adlc connected to technology - yearbook 2014_15
TRANSCRIPT
The Big Deal: Building ADLC’s Student Information System
Here’s the scenario: You’re running a very large school. But your computer systems are
fast becoming obsolete. Your bits and bytes are contained in several systems rather
than just one, which makes it challenging to get them to connect in the ways you need
them to. Besides that, the systems are no longer supported by vendors and no longer
comply with Alberta Education requirements. What do you do?
Well, one thing’s for sure: you don’t run out to Best Buy, grab a box off the shelf, and
simply install some new software.
Connected To Technology
Alberta Distance Learning Centre │ Yearbook 2014/15
Instead, you’re going to have to do some intense research, identify and ask the
important questions, consult with all the people who use the system, and find both a
product and a vendor able to deliver all the identified needs and build in customization
and expandability for future needs. There are also all the requirements of PASI
(Provincial Approach to Student Information), FOIP (Freedom of Information and
Protection of Privacy), and Alberta Education that must be accounted for and adhered
to.
It’s a challenging task for any school, but it was especially challenging for ADLC—not just
because of what we do, but also because of the scale at which we do it. To put this into
perspective, consider that ADLC serves over 40,000 students. In Alberta, only one other
school—the University of Alberta—comes even close to those enrolment numbers.
Consider also that 40,000 students could fill the seats in the Saddle Dome twice over,
and there’d still be a few thousand left standing.
Also unlike other schools, ADLC’s students are scattered all across the province rather
than being drawn from a specific region or zone.
And we have open registration—that is, students can register (and work on their classes
for that matter) any time of day any day of the year—so the system has to be up and
running 24-7.
ADLC Information Systems Coordinator, Trevor Ouellette, says that it wasn’t long after
he began working for ADLC three years ago that it became imperative to switch to a
new, more modern system.
And so work began on ADLC’s new Student Information System (SIS). “We started by
conducting workflow analysis,” says Project Manager Dale Hudjik, “and a software
specifications process where we determined through multiple committees the list of
requirements that needed to be built into the software specifications.”
With everyone on board and all stakeholders
consulted, the project then went through
extensive RFP and procurement processes
before a product and a vendor were selected.
At that point, “an evaluation committee with
members from every aspect of ADLC’s
organization made a unanimous decision to
go with the product we’re now using,” Hudjik
says.
And then there was the transition stage. “We had to move real, live, active students
working on courses to the new SIS—that’s not just a matter of turning a key,” Ouellette
says. “It’s more like stopping a heart to do a heart transplant. You have to shut
everything down and get the new heart working before you can start up again. We
watched the system come alive and we watched the first few enrolments trickle through
watched the system come alive and we watched the first few enrolments trickle through
and thought ‘okay—this is going to work.’ Then slowly, over the next few weeks, we saw
the patient go from walking around to running to getting stronger every day. Certainly,
there’s still plenty of work ahead—this is an ongoing, multi-year project—but we knew
that we made this happen without students suffering and, at the end of the day, that’s
what we’re about.”
The result, says Ouellette, “is a massive system. Essentially, SIS touches everything we
do here at ADLC. It’s designed to allow our partner schools and affiliations to be able to
do much of the work themselves—it gives them the ability to manage their own students
within our system. When you combine that with the complexities of compliancy, we had
to break a lot of new ground with the new SIS.” And, because ADLC shares its system
with over 600 partner schools, “Its needs are genuinely different than most other
organizations,” Ouellette says.
The functionality of SIS will continue to increase as we move toward the future and new
features, capabilities, and customizations are added. The new SIS is, as Hudjik puts it,
“owned and supported by everyone.” Ouellette seconds that: “This project was
successful,” he says, “because everyone here wanted it to be successful—for students,
for everybody. And that wouldn’t have been possible without everyone at ADLC
pulling on the rope.”