Portal to the Rescue: First Year Information

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Portal to the Rescue: First-Year Information

William P. Wilson, PhDDirector of Web Technology

S. Mark SikesDirector, Student Activities & First-Year Programs

Gettysburg College

Context of Problem Gettysburg College mails 11-12 forms

to matriculated students end of May Receive those forms throughout the

summer Distribute copies or excel reports of

those paper forms to departments needing the information (e.g., registrar, housing, Music, Student Senate, College Bookstore)

Issues with Existing Process Keeping track of form submission;

some duplicates crept in Getting information in timely manner Reading information on forms Rekeying of information by summer

employees for use in other offices Required students to write name,

address, phone, etc on all 11 forms – data we already knew about them

IT Suggested Improvements Replace paper process with electronic

forms and pre-populating forms with data we already know

Provide tools to administrators for them to see their own data, edit it if needed

Provide real-time reports Integrate into our portal to allow for

proper personalization

Office of First Year Programs Actions

Accept recommendations of IT, but replicate the paper forms and paper will also be sent to students

Student employees convert all paper submissions to electronic form so other improvements (e.g., reporting) will be available.

Required fields check, support credit card and check payment options

Goals

60-70% electronic returns Show intelligent use of College data

to students and their families Provide data to offices in a more

timely, cleaner manner Get new students used to interacting

with the campus portal, campus email Reduce training time once on campus

Timeline

Started consulting with offices in February

Coding began in March Iterations in April Testing in May Launched end of May Report writing throughout summer

Design Considerations Incremental saving of form information Upon final submission, forms locked and

available in read-only format Replicate paper form as much as possible

but eliminate fields we already have data for

Personal information that is different from what we have is flagged and reported to office responsible for that data

Easily accessible technical help and FAQs Integrate two other systems seamlessly

Sample Forms

Sample Forms

Outcomes 97% electronic submission Improved business process with the on-

demand reports More participation in programs in the forms

(volunteer day, optional trips, t-shirt purchase, subscriptions)

Impress families with support when needed Provided a mechanism to use our data

intelligently – Advising an example

Integrate Data in New Ways

Where we go from here …

Go fully electronic, paper forms on request

Take advantage of electronic format and improve design

Additional reporting requirements Better integration with our ERP

systems

Conclusions

Good collaboration More confidence in technology

solutions in this area All goals met or exceeded

Training reduced CNAV use increased Students/parents impressed with service Offices pleased with results