Projects and Timelines

 A project to replace the paper process of registration waivers when students do not meet the course requisites with an online registration override request system.

This project aims to standardize and streamline processes related to test scores and non-course equivalencies by replacing customized workflow with delivered Colleague functionality that we’re not currently leveraging, specifically the TSUM feature. Activating and populating this section of Colleague will allow for standardization of processes, increased efficiency for time and staff (especially with continually increasing volume), and increased reporting, data tracking and analysis capabilities to support future policy development.

Once the use of the TSUM screen is operationalized, it will enable a platform for building EDIs from test score suppliers (please see EDI Project), which will align with the University’s goal of increasing 105 applications, enrolment, and the ability to process an ever-increasing volume in an automated way and at a faster pace.

Currently, a paper-based process involves several manual steps for staff and students. Colleague has a Payment Plan module that will automate the payment plan process online. This will eliminate the manual paper-based process and allow the payment to be tracked directly in Colleague. It will also enhance the student experience as they will be able to view deadlines and payment amounts through Student Self Service Views.

A working group of scheduling, enrolment and technical staff will be formed to develop an implementation plan for using electronic centralized waitlists during course enrollment, providing faculty and administrators with an important enrolment management tool. Waitlists will provide a fair way for students to line up for space in courses that are full and eliminate the need for department staff to monitor space, track needs, and individually enrol students as space becomes available. Waitlists will give departments and colleges an accurate picture of course and section demands.

A business process review of the Continuation of Study assessment process will be undertaken to find a replacement for the current system of assigning undergraduate students DEFS, ETC, PRB or RTW term status using a complex set of rules that must be entered for each COS schedule (e.g. S1, S2, S2P, S3, S3P, S5) and the two-day “coding” process for students with MNR and INC grades. This will improve accuracy and reduce the potential for errors while reducing staff time and effort devoted to this process. As grade changes are made, and DEFS term statuses need to be resolved, a more frequent and less manual assessment process will be implemented to reduce error and improve student service.

This has been captured in the Curriculum Management System (CMS), Admissions CRM, Student Planning, and Student Awards Management initiatives. OGPS has been a key stakeholder group in these initiatives.

Final grades are submitted to the Office of Registrarial Services at the end of each term through a system separate from CourseLink and Colleague. Once uploaded, the instructor and chair of the department are required to sign off on the submission, and the department grades administrator submits these signatures via hard copy, fax or email. Once sign-off is received and completed Incomplete Coursework Forms for students assigned an INC grade, the grade submission is uploaded to Colleague.

Implementing a fully electronic grades submission system that will send automated messages regarding due dates and allow for grades approval and sign-off from any internet-connected location will significantly reduce the time and effort required of department staff and faculty and will improve the process for ORS staff. Consideration will be given to replacing the INC grade and Incomplete Coursework Form procedure with the submission of the earned final grade instead and will kick-start the review of the Continuation of Study process.

The planned roll-out of new tools and enhanced features and functionalities of existing tools means that we have to put some effort into ensuring a consistent digital experience for our students across the range of tools and technologies that support them. This project will focus on the student experience to identify ways to leverage our new capabilities to provide a meaningful and accessible end-user experience for our students.

The benefits of using cohort functionality within Colleague will be investigated to determine if there are more efficient ways to capture various populations of students for managing processes such as course enrolment or reporting requirements. For example, cohorts by campus location, method of instruction, or campus organization affiliation can be assigned using the Cohort Group Assignment (CHGA) and Student Academic Level (STAL) forms.

This project aims to automate admission processes through enhanced electronic data transfer capabilities, particularly for international applicants. This will help the university meet its international enrolment goals and create efficiencies in the admission process.
This was incorporated into the Admissions CRM Phase 1 and Phase 2 initiative.

A Student Awards Management System will enhance the student experience by improving the application process and targeting students for awards without application. It will help the University ensure all awards to eligible students are distributed. It will also support the award creation and management process.

The University will undertake a business process review of the graduation application, degree assessment and convocation processes, consulting stakeholders involved in all aspects of graduation administration and event planning. Delivered graduate application forms in Student Self-Service to replace custom WebAdvisor forms will be implemented to provide a more user-friendly, modern user experience. The Colleague Activities and Events module, along with the Communications module, will be examined to determine its suitability in managing Guelph’s convocation event in the hopes of replacing a cumbersome Colleague custom process developed more than two decades ago. These changes will help staff improve the student application and ceremony selection experience and provide students with a painless and smooth transition to alumni status.

Implementing the Colleague Self-Service "Student Finance" module, providing students with enhanced views of their financial statements and establishing the first step in the wider migration from WebAdvisor to Colleague Self-Service.

Detailed process review and data clean-up in preparation for Net Tuition and the launch of the Colleague Self-Service "Student Finance" module.

For many years, students had been assigned to a course enrolment window according to their most recently assessed class/semester level and their student ID. Two-semester levels (i.e., one academic year) were grouped and split into 2-5 days of enrolment window openings using the last two digits of the student ID. To try and level the playing field, departments requested that Scheduling Services release a set number of seats at the start of each window opening, requiring a heavy load of manual input. In addition, enrolment is managed in Colleague using a complex set of rules and a custom routine that requires daily manual intervention by Enrolment Services staff. The course enrolment window opening period lasts for 15 business days for undergraduate students on the Guelph campus.

This project examined best practices for course enrolment at other institutions. We changed the course enrolment process by shortening the window opening period to a maximum of eight business days for undergraduate students on the Guelph campus, one for each class/semester level, and allowed all students in that semester level to enroll in courses throughout the day according to the number of credits earned and in progress, from highest to lowest. This has reduced the need for Scheduling Services and departments to hold back seats in course sections. A new set of rules allows us to specify dates and times of window openings, so we do not need a custom process or manual intervention. At the same time, extensive load testing on the system was performed to allow larger groups of students to enroll in courses simultaneously.

The Ontario government announced the establishment of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) on January 17, 2019. This initiative allows students to opt out of paying fees that support clubs, student societies and programs that are not included in the provincial framework for compulsory fees. The government mandated that the opt out process is in place for the Fall 2019 semester.

This project involved the development of an online method that allows students to opt-out of optional fees and update the billing module to reflect individual student choices. Additionally, internal and third-party organizations require specific reporting for the SCI. It was successfully implemented for Fall 2019, with students having the opportunity to submit an opt-out form on WebAdvisor before Fall bills were created. The opt-out process will take place every semester.

Adopted enhanced features of Colleague Communications Management such as HTML email and document tracking to enhance message branding, modernization and professionalism.

View the related news item.

Previously, the University of Guelph only made one offer of admission to a student (to the top choice they are admissible to) even if they had additional U of G choices for which they are eligible. By providing students with an offer of admission to every choice they are eligible for, we are now providing applicants with maximum flexibility and improving our competitive position with other Ontario universities that have already adopted this practice. Multiple Offers also support our strategic enrolment management efforts by better supporting increased yield rates on applicants.

View the related news item.

Course substitutions and exceptions to degree program requirements are approved by Program Counsellors and Faculty Advisors and recorded on paper at the College level. When students view their academic/program evaluation on WebAdvisor or staff view a student’s academic/program evaluation on the EVAL form in Colleague, any approved exceptions and/or substitutions are not included resulting in confusion and stress for the student and increased inquiries and manual tracking towards graduation for staff.

This enhancement will allow ORS staff to use the Exceptions and Override (EXOV) form in Colleague to record these approved substitutions and/or exceptions for the student at the direction of the Program Counsellor/Faculty Advisor. This will provide a consistent point of reference for students and staff, accurately portraying a student’s progress to completion on the degree audit portion of Student Planning.

Project Description to follow....

This will allow students the autonomy to enter their bank information through an online screen. This will eliminate the need for the students to complete a form with their bank information and deliver it to SFS, who enters the information in Colleague. It eliminates the need to store the original document.

This is an improvement to the current process of obtaining bank information.

As a result of COVID-19, students have the option for courses taken in W20 to self-select Pass / Fail or Drop in lieu of a numeric grade.

Automation of process to send entrance awards letters to incoming students.

Automation of the process to collect admission deferral applications.

Automation of the process to send login credentials to incoming students.

Project description

Implementation of an electronic method through the Student Information System will be provided for students to ensure their name, address and emergency contact information is up-to-date each term, benefiting students, staff and the university community.

Replaced paper order forms and manual processing by the staff of over 15,000 transcript orders per year with an online transcript ordering and payment solution.

A Curriculum Management and Calendaring System will support course creation and edits, document authoring, approvals and workflows, calendar management, reporting, and integration with Ellucian Colleague.

It will help to:

• Modernize and improve curriculum management processes, particularly in the areas of curriculum document authoring, approvals and workflows, catalogue management, and reporting;
• Integrate key program and course data with other institutional systems such as our core Student Information System, Ellucian Colleague;
• Improve the existing HTML and PDF-based course calendar with a searchable, web-based course calendar;
• Contribute to the wider modernization of our institutional systems to support improved processes, strategic enrolment management, and help improve the student experience and success;

View the related news item.

A Curriculum Management will support course creation and edits, document authoring, approvals and workflows, calendar management, reporting, and integration with Ellucian Colleague.

View the related news item.

An Admission CRM will help advance our strategic enrolment efforts by providing admission staff with the necessary tools and data to support prospect management efforts while at the same time drastically improving the experience of applicants through improved admission processes supported by modern, user-friendly technology. While our existing, home-grown CRM has served a purpose over the past 12+ years, the CRM technology landscape has matured to the extent that “off-the-shelf” tools are now delivering significantly improved CRM capabilities that we must leverage to remain competitive and to advance our strategic enrolment goals.

A FINTRAC-regulated (international funds monitoring) and PCI Compliant solution eliminates the need for international wire transfers, reduces UofG risk, and ensures compliance and PII retention for international student tuition refunds, international student payments, and Canadian domestic student tuition refunds. This solution enhances the student experience for international student tuition payment and their receipt of tuition refunds, and the Canadian domestic student and their receipt of tuition refunds. This solution also increases staff efficiencies across the management of international tuition payments and issuing student tuition refunds.

Phase 1 - Course Enrolment, Degree Planning, Degree Audit

Everyone benefits when students stay motivated and graduate on time. The University has purchased the Colleague Student Planning module (an add-on for our central Student Information System and a replacement to WebAdvisor that reaches its end of life in December 2020) to provide students with an intuitive course planning tool that takes the guesswork out of pre-requisites and program requirements and allows students to plan their courses, register easily, and track degree progress towards on-time completion.

The project will require changes to how programs are currently structured in Colleague, as well as efforts to enhance processes for handling exceptions & overrides and pre-requisite waivers. Currently, manually driven processes, where data often resides only on paper and at the college level, will be automated and supported by Colleague. This should benefit students, program counsellors, and registrarial staff alike.

Modernization of access to Guelph Transit services for eligible students at the University of Guelph eliminates bus pass stickers in favour of electronic access by tapping the Student ID card on the transit fare boxes. This is a collaborative effort between Guelph Transit, the CSA, the GSA, CCS, Hospitality Services, and the Office of Registrarial Services.

Enhancements to data and systems security following the recommendations of internal and external audits. Implementation of role-based end-user access to student systems and segregation of duties within the technical teams.

Reporting enhancements include establishing a data dictionary and efficiencies in departmental reporting requisitions. Discovery, identification and proof of concept for future SIS Integrations using Ellucian's Ethos / ODS.

Phase 2 - Additional Features and Functionality

The project will require changes to how programs are currently structured in Colleague, as well as efforts to enhance processes for handling exceptions & overrides and pre-requisite waivers. Currently, manually driven processes, where data often resides only on paper and at the college level, will be automated and supported by Colleague. This should benefit students, program counsellors, and registrarial staff alike.

A project to examine and prepare a road map to unravel the existing tuition billing complexities and bring the student billing processes back to Ellucian’s recommended baseline.

An Admission CRM will help advance our strategic enrolment efforts by providing admission staff with the necessary tools and data to support prospect management efforts while at the same time drastically improving the experience of applicants through improved admission processes supported by modern, user-friendly technology. While our existing, home-grown CRM has served a purpose over the past 12+ years, the CRM technology landscape has matured to the extent that “off-the-shelf” tools are now delivering significantly improved CRM capabilities that we must leverage to remain competitive and to advance our strategic enrolment goals.

Automating international admission processes, part through enhanced electronic data transfer capabilities, particularly for international applicants, will help the University's international enrolment goals and create efficiencies in the admission process.

Syllabi or SYL is a course outline management software solution that will provide faculty and instructors the opportunity to create and revise course outlines. SYL is the third, and final, implementation of products offered by CourseLeaf, an external vendor. Previous implementations of CourseLeaf products included the revised calendar (CAT) and the curriculum inventory management (CIM) system. SYL builds on these first two implementation projects to automatically pull information from centralized systems into the software, allowing instructors to build course outlines from accurate centralized information. SYL will replace the homegrown Course Outline Manager tool developed by OpenEd, with input from Faculty and Staff within our academic Colleges, as that tool comes to the end of its lifecycle. Faculty and instructors using SYL will be able to publish PDF and html versions of their approved course outlines and the course outline approval process will be completed within the software solution. Community engagement, training, and a project pilot will be occurring during the Summer 2023 semester.