SIS system offers updated registration for students
Elizabeth Taggart
Issue date: 9/30/08 Section: News
|
Bill DeHaan, director of information technology services, said discussions about a new system have been ongoing for more than a decade because the legacy system was just too antiquated.
"The structure was outdated, inflexible and built on a database that's circa 1984 and ran on hardware no longer in use. In order to update and do backups we had to kick people off."
Dean Joni Grover said the old systems capacity just didn't meet all of the current needs of the school or the students.
As technology changes and becomes more integrated into student life, there was some concern that students without a lot of computer knowledge would be left behind and unable to use the new system on their own.
Grover said student focus groups were conducted last summer at multiple Maricopa campuses, including Mesa and Paradise Valley.
They had students run through everything on the system to make sure it was easy for anyone to use.
MCC student Alexandra Allen said she doesn't consider herself to be very adept with computers but found the system relatively easy to use.
Although she did say that she was confused about the new MEID number.
Grover said that they had more problems with duplicate IDs than they had anticipated, but that when 10 different colleges are consolidated onto one system, there are bound to be some challenges.
If a student had been registered under a slightly different name at one of the other colleges at some point in the past, they were assigned two Ids, Grover explained.
MCC student Jessica Cox said she had a harder time using my.maricopa than the old system.
Cox explained that she was dropped from two classes and charged twice for something else.
She said she got the double charge fixed eventually but that she had to go see someone in person.
DeHaan said that from a technical standpoint, they have had very few problems with the new system but that there have been some issues in awarding financial aid separate from the system because the process takes more time than before.
Grover said there are processes at both the college and district level to deal with problems as they arise but that overall she is pleased with how well the system is running and how many advantages there are over the old one.
Be the first to comment on this story