It’s a technology plan that’s expected to save U of T $1.5 million annually and create a cohesive, efficient digital workplace.

Over the next five years, the new Human Resources Technology Roadmap, launched in September 2017, will modernize U of T’s HR systems – creating seamless team collaboration and efficiencies across the University.

“Our plan is to meet our employees’ and administrators’ needs by using technology to transform HR at U of T across the technology landscape,” says Cathy Eberts, director of Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) and HR Technology. “The benefits of this program are far reaching – including shared service delivery models, lower administrative costs and improved evidence-based decision making.”

The program’s projects include service desk software, a new document management hub for HR, improvements to ESS and MSS, a new staff learning module, incident management and workplace safety software, and more.

This project plays a key part in achieving Vision: HR 2020, an initiative that will help U of T keep pace with local and global changes, while at the same time accommodating legislative reform, technological advances, demographic changes in the workforce, and shifting ideas about work itself.

“These technology investments will advance our broader goal of ensuring best-in-class HR service delivery,” says Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice president of Human Resources and Equity. “We want to create a modern client experience and move from basic administrative operations to a strategic vision, providing the most flexible service model to employees.”

In addition to creating a more modern client experience, implementing advanced technological tools will help HR increasingly focus on strategy-based services for employees.

“Traditionally, HR has been a very reactive service provided to employees and managers once something has already happened,” says Sean Suleman, executive director of CAHRS & Workplace Investigations. “When tools and technology can start to alleviate some of our time spent on administrative tasks, we can turn our minds to building strategic HR business partnerships, and move from reactive to proactive.”

The service desk software is a key component in implementing this consistent and strategic experience. It will help to streamline over 40,000 HR service requests annually.

“If you have a simple question, like a request for an employment letter, your phone or your computer can act as your HR practitioner,” says Suleman. “This will free up the HR practitioner to do the more strategic work.”

Many of the applications also offer self-serve options, so clients are independently empowered to complete basic HR functions, thus furthering the streamlining process.

“We’re making major changes to ESS and MSS to streamline the vacation process – from requesting and approving to tracking,” says Erin Jackson, chief human resources officer with Human Resources and Equity. “We also have another application that will allow managers to quickly build consistent USW job descriptions from a catalogue of pre-written, pre-evaluated descriptions.”

How will the team measure the plan’s success? The HR Reporting and Analytics Centre of Excellence will make costing and trend analysis easy and help the University understand the changing business and operational needs of all staff.

“It’s an ambitious project, and we’re trying to do a full sweep by 2020,” says Moffat. “This program will not only modernize our systems and create a more integrated user experience, but it will also help U of T excel as a leading employer.”

 

It’s the most stressful time of the year – final exams. Now, a new U of T application will help to ease anxiety by speeding up exam attendance, improving student tracking, and enhancing the overall staff and student experience.

The application, called Exam Invigilation, was recently piloted with over 500 students at the Faculty of Arts & Science (A&S). It was developed by U of T’s Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI).

“In the past, staff used the small photo on the TCard to confirm a student’s identity, and they relied on a paper-based registration process,” says Vik Chadalawada, Senior Manager of Student Information Systems with EASI. “Now, they can quickly scan the student’s TCard, confirm their identity on a tablet that displays large photos, and accurately track student information.”

The technology relies on a Bluetooth scanner that links to the tablets and connects to Student Life’s TCard photo database. During its recent pilot with A&S, the application saved staff over half the registration time, compared to the previous process.

“Our goal is to let students focus on writing their exams, which is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” says Christine Babikian, Associate Director, Scheduling & Examinations at A&S. “In the past, staff would walk around the examination room and ask students to sign a registration sheet. Now, they can avoid interrupting students by silently scanning their TCards.”

As a backup, if students forget their TCard for their exam, staff can manually register them by checking a piece of official identification against the TCard photo database.

The application also allows staff to track student information in real time. It shows how many students have checked in for the exam and which ones are late or absent. Staff can view a student’s entire exam history to see patterns of absences or lateness, and it can track seat numbers, helping staff to investigate possible academic offences.

“Any approved staff can easily log in to the student information system and follow up with students who didn’t write the exam,” says Paul Day, an Information Systems Analyst & Client Services Representative with EASI. “There’s no longer any paper-based back and forth between the exams, registrars and academic integrity offices.”

The application is based on a model originally developed by the University of Toronto Mississauga with Cesar Mejia, Associate Registrar of Scheduling and Systems Management. This version was instrumental in helping EASI to develop an enterprise-wide level solution for U of T.

And the University of Toronto Scarborough was the first to pilot it in 2016 and 2017. The EASI team initially worked with Naureen Nizam, UTSC Associate Registrar and Director of Systems and Operations, to use it with 1,106 students in courses ranging from chemistry and biology to psychology and sociology.

What’s next for Exam Invigilation?

A&S plans to use it in large examination locations in December 2018. The team at EASI also plans to incorporate information from Accessibility Services so staff know which students are writing exams at different locations.

“We’re excited about how this application could be implemented for all other divisions having similar challenges within U of T,” says Chadalawada. “It is yet another area of systems innovation that we are proud to have within our solutions portfolio at EASI.”

It has helped to manage students’ course loads better and ensure they receive their OSAP funding sooner. And those are just two of the 30 changes that the ROSI Change Advisory Board (CAB) has implemented over the past two years – enhancing ROSI functionality and improving the overall student experience.

In May 2016, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) created the CAB to evaluate and prioritize faculty and division requests to change ROSI, the student information system.

The board was originally formed to manage ROSI change and enhancement requests that were backlogged due to the resource-heavy implementation of updates instituted by the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre (OUAC) – the centralized admissions process for all provincial universities.

“While keeping our focus on the OUAC project, we also wanted to solicit advice from a collaborative team of technical staff at EASI and functional users from registrars’ offices around the University,” says Vik Chadalawada, Senior Manager of Student Information Systems with EASI and founder of the board. “It was important to examine common requests for ROSI enhancements across various divisions and decide which solutions would provide the most benefit to the University.”

To realize the goals of this cross-functional group, Chadalawada worked with Sinisa Markovic, Assistant University Registrar and Director of Operations at Enrolment Services, and Donald Boere, Assistant Principal and Registrar of Innis College.

“This board really bridges the gap between the technical and functional staff,” says Markovic. “It engages the people who understand the work and its impact, and it promotes communication and collaboration.”

Out of a large number of requests from University staff, how does the board select the most important ones?

“Each year we take all of the requests and create a roadmap, which is a living, breathing document,” says Chadalawada. “The CAB reviews a requirements prioritization matrix, and the EASI team then decides what’s possible, what are small wins and what are related items – by doing A you can solve B, C and D.”

Some of the implemented changes include placing a cap on the maximum number of courses students can sign up for in a four-month term instead of an academic session, helping students select lecture-specific tutorials and labs, and improving how the University confirms enrolment for OSAP recipients.

“For the OSAP Confirmation of Enrolment change, we enhanced the matching process and reduced the number of manually confirmed students from 2,000 to 500. This has resulted in 1,500 students receiving financial aid weeks sooner and the administrative processing time decreasing significantly,” says Markovic.

While the board was initially formed to provide insights into priorities, everyone involved soon discovered it was much more.

“As a byproduct of reviewing enhancement requests, members are helping to chart a course for proposing larger information service solutions that can positively impact the experiences of U of T students, faculty and staff” says Donald Boere, Assistant Principal and Registrar of Innis College and chair of the CAB.

Along with Boere, Rodney Branch, Manager of Client Services and Process Integration with EASI, helps to facilitate the board. He works with Miki Harmath, Manager of Application Development and Matt Hendrickson, Technical Lead with EASI to provide expertise with planning and implementation.

The team continues to host monthly meetings, providing insight into enrolment and directions that the student information systems need to take.

“It’s important to tap into these communities. They’re not just here to tell us to change a specific function or create a new feature within an application,” says Chadalawada “The broader purpose of this group is to educate us on where IT development needs to focus its time, energy and money to improve the overall student experience and that contribution is absolutely invaluable.”

 

EASI would like to thank the ROSI Change Advisory Board:

• Donald Boere – CAB Chair and Assistant Principal and Registrar, Innis College
• Rodney Branch – Manager of Client Services & Process Integration, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Vikram Chadawalada – Senior Manager of Student Information Systems, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Miki Harmath – Manager, Application Development, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Matt Hendrickson – Technical Lead, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Kelly Jay – Senior Information Systems Analyst, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Tamara Jones – Associate Director, Enrolment Services & Records, Faculty of Arts & Science
• Sofia Joot – Assistant Registrar, Records & Enrolment Services, John H. Daniels Faulty of Architecture, Landscape and Design
• Josie Lalonde – Associate Director, Student Services & Senior Manager, School of Graduate Studies
• Tim Linden – Registrarial Administrator, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education
• Gerry Lindo – Project Manager, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Sinisa Markovic – Assistant University Registrar and Director of Operations, Enrolment Services
• Andrea McGee – Registrar & Assistant Dean, Students, John H. Daniels Faulty of Architecture, Landscape and Design
• Mari Motrich – Application Developer & Data Analyst, University of Toronto Scarborough
• Neil Neebar – Registrar & Director of Enrolment Management, University of Toronto Mississauga
• Naureen Nizam – Associate Registrar & Director of Systems & Operation, University of Toronto Scarborough
• Dan Pettigrew – Director of Administrative Systems & Associate Registrar, Information Systems, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
• Joanne Sukhai – Information Systems Analyst, Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration
• Ryan Woolfrey – Associate Faculty Registrar & Director, Registration, Enrolment, Scheduling & Systems Management, Faculty of Arts & Science

 

From tuition and financial aid to fees and incidental costs, many students struggle to figure out the actual cost of university. But U of T is implementing an online statement to make this process easier, helping students plan their finances and academic future.

In July 2018, students will have access to a simple snapshot of their net cost of tuition and fees in ACORN. The summary view will also show an estimate of the amount students will owe once they receive aid from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

“This statement gives students easy access to their OSAP aid amounts,” says Farah Ally, Project Manager with Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI). “It helps them know how much government financial aid they are eligible for before they register, and it gives them a comprehensive picture of the actual cost of their education before the start of the school year.”

The changes were mandated by Ontario’s Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, and EASI is partnering with Enrolment Services and others across the University to bring them into reality.

“Making these changes has truly taken a team effort. They don’t just affect OSAP administration, they  affect business processes within Enrolment Services, Student Accounts, EASI, and the academic divisions,” says Donna Wall, Director, Financial Aid & Awards at Enrolment Services. “It was important to have expertise at the table from all of these areas.”

Wall also participates in a Council of Universities working group, which advises on this and other sector-wide issues.

As part of the Ministry changes, U of T and all other Ontario postsecondary institutions will directly receive students’ OSAP funds to apply against student tuition and other fees. This streamlined process will save students the extra step of paying their U of T fees after receiving their OSAP funding.

To make sure the changes will be effective, EASI’s User Experience and Process Design Team interviewed and conducted usability tests with students.

“We went through several rounds of testing with students to design something that works well,” says Laura Klamot, a User Experience Designer with EASI. “It’s an iterative process – we keep simplifying and refining the design to make sure we communicate the clearest possible information to students.”

And in July 2018, students will benefit from that design.

“When I receive OSAP it can be difficult to get a realistic estimate about the cost of attending university,” says Ibraheem Aziz, a third-year Rotman Commerce student. “It will save so much time to see all information in one location at the same time.”

Ally agrees.

“We want students to be focused on their academic studies, and anything we can do to make financial planning easier for them is a priority for us. This is an exciting initiative that will help to provide clarity and transparency about the out-of-pocket cost of tuition.”

After 19 years, ROSI Student Web Service (SWS) will officially retire on February 15, 2018. In its place, ACORN has now become the primary student web service since launching in 2015 – with over 12 million logins in the past year.

U of T’s Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) kept the two systems running concurrently to help students make the transition. Now, ROSI-SWS is ready to officially hand over the reins to ACORN.

But how did we make the leap from long lineups and paper-based registration to technology that revolutionizes the student experience?

Assembling ACORN

When ROSI-SWS was nearing the end of its lifecycle, the project team decided to rewrite the code with contemporary best-practices and student expectations in mind. These included using inclusive design principles for accessibility, improving mobile usability, and making the process of planning and enrolling in courses more helpful and personalized to each student.

The team engaged hundreds students through interviews, usability tests and other research activities.

“Our goal was to improve the student experience using the web service in a number of different ways: planning for and conducting course enrolment, understanding and accessing financial information, as well as increasing the visibility and engagement with student life services,” says Michael Clark, manager of User Experience and Process Design with EASI. “ACORN provides a cohesive experience that helps students navigate an otherwise complicated network of resources across the University.”

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ACORN’s Enrolment Cart (mobile view) allows students to plan course choices ahead of time and simply click “enrol” on enrolment day

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The ACORN project team within EASI partnered with Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions and with Information Security and Enterprise Architecture to launch the service.

“ACORN is a more highly polished and functional website than ROSI could be during its time. Students can see if there’s room in a course and how long a wait list is – there’s much more transparency to the process,” says Karel Swift, who was U of T’s University Registrar and led the functional development and implementation of ROSI. “Fees can also be paid in the same place as course and program selection – it truly is a one-stop shop.”

What existed before ROSI-SWS?

Before 1974, students registered through an entirely paper-based system.

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Students register for classes at University of Toronto Scarborough in 1969 (photo courtesy of University of Toronto Scarborough Library, UTSC Archives Legacy Collection)

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The University moved from this system in 1974 to enter students’ paper-based course selections into computers. In 1978, staff transcribed 31,400 students’ selections.

“In the 1980s, students used to wait in long lineups to have their paper course selections processed in the computer system,” says Rodney Branch, who worked in college registrars’ offices at the time and is currently Manager of Client Services and Process Integration with EASI. “They would then have to line up separately to pay their fees. The line ups would go out the door, down the hall and onto the sidewalk.”

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Students waiting in line outside of Woodsworth College, formerly Drill Hall, to register for classes in 1988 (photo courtesy of Richard Chow)

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Donald Boere, Registrar of Innis College, remembers ACCESS, the Assisted by Computer Course Enrolment and Scheduling System used by the Faculty of Arts & Science starting in the late 1980s. “In the summer, students wrote their options for timetable scenarios on paper forms, and all these requests would be typed into IBM dedicated terminals by staff, though in later years, students with touch-tone – not rotary! – phones could enter their own requests through the Student Telephone Service. Resulting timetables were mailed to every student. For changes, there was a second round, called Mini-ACCESS, and students got new timetables during Registration Week. It was pretty cutting-edge for its time.”

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Most staff used IBM 3279 Colour Display Terminals to enter students’ course selections and create timetables (photo by Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island)

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Anil Purandaré was one of those students. “During my first year, I was anxious and pretty naive about the process. New College had a large sign that said, ‘Don’t Worry – We’ll Help You.’ It was lovely to meet people, but increasingly complex registration required a more effective process,” says Purandaré, now a Doctoral Registration Specialist at the Office of the Registrar and Student Services, OISE. “ACORN has made the registration process much more student-friendly. When you’re anxious, and perhaps naive about the process, that helps a lot.”

ROSI-SWS was introduced in 1999 and was used, along with the ROSI telephone service, to enable 54,132 students to register in real time.

The future

In 2016-17, 88,766 students enrolled at U of T. To accommodate increasing numbers and enrolment complexity in the future, Information Technology Services will implement a new computing platform in 2018. This upgrade will improve system performance and capacity, allowing up to 15,000 students to register simultaneously for classes during peak registration times.

ROSI-SWS is also planning to keep busy during retirement. The service, now called ROSI Alumni Transcripts, will continue to exist in a simplified form for alumni to view their academic history, request transcripts and reset their PIN. Staff will still use the administrator-facing ROSI to manage and maintain students’ records, and ACORN will evolve to serve students’ needs.

“ACORN will continue to be timely, personalized and helpful – with improved accessibility, mobile optimizations, financial tools and additional complementary tools, including the Grant Application, GPA Calculator and Financial Planning Calculator,” says Clark. “We’re the hub in the wheel of student services and we’ll be strengthening that core to consistently improve the student experience.”

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If students have not yet used ACORN, they need to activate their UTORid.

Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) and Next Generation Student Information Services (NGSIS) have been working to modernize U of T’s student information system, ROSI. This project involves converting over 2 million lines of code and replacing the mainframe server to improve system performance and capacity and real-time integration with other applications.

Throughout October and November 2017, the EASI team met and consulted with 21 academic divisions and 6 administrative units. Here are the top five FAQs:

1. When is the NGSIS Platform Modernization being implemented?
   The change from the mainframe server to the more efficient and robust server infrastructure, as well as the updated code, is  scheduled from end of day November 16 to the morning of November 19, 2018.
2. Which systems will be affected from end of day November 16 to the morning of November 19?
   ROSI and ROSI Express (admin facing)
   • ACORN, associated applications and SWS (student-facing)
   • Other systems dependent on the mainframe and connecting to ROSI and ROSI data:
   • Degree Explorer
   • MyRes
   • eMarks
   • Varsity Blues Registration System
   Note: The Learning Portal will not be affected.
3. After the cutover, will other student- and staff-facing systems be different? ACORN, Degree Explorer, and Course Finder will operate in exactly the same way, as will ROSI Express, eMarks, StarRes, and MyRes.
4. Will I be able to use the function (PF) keys?
   Most of the function key actions will require the use of mouse clicks. You can still use the “enter” key for most enter functions, but many keyboard functions (like paging up and down with PF7 and PF8) will require a mouse click.
5. Can users still type direct commands to get from menu to menu?
   Direct commands will still be the main way of navigating around ROSI. You will type menu selections, then use mouse clicks for paging, returning to a previous screen, etc.