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North Shore Community College: Blueprint for Technology Implementation
2/12/2002
Before moving forward with the implementation, college officials first determined
how they wanted the overall system to function. The team decided that Campus
Pipeline's platform with the Banner Web-for-Student product would be used
initially to provide inquiry access to schedules, transcripts, student billing
status, hold information, and financial aid status.
Officials also decided they would implement the platform initially only for
students taking a credit course, because that student population is more stable.
Non-credit students would be added to the system but only after implementing
the Web payment module.
College administrators had to decide how students would gain access to their account information, deciding ultimately that they did not want to have to distribute mailings with user name and password information. The decision was made to build a front-end account activation form.
To handle account activation errors, administrators knew that they would have to expand the number of NSCC staff who could assist students with account issues. To address the problem of providing phone support and to quickly identify any account problems, a custom Banner form was developed to assist in identifying students over the phone and to organize information they provided upon activating their Campus Pipeline account.
The college used Novell Inc.'s GroupWise for e-mail, shared calendars, shared distribution lists, etc. NSCC decided that the Campus Pipeline e-mail system would serve as the core e-mail system for its students and adjunct faculty. Full-time faculty and staff would continue to have GroupWise accounts and have the option to integrate their GroupWise e-mail into the Campus Pipeline mail facility through IMAP.
Because students, faculty, and staff needed to have access to services at all times, NSCC installed a gas-generated uninterruptible power supply system to provide unlimited power for all systems and communication hardware in the event of power disruptions. The college also increased help desk hours and launched a system to remotely monitor all critical systems and services to notify IS staff via e-mail and wireless phones in the event of a failure.
NSCC officials said they have seen tangible results following the technology implementation. For instance, before integrating the Web platform, students could expect to wait in registration lines the length of a football field. Since the introduction of online registration through the platform, lines have been virtually eliminated.
To date, more than 8,500 students have activated their Campus Pipeline accounts, and within 15 months, more than 90 percent of registrations were completed via the Web. Early registrations for the spring 2002 semester have increased by 29 percent from the previous year and 40 percent overall since the implementation.
The Campus Pipeline Web Platform automatically creates and updates class e-mail distribution lists for faculty members as students register online, enabling professors to easily communicate with students. In addition, the Web platform creates course resource areas for each class so faculty members can provide class links and make syllabi and class notes available to students before classes begin.
Another major outcome: "We have seen a spike in the number of faculty interested in taking advantage of Web-learning tools since the implementation," said Phillip Sbaratta, NSCC's assistant dean of academic technology and distance learning. "Once they become comfortable with the portal and its functionality, it's a short hop to teaching a Web-assisted or fully online course. The impact of the portal is greater connection between faculty and students and a focus on curriculum transformation."
For more information, visit pyramid.nscc.mass.edu.
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