MUSC to install academic software upgradeY2k is over, but there's another computer software upgrade scheduled for Jan. 12.The software involved is used by the university to handle virtually all student records. If you have ever received information about a student or course, it was probably derived from this system. In service since it was originally installed in 1994, Datatel's Colleague Release 13 (R-13) has been the workhorse for student admissions, registrations, financial aid, tuition billing, grades, transcripts, student addresses, facilities utilization reporting and photos. It has served well through the years, being upgraded with patches to handle financial aid and other regulatory changes. Releases 14 and 15 were skipped as they offered little benefit to MUSC, but Datatel's new release, Colleague Release 16 (R-16), promises to do it all better, easier, quicker, and more dependably. It’s not just the advantages of the new system that’s prompting the change. The most pressing reason is that Datatel is withdrawing technical support to keep R-13 running and the cost of supporting it will quickly surpass the cost of upgrade. MUSC’s Colleague Steering Committee has developed a plan to make the
transition from unlearning the old system to re-learning the new as painless
as possible. Training has been going on for months and is expected to continue
well after the go-live week of Jan. 12. The rain date is Jan. 19, but problems
aren't anticipated.
Colleague R-16 promises direct data access to the people who need it to make decisions—not to someone designated to retrieve it for them. R-16 will build the foundation for decision support systems, ad hoc user reporting, and electronic report delivery for the student-related data. It will provide a basis for add-on systems that will allow students to update their own demographic data where appropriate, and it will continue to allow faculty to update grades and course information online. And it does this without compromising security or student confidentiality. Like the current Datatel product, it promises accurate financial, grade and transcript record-keeping that conforms to evolving federal reporting requirements. Once fully implemented, “Students will continue to be able to look at
their grades, check financial accounting to see what bills they owe and
what they've paid, change their address when they move, e-mail their classmates
and professors, and have their digitized photo available for student and
faculty reference,” said MUSC Enrollment Services executive director James
Menzel.
“R-16 puts the user in more direct control,” he said. “Colleague R-16 is designed for comprehensive service to a large university, not merely a small set of students.” It does this through an improved Web interface and, although Colleague will maintain the character-based interface in 2001, Datatel has also made a client-server Windows-based interface available for the casual user. Last of all, the step to R-16 is required before Colleague can seamlessly integrate with other large applications and databases on campus, all of which use industry standard database engines. This should be a first step toward making our student systems more open to those who require access, and in the long run will improve our ability to extract academic data when needed, facilitating tactical decision making as well as strategic planning. Employees voice opinion on Colleague R-16
“From a Data Processing perspective, the new release offers us a new,
more unified system. We came up on Release 13 while it was still
in Beta and we added a lot of custom features. Most of these features are
included in R16, which solves the problems we encountered with the pieced-together
R13. R16 also utilizes Datatel’s Envision ToolKit throughout, where
half of R13 was still in old Basic-based code. The different modules are
more integrated, which makes it more complicated, but offers a much greater
flexibility for the student support departments. We are one of the
last schools to convert to R16, so we have the advantage of everyone else’s
testing, which we didn’t have with R13.”
“From my perspective, migration to R-16 is a very positive move. The
database will change from a database structure that is difficult to manipulate
to a relational structure and will facilitate building web interfaces to
different components of Colleague. For example, to find your student address,
you can go to http://www.itlab.musc.edu/myAddress.
We are working on similar web interfaces to Colleague which will facilitate
access to class rosters, grades, etc.”
“The upgrade to R-16 will allow Student Accounting to better serve the
student, and the institution as a whole. A new approach will be applied
to tuition receivables and student loan disbursement, making them both
more manageable.”
“R-16 should support better communication tools, both written and electronic;
improved support to insure both MUSC and students are in compliance with
federal regulations; and enhancement of electronic loan processing capabilities
with a wider range of lenders.”
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