University Business - July/August 2011 - (Page 78)

RegistRaR’s Office Oakland University Change Management he academic calendar mainTains its own particular cycle and pivots on its own particular axis. critical dates, such as deadlines for the submission and changing of grades, must be honored. after all, should the calendar lose its adherence, the effects can be negative. “students need that grade in getting scholarships and other initiatives,” says Oakland University (mich.) registrar steve shablin. “The grade is very important. Unfortunately, there are a whole host of reasons why grades need to be changed.” Oakland found its efforts hampered by a grade change process that was paper-based and manually handled. incorrect information—the wrong name, the wrong student id number, or the wrong course reference number, to name some examples—was often entered on the form. in addition, delays were common, as the paperwork needed to make its way from the faculty member to the approving academic official to the registrar’s office and, in the case of bad data, all The Registrar’s Office team can feel confident that grade changes are done the way back again. accurately and in a timely manner, thanks to the new process. after hearing recommendations from external auditors and from a group of undergraduates enrolled in an hr class, the “much of this work can be done after the normal 8 to 5 [day],” registrar’s Office worked with University Technology services shablin says. “The faculty member can go online and do it at 10 and academic affairs to put the grade change process online. a web form developed internally allows faculty members p.m., and if the committee on instruction representative is on, and they often are, they can approve it at 10:01 to input changes to students’ grades, and the sysp.m. and forward it to my office at 10:02 p.m. tem is able to detect errors from the beginning Putting the gradeWhen we come into the office the next day, all and immediately call for correction. if the inof the grade changes that have been approved structor enters the wrong id number, for exam- change process are sitting in one of my employees’ inboxes to ple, she will realize immediately that the student online cut costs, make the change.” whose name pops up in the form is not actually sped things up, and Faculty focus groups helped Oakland offiin her class. Once the university’s committee on cials refine the form before rolling it out. Once instruction signs off and shablin’s office records reduced errors, it was launched, administrators visited academthe grade change, automatic emails go to the stu- helping students, ic departments across campus to explain the dent and his faculty member to inform them. new process. according to shablin, it’s a hit, Oakland officials estimate yearly savings of faculty, and and for a variety of reasons. $30,000 in paper and labor costs, as well as time administrators. “We’ve eliminated paper, and we’ve reduced saved as instantaneous electronic communication the time from the grade change submitted to replaces tedious paper handling. Under the paper-based process, the best-case scenario saw the time it’s entered in our student information system,” he says. grades changed in five business days. The electronic process “We just started in march of this year, and we’ve already had apreduced that to under a day. and because it’s web-based, the proximately 800 grade changes completed through the online form. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback. it’s a sweet process.” process can continue after hours. T 78 | July/August 2011 universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com/modelsofefficiency http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - July/August 2011

University Business - July/August 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
Ad Index
College Index
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Financial Success
Money Matters
Community Colleges
Funding Capture
Models of Efficiency
Thwarting ID Thieves
Embezzlement Epidemic
What's New
End Note

University Business - July/August 2011