Where can I find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the SIS? (Added: 22 September 2003)
What is the Student Information System (SIS)?
What are some key functions of the SIS?
When will things change?
Why are we changing?
What's going to happen to insite and other services I use?
What about internal departmental systems (shadow systems)?
How will terminology and processes change?
How are we making the transition to the new system?
What about training?
How does functionality of the new system compare with the old system?
Which customizations have been deferred until after the core implementation phase (post-December 2004)? (Added: 5 January 2004)
What is the impact of customizations to maintain necessary functionality?
What basic academic structure functionality is being delivered in the SIS?
What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Academic Advising? (Last updated: 22 September 2003)
What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Financial Aid?
What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Student Financials (Student Accounts)? (Last updated: 25 September 2003)
What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Student Records?
What is Student Enrollment Services (SES) and how does it fit in with SIS?
What is HRMS and how does it fit in with SIS?
What is the IUIE and how does it fit in with SIS?
Where can I find additional information?
Where can I find the answers to the most frequently asked qu
estions about the SIS? (Added: 22 September 2003)
Find the SIS FAQs at http://sisinfo.iu.edu/ . Check back often for updates, changes, and additions.
What is the Student Information System (SIS)?
The Student Information System (SIS) is a new University-wide computing environment for student administration at IU. It is comprised of a) the PeopleSoft student administration software, b) PeopleSoft self-service modules, and c) the IU Information Environment (IUIE) for reporting. The PeopleSoft product includes a database, a Web interface, and software to process student data in an integrated way.
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What are some key functions of the SIS?
The SIS addresses such key functions as student recruitment, admissions, records, registration, grades, transcripts, advising, financial aid, student accounts (bursar), and data analysis and reporting of student-related information.
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When will things change?
The initial implementation phases for SIS dealt with tracking prospective students and admissions processing (implemented October 2001). July 2003 was the start of an 18-month period of phasing in the remaining SIS components. The implementation phases will coincide with the activities of the academic calendar (Schedule of Classes, Academic Advising, Registration, Grade Processing, etc.) The implementation will also include conversion of all existing student records into the new system.
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Why are we changing?
The SIS will improve technical infrastructure, enabling IU to take advantage of integrated processes and streamlined operations. It will provide an information environment (the IUIE) for academic and administrative decision-making with consistent, integrated data, along with the tools for data extraction, analysis, and reporting.
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What's going to happen to insite and other services I use?
During the 18-month implementation period, the SIS Project Team plans to roll out self-service features alongside their associated administrative counterparts. These services will be available in the OneStart Web portal (http://onestart.iu.edu). Functionality that is available today in insite and other online services will be available in the new environment along with new services. However, insite was developed specifically for IU and the use of PeopleSoft will initially be a more generic environment. SIS will continue to provide a secure computing environment with a consistent look, feel, and navigation scheme among the services provided.
A new version of Web registration will be introduced and Web-based fee payment will be added. Touchtone services, which have seen a marked decline in use with the advent of Web-based services, will be retired.
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What about internal departmental systems (shadow systems)?
Departmental systems, which presently house student data from the legacy system (IUIS), will need to be changed to accommodate the new data structures and coding values that will be introduced with the implementation of SIS. For example, the Social Security Number will no longer be the key field in the new system. It will be replaced with the new University ID as the system key (or primary student identifier). Assistance and training on how to change reports to use the new IU Information Environment will be made available.
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How will terminology and processes change?
Specific communication as well as future training sessions will extensively cover the many changes related to terminology and processes utilized by the Indiana University community.
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How are we making the transition to the new system?
As new functionality in SIS is implemented during the 18-month period, legacy systems will not be updated or enhanced for new activities. As specific functionality is implemented in the new system, the associated functions in the legacy system will be retired. In order to avoid building temporary and complicated interfaces between the two systems, there will be some dual data entry for a limited period of time. The SIS Project Team and campus Local Implementation Teams (LITs) are working closely to make this a smooth transition.
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What about training?
Initial training efforts began in April 2003 for targeted audiences. Continuous training activity will occur through October 2004. Formal training and assistance will be available throughout the transition. More specific information about training will be provided throughout the implementation.
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How does functionality of the new system compare with the old system?
Initial analysis of the PeopleSoft product indicated that there were some gaps between current IU business practices and the baseline, unmodified functionality that the new software provides. Through detailed testing, the project team determined that most of these gaps could be solved by using PeopleSoft's delivered functionality, making adjustments to some business practices, or modifying some policies. The remaining gaps will be solved by some form of customization to the delivered software, the development of external processes, or the purchase of additional third party software.
It was originally assumed that IU would implement a baseline, unmodified version of the PeopleSoft application. The goal was to approve only customizations that had academic merit. Through the testing phase, it became clear that IU will also need to make modifications and/or customizations in areas where the application does not meet current requirements or does not comply with other external requirements. Some IU-specific business practices cannot be changed and these will require modifications to the application.
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Which customizations have been deferred until after the core implementation phase (post-December 2004)?
Updated: 15 January 2004
Academic Advising
- Assigning groups of students to academic advisors or faculty based on given criteria.
- Saving and accessing stored “what-if” degree audits. Students and advisors will be able to create “what-if” scenarios for various programs or plans (i.e., schools and majors).
- Tracking advising session information, notes and enrollment planning, and providing university-wide access to notes for advisors.
- Tracking the IU campus e-mail address. IU campus e-mail addresses will not be fed into the SIS database but will be made available in the IUIE.
Financial Aid
Last Updated: 15 January 2004
- Creating a Web page to give users outside Financial Aid the ability to manually create an initial aid application from a snapshot of a student’s records in order to make an award. Initially, aid applications will be loaded by the financial aid office.
- Creating a Web page to give departments outside of Financial Aid the ability to manually enter awards into the system.
- Providing a batch process to load fee remissions.
Student Financials
- Providing 1098T tax reporting transaction detail and totals via self-service.
- Placing a maximum dollar amount on the “course list” fee. The functionality delivered in the SIS assesses a course-related fee each time a student enrolls in a course on a “course list” associated with that particular fee. The modification would be to provide capability to cap the amount assessed.
- Systematically posting adjusting entries for financial aid repayments in the same manner as the old system.
- Systematically recording within the cashiering module the corresponding charge for an over-the-counter purchase (payment). The cashiering component delivered in the SIS provides capability to post only a payment (not a charge). In the old system, charges and payments can be processed using one screen.
- Expediting refund processing within the cashiering module via a link to the appropriate pages.
Student Records
ACE and Waitlist
The primary difference between the old system and the new is the behavior of the waitlist. The old system operated at the course level, while the new system operates at the class, or section, level.
- Providing an “any” waitlist request similar to the one used in the old system will allow students to place the request and to then rely on the waitlist system to match it without any further intervention by the student or scheduling officers. That is, the course does not have to be constantly monitored by the student so that a new waitlist request can be added when new classes are added to the course. In addition, the recommended customization includes the ability to iterate through “dropped” seats within a matching run to ensure optimal opportunity for a student on the waitlist to get a desired seat. The waitlist in the new system will not provide the functionality to iterate through dropped seats in an “any” waitlist.
- Including the time/day restriction for waitlisting. The recommendation above does not include the time/day restriction used pervasively at the IUPUI campus for special courses and course locations. A proposed modification would enable this restriction type as well as, by default and design, enable other types of restrictions that could be placed upon the waitlist request. The waitlist in the new system will not provide the functionality whereby students can define day/time restrictions. They can do “any”, but will have to select each and every section.
- Allowing students to place themselves on the raincheck. In the old system, ACE enables students to place themselves on the waitlist without restriction (an “Any” section of the course request) and if their request is not satisfied that student will receive priority placement in the course in the upcoming semester. A modification would restore this feature.
Other Student Records Functions
- Processing course level authorizations (the current “C” authorization). Authorization in the new system is granted at the class/section level.
- Assigning registration appointment times that are not in conflict with the student’s current class schedule.
- Allowing campuses to enable students to place themselves into a course time conflict (for a variety of reasons).
- Giving admissions update capability (Admissions Revocation). In the SIS, once a student has been matriculated (admitted and term activated for a semester), control of the record moves to Student Records and updates in Admissions are disabled. If the student never registers, or withdraws prior to the start of classes, Admissions may require update capability.
- Certifying students directly to the degree granting unit. On many campuses, students begin their academic career in a non-degree granting unit (e.g., UDIV, UCOL). Based upon various criteria specific to each school, students are certified directly to the degree granting unit. In the SIS, an academic objective (i.e., program/plan) update must occur and this update has associated dependencies (e.g., term activation, etc.). On the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses, this will include greater than 9,000 students. A recommendation has been made to automate the update via a batch job.
- Entering grades directly into the SIS or uploading grades from Oncourse or other specified sources, such as Excel, eliminating hand delivery of documents to campus registrars.
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What is the impact of customizations to maintain necessary functionality?
Each software customization will require additional funds for development work and will require additional ongoing technical and functional resources to essentially re-apply and test these customizations with each new PeopleSoft upgrade or release. In addition to the cost of development and implementation, the number of modifications applied to the system increases the amount of time that is required to accomplish a PeopleSoft upgrade or release. This needs to be seriously considered because upgrades will be required to continue performing normal business functions and therefore must be applied in a timely manner (e.g., tax upgrades, financial aid regulatory releases, etc.).
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What basic academic structure functionality is being delivered in the SIS?
A basic academic structure (information about schools, departments, majors, minors, etc.) was built for the admissions implementation. The structure was built in such a manner as to emulate current IU information and, as much as possible, in accordance with existing IU practices, policies, and procedures. Since the admissions implementation, academic structure has provided a level of functionality that has permitted IU to carry out its admissions tasks. Changes have also been made to academic structure (i.e., additions and deletions of academic programs and plans) through the normal academic channels, the SIS Help Desk, local campus representatives, and the Academic Structure Team (a cross-module service team within the larger SIS Project Team).
The first implementation phase only involved admissions and did not interact significantly with the other areas of SIS. During the final 18-month implementation period, the academic structure directly interacts with the other modules within PeopleSoft (academic advising, student records, financial aid, etc.). Since this requires stability, a request has been made to defer changes in the academic structure until after the implementation period.
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What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Academic Advising?
(Last updated: 22 September 2003)
The SIS will provide a seamless integration of student data between admissions, registrar, faculty, and academic advising. These services include the related areas of transfer credit, test credit, degree audit processing, enrollment and grading, bio-demographic information and more. In addition, it will deliver self service, administrative access to student data, communication tracking, and statistical analysis and reporting capabilities (without requiring the use of the complicated FOCUS query language).
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What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Financial Aid?
The PeopleSoft Financial Aid module provides a broad set of advantages over IU's legacy system. A tightly integrated environment containing all student modules gives the financial aid system direct access to data from the other modules (Campus Community, Admissions, Student Records, and Student Financials). Additionally, PeopleSoft will result in a reduction of development work that IU currently does at the beginning of each year to bring financial aid processing into compliance with new regulations. PeopleSoft will provide annual regulations releases which provide all the federally required changes to the system.
The PeopleSoft Financial Aid module offers a chance to further consolidate business processes into a centralized environment. Using similar tools and methods, the separate institutions (i.e., campuses) can accomplish their goals in a more coordinated fashion while still maintaining separate parameters and codes when necessary to reflect unique campus needs. Although there will be changes to certain financial aid business processes once the PeopleSoft Financial Aid module is implemented, the Financial Aid offices will maintain much of the functionality they now enjoy with the legacy system. Concurrent with the SIS implementation, efforts are being made to standardize and streamline business practices across the campuses.
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What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Student Financials (Student Accounts)? (Last updated: 25 September 2003)
The PeopleSoft Student Financials module offers new functionality in terms of fee assessment, income distribution, multiple adjustment calendars, and administrative options relative to multiple sessions. Fee assessment and income distribution can be tied directly to a course or class (section) if so desired. That capability allows IU to assess separate rates for courses/classes and to distribute course/class income to multiple income accounts. The many options for adjustment calendars accommodate the setup of refund periods associated with a particular career and/or program.
The Student Financials module provides an integrated environment, giving the Student Financials system direct access to data from the other modules (Campus Community, Admissions, Student Records, and Financial Aid).
The PeopleSoft Student Financials module offers an opportunity to standardize bursar operations university-wide while providing the flexibility for campuses to maintain separate parameters and codes when necessary to reflect unique campus tuition and fee rates and structure.
Undoubtedly, there will be changes to certain bursar business processes once the PeopleSoft Student Financials module is implemented. However, the bursar offices will retain almost all the functionality they have with the legacy system.
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What benefits does the SIS offer in the area of Student Records?
The registration/enrollment engine provided to search against the schedule of classes offers more options than the more manual search processes in the legacy environment. For example, in addition to searching for a class by department and subject, a student will be able to search for a class based on a specific class time.
As delivered, PeopleSoft not only calculates a grade point average (GPA) based on the grades from a given term, it also calculates a cumulative GPA at the end of each term. This makes it possible to track GPA progress throughout a student's career. In addition, PeopleSoft delivers the ability to define several types of transcripts to meet a myriad of operational needs. For example, IU can offer graduate students a transcript that reflects only their graduate work, if academic policy is changed to allow this option.
The security and capability exist to distribute grade rosters so that grades may be reported electronically by the faculty A process is also delivered that automatically ages a grade (e.g., incomplete) with little intervention and provides for exceptions. In addition, PeopleSoft will allow IU to better track a student's academic objective history.
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What is Student Enrollment Services (SES) and how does it fit in with SIS?
The deployment of a fully functioning Student Enrollment Services (SES) organization is critical to the success of the SIS project. The SES, along with the support of the various campus departments (registrars, bursars, etc), will take over production support for basic functionality, infrastructure, and data integrity as it is being released. The SES will provide services to support students, faculty, and academic units.
Since the SES will provide functional support relative to the SIS, staff in the SES will be working very closely with University Information Technology Services staff and staff on the campuses that are responsible for providing direct interactions with students, faculty, and academic unit staff. In addition, the SES will provide centralized reporting of student-related information to individual campuses, the University, and external agencies.
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What is HRMS and how does it fit in with SIS?
The Human Resource Management System (HRMS) utilizes human resource software purchased from PeopleSoft. This system shares the same database that is used by the SIS system. As such, SIS development efforts must be coordinated with the HRMS development team as well as the HRMS customer base. For example, the need for current tax upgrades to support the HRMS payroll process will dictate when IU applies patches, fixes, and upgrades.
The HRMS project started in 1997, with the purchase of the PeopleSoft Human Resource applications. In 1998-1999 the SIS project also chose PeopleSoft, and because these two systems share a database, it was necessary to merge the projects.
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What is the IUIE and how does it fit in with SIS?
The Indiana University Information Environment (IUIE) is a Web-based, University-wide reporting application for academic and administrative decision-making with consistent, integrated data, along with the tools for data extraction, analysis, and reporting. The SIS reporting strategy is to follow the long-standing University practice of separating reporting and analysis functions from the operational applications and data. The SIS will use the IUIE for all reporting and analysis needs. The IUIE will replace the legacy environment (the Information Center and its FOCUS reporting tool) and will become the central repository for all student data.
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Where can I find additional information?
Materials outlining SIS activities will be distributed beginning Fall 2003 as implementation begins to have greater impact on campuses, schools, departments, staff, faculty, and students. Additional ongoing communications are also planned.
More detailed project information can be found at the SIS Web site:
http://www.indiana.edu/~hrsis/sis/
On the left navigation pane, under IU Community, click Documents. You will be prompted for your IU Network ID username and password. The Scope documents provide overviews by module.
