 2005 56 orders

Highlights

Went from scary experiment to integrated with College processes

Changed communications model between first-year students and office

Model of non-IT unit seeing benefits and allocating resources to do some of the work

Achieved IT goals of partnering, improving a process, display intelligent use of tech

Other Strategic Initiatives

Other offices with strategic implications also contacted us (vs the Orientation model of IT going to them)

One such strategic direction was the call to find ways to keep our alumni in a life-long relationship with the College

So, when Career Development approached us, we came up with …

Career Connections

Idea was to have parents and alumni volunteer as mentors to current students

Volunteer for various activities (e.g., shadowing, resume review)

Selected students search for mentors based on location, profession

Career Connection Results

160 students participating 83 volunteers contacted by students More than 230 volunteers have

expressed interest in participating Improved process for alumni and parents

to volunteer

Classroom Connections

Similar program to partner parents and alumni with faculty

Enrich the classroom Maintain strong connections to

Gettysburg

Classroom Connection Results

Soft-launch early 2005 Over 70 volunteers to date, with very little

advertising No end results yet; waiting for Provost on

how to introduce this resource to the faculty.

Strong Student Services

Services and FAQs Timesheet (1800+ active users) HelpDesk and Inventory Dining Balances Psychology 101 experiment module

e-Portfolio

Fall 2004 – college implemented new curriculum

Required postings in an e-Portfolio Letter to First-Year Advisor (FYReg) First-Year writing Social Science, Natural Science, Art, and

Humanities Capstone Cluster

Current Work

Portal Integration with Web Chose open-source CMS Work with developer to modify it for our

web and portal Allows for some CRM features Launch in January 2006