Office of the University Registrar

Two applications built upon the UW’s Student Web Services (SWS) infrastructure were highlighted in an article in University Week on April 30. This publicity will introduce the services to a wider University audience and help the tools gain more faculty users.

The article, titled “Two new tools for UW teachers: An online grade book and photos of their students,” discusses the positive impact Web GradeBook and Photo Class Lists have had on academics since their recent launch. It includes some positive feedback from teachers (which was shared in an earlier post on this blog) and impressive use statistics for Web GradeBook.

More importantly, though, the article acknowledges the efforts the Registrar’s office took in keeping sensitive student data secure while enabling it to be “set free,” and highlighting the cross-department nature of the projects. Designing, implementing, sharing, and maintining projects of this scope and importance to the University’s mission takes a coordinated effort, and the Registrar’s office is pleased to be part of the team making it happen.  Other critical members of the team include the Office of Information Management, UW Technology, Learning & Scholarly Technologies — as well as several academic units.

Beginning summer quarter 2009, class lists (both first- and tenth-day) will no longer be printed and distributed to instructors.

Why is the Registrar putting an end to this practice? For many reasons, but primarily because there is—and has been for years—an alternative in place: Class lists can be generated (and printed if desired) right from the “Teaching” tab of MyUW. Printed class lists become out-of-date quickly as students add or drop classes during those first weeks of a quarter; online class lists are always current. Plus, that alternative got a lot better recently with the recent addition of student photos to class lists. The popularity of the photo class lists will further lessen the need for the paper copies of names-only class lists printed from our office.

There are other reasons for the switch, too, all of which strengthen the decision. We hope that these make sense to you and you’ll appreciate our efforts to maintain—and improve—service while adjusting to other factors:

• Resource savings – Each run of class lists requires a whopping 7 boxes of paper. Each box contains ten, 500-sheet packages. And since we printed class lists twice per quarter (on the first and tenth days), that’s 70,000 sheets of paper per quarter!
  According to Conservatree.org and the Environmental Defense Paper Calculator, one tree yields 8,333 sheets (16.67 reams) of copy paper. So a quarter’s class lists require almost eight and a half trees to print; that’s roughly 32 trees a year, or just over one ton of paper. Producing that much paper requires 19,075 gallons of waste water, 2,278 lbs. of solid waste, and 5,690 lbs. of greenhouse gases.
  Now those are some “green” reasons to stop printing class lists!
• Cost savings - That much paper costs the University nearly two thousand dollars a year. Given the budget shortfall we’re facing, saving every penny is not only fiscally responsible, it’s necessary.
• Labor savings – Printing and distributing printed class lists required a lot of staff time—upwards of 24 hours a quarter—that is better used in other ways. With the recent (and upcoming) staff cutbacks, finding ways to work smarter becomes even more important.
• Protecting student data – Class lists contain personally-identifiable student information and therefore fall under FERPA regulations. Accordingly, old class lists must be shredded before being recycled at additional cost, time, and effort.

There are legitimate needs for advisers and other non-instructors to view class lists and we’ve made sure there are options for them:

1. “DeptInfo” - The new Enterprise Data Warehouse initiative’s Class List functionality will soon be online. It will provide all the information available now through the existing Departmental Information service, but with common data, tools, and definitions, as well as a convenient web access. Sound good? Send an e-mail to dmc-support@u.washington.edu and specifically request access to the “New DeptInfo” Class List report.
2. SDB – The SRF130 screen within the Student Database (SDB) provides class list information (instructions on the screen are available online).

Although we hope the impact of this change is minimal on you while providing significant savings to the University, we are happy to help answer your questions or address any concerns you may have.

Today, the Office of the University Registrar proudly launches its new web site. It incorporates a number of improvements, both visually and in ease-of-use. As with any major change, there are bound to be questions. Please let Scott Bush, the Registrar’s webmaster, know what you think and inform him of any issues.

If you’re interested, here are some details on the new site:

• Better organized – The new homepage (besides looking nicer) has links to the top resources for students, faculty and staff, and other members of the University community. We’ve also integrated the top three entries from this blog to keep you informed at a glance.
• One-stop shopping – The new site is actually a consolidation of multiple departmental websites managed by the Registrar. We’ve integrated the Time Schedule Office and Curriculum Office websites into this one. This helps to unify the Registrar’s many services as well as present a consistent interface for more content. We’ll soon integrate Data Management and DARS content here, too.
• Improved search – Because we’ve got multiple sites “under one roof,” (see above) our search feature now finds more content more easily.
• Fancy forms – If you use the time schedule change forms, you’ll appreciate the changes we’ve made. In addition to looking better, the forms now validate your input and give hints so you know what’s expected as you complete the form.
• Old links still work – If you’ve followed a link from another site (or one of your own bookmarks), don’t worry: you’ll get where you were going. The old site will instantly redirect you to the appropriate page within the new site.

We’d welcome your comments on the new site, either added to this blog post or in an e-mail to Scott Bush, our webmaster.

Members of the UW community picking up copies of the University’s student newspaper, The Daily, were treated  to a story about the recent launch of the Photo Class List service.

The article explains the tool’s benefit to both students and faculty, discusses how it was implemented, and cites University Registrar Todd Mildon in regard to attention paid to student privacy.

Because Photo Class List launched late last month without much fanfare, the front-page story in The Daily will certainly bring this useful tool to light for more faculty. It’ll also increase awareness among students who may begin to expect to be called by name in their classes!

As of April 10, the Schmitz Hall Copy Center is no longer available. That means if you are coming by to pay tuition, drop off student aid forms, submit a hardship withdrawl, or use any of the many other services in Schmitz Hall, you may want to make your copies first.

UW copy centers are available in Communications, B-044 or the UW Tower, room 0-2. You can also find copy centers on the Ave near Schmitz Hall. Creative Communications is also working to bring a self-service copy machine to Schmitz Hall, so that may be an option soon.

This post is an update to a previous entry, available here: Smile, You’re on Photo Class List.

April 23: Mary Pat Wenderoth, Chair of the Faculty Council on Instructional Quality, and Todd Mildon, University Registrar, released an open letter to members of the University community announcing Photo Class Lists.

As stewards of student academic data on campus, the OUR is always looking for ways to improve all aspects of that data. We want it to be more accessible to those who need it (subject to FERPA rules, of course) as well as benefit the University in new ways, like the recently-launched Photo Class Lists.

That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of “UWSDB-Datastore” in the Enterprise Data Warehouse. The EDW is a University-wide initiative to modernize management, analysis, and reporting for all kinds of data on campus—including student data. UWSDB-Datastore is a large and rich collection of student and academic program data. It will greatly increase the ability of EDW to serve student data analysts and report developers.

Having UWSDB-datastore available through the EDW brings many improvements. Those that will be most evident through the OUR include:

• Faster turn-around time for reports requested
• Greater access to the information through UW NetID access, reducing the need to request reports from the OUR.
• Distributed report development using common data, common tools, and common data definitions.

The new environment comes with controls to monitor usage of the data to ensure student data is kept private and not abused. That’s an aspect of our mission that we take seriously. We applaud the Office of Information Management for the care they’ve taken in widening the availability of the UWSDB-Datastore through the EDW.

• Autumn 2008 graduates should watch their mailboxes for diplomas; they are being mailed over the next two weeks.
• Are you a graduating senior? Make sure your Spring quarter application to graduate is received in Graduations no later than April 17 (this also applies to any summer-quarter graduates who want to walk this spring). See your academic adviser to apply.

Tina Miller, the University’s Assistant Registrar of Graduation and Academic Records and Degree Audit Reporting, has been named President of WaACRAO for 2009-2010. The announcement came at their annual conference held April 3. Miller had previously served as the group’s vice-president. She replaces Andrew Anderson of Seattle University.

WaACRAO, the Washington Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers, serves the state’s higher education community. It is one of the only organizations through which representatives of public, private, 2-year, 4-year, and non-traditional colleges regularly meet. The UW helped form the young organization in 2006 to serve the professional development and communication needs of in-state professionals not being met by the regional or national AACRAO groups. The WaACRAO annual conference, offers a full day of seminars, networking, and professional development opportunties (and lunch) for only $25 per person. More information at http://www.waacrao.org/

No, we’re not talking about an Australian bear. Kuali Student is an open-source software platform for managing student information, including grades, transcripts, tuition and more. The UW is a proud founding partner of Kuali Student and because of its impact on student information, the Office of the University Registrar is playing a significant role. Todd Mildon and Sara Gomez are on the Kuali Student Board. It’s a big project involving not just the UW, but other institutions of higher learning like UC Berkley and Florida State.

The provost and the UW’s Office of Information Management has put together an extensive website explaining the UW’s involvement in this important project. Expect to see more about Kuali over the coming year.