U Penn Turns to Business Process Software for Grade Change Update

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 05/08/20

Like many institutions hit by quick-changing plans brought on by COVID-19, the University of Pennsylvania announced in March that it would shift to virtual instruction for all classes, beginning on March 23. Shortly after, the institution also told students they could opt in to receive pass/fail grades as a replacement for traditional A-F grades.

Behind the scenes, however, the university's Information Systems & Computing (ISC) department had to work with the Office of the University Registrar to set up a way for students to request that change for their spring term classes, interactions that had to be done remotely.

The school turned to BP Logix, which produces business process management software. Using the company's program, Process Director, IT staff created a digital form and workflow process to move off of paper forms and audit trails. The software uses a "low-code," drag-and-drop process to facilitate the integration of applications, automate the connection of data from multiple sources and set up a workflow.

"Our form provides a list of the student's courses which qualify for changes, prompts the student based on the existing grade type and routes their request to the appropriate school registrar for processing," explained IT Technical Director Isobel Thompson, in a statement.

Now, said Thompson, "Students are notified when a school acts on the change request, and the registrar gets a PDF copy of the whole transaction."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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