~~DRAFT ~~
Graduate Education Management System - GEMS
Project Outline and System Documentation
Problem Statement
Historically, the graduate student admission processes and academic progress was managed via
spreadsheet or internal database by division staff within each program to mark milestones, track
documentation received, and monitor student performance. Graduate enrollment has grown, new
academic programs have been added and each year and the graduate student tracking
processes become cumbersome and more complex.
There is a critical need to create a customized, web-based, centralized system for graduate
student management that serves the unique needs of the academic programs, is created and
maintained by the School IT Group, and is shared as a central resource. The GEMS system will:
 Ensure accurate tracking of student application status
 Track matriculation information unique to each program
 Facilitate oversight of academic progression toward success
 Maintain process sustainability
 Allow ease in scalability
Project Purpose
To centrally manage the admission, academic, and administrative processes associated with
Schools PhD and Masters students and provide data access to appropriate School administrators
and faculty.
GEMS Sections and Phases
*The IT Team will conduct stakeholder assessments for each phase prior to development.
Therefore the details contained within of each phase of this document are subject to change after
detailed assessments are conducted and a group consensus is gathered.
Phase 1 - Admission Management
Data available
 New applicant notification
 Demographic Information
 Term
 Transcripts
 Applicant entered into Student Information System (SIS)?
 TOEFL scores (from SIS)
 GRE scores (from SIS)
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Institutional information – GPA, major, degree, degree date
GMAT scores
SOP scores
Letters sent (admit/deny)
Foreign transcripts scanned and sent to Office of International Affairs
Schedule for group interview, or individual interview (with whom)
Faculty review information/comments
Admission decision information/documentation
Student decision information
o Deferrals (deferral history, original application date)
Funding offered / aid packages / funding offer history
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Admission committee vote / documentation
Faculty user interface to view assigned students
o Computer Science:
 Formal review process
 List students and see all
 Rank students
 Route student to faculty member
o Informatics
 List files for review in each track
 Faculty members rank within their track using 7 criteria
 Strategic priorities in informatics
 Grad program committee reviews factors in targets and budgets
 AI or RA – pass TPAC exam
o Proposed SLIS (Not yet determined if/when SLIS processes will be incorporated)
 MLS, MIS, PhD Information Science
 MS admission committee and faculty review
 PhD faculty review/ with materials
Features
 Automated emails (templates and communication tracking and history)
 Ability to copy entire record
 Print coversheet
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 Edit
Document library
 Academic documents
 Admission documents
 Candidacy documents
 Financial documents
 Profile images
 Resume
 Personal statement
 Letters of recommendation
 HCID portfolio
Screen mockup of current prototype:
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Global features
 Email groups of students
 Edit groups
 Print groups
 View funding summary
 Flexible search capability
Phase II - Academic Management
Currently gathering stakeholder information to further assess needed fields for this tab. Example
of Information may include:
 Program start date
 Student status (active, leave)
 GSO Notes
 GPA
 TEPAIC
 AI/RA History
 Funding information and history
o Include GED funding (if applicable)
 Coursework completion (under-enrolled)
Phase III - Milestones Management
Informatics tracking milestones
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 Handbook year (Informatics)
 Advisory Committee Information
 Transfer of credit information
 Annual Evaluation
 Minor
 Qualifying Exam
 Nomination to Candidacy
 All Forms completed
 Qualification phases
 Coursework completion
 Research committee members
 Dissertation proposal phases
 GED Checklist
 Milestones history
Computer Science tracking milestones
 Advisory Committee Chair and faculty members
 Core completion date
 Minor completion information
 Qualification information – written, oral, total credits
 Awarded PhD candidacy
 NoC information
 Thesis pass
 Final defense information
 GSO notes
 GED notes/checklist
 Milestones history
Phase IV - Graduate Evaluation Day (GED)
Online process by which graduate students summarize their productivity and performance, faculty
provides written feedback and review of each student, and faculty committee reviews all
documentation and determines student plan for future. This process is handled slightly differently
for Computer Science and Informatics.
Computer Science
 Students submit a self evaluation via a text summary of their progress
 Transcripts are made available for recent courses
 Faculty committee provides feedback via text comments
 Guidance offered is tracked via checkbox list
 Determination made
Informatics
 Students submit a self evaluation/progress documentation via document uploads
 Transcripts are made available for recent courses
 Faculty advisors provide feedback via text comments
 Guidance offered is tracked via checkbox list
 Determination made
Advisees screen
Faculty may log into the GED portion of GEMS and view only their advisees for comment
The GED process is currently handled by the Sharepoint User Interface which presented some
platform compatibility issues as some students and faculty reported problems logging into the
system. Incorporate this GED feature into Web application user interface.
Workflow:
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SoIC Graduate Student Data Management Systems
March 15, 2013
Grad Evaluation (Cont.)
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Phase V - Associate Instructor/Research Assistant Management Tool
(AI/RA)
This phase will require significant clarification from stakeholders, some faculty, and staff due to
the multi-faceted aspects of the AI/RA process (will require input and involvement from SoIC HR
staff, Grants office staff, Financial office, and GSO staff). The process is expected to be iterative.
 AI student evaluation tool (Nina)
 History of AI assignments (Faculty member and course)
SoIC Graduate Student
Data Management
Systems
 Courses
taken
 Tepaic status
March 15, 2013
Proposed workflow – subject to change after completed stakeholder assessment:
AI/RA Management (Cont.)
Phase VI – Reports
This list is subject to change after completed stakeholder assessment.
 Funding reports (pre admission, admission, and after matriculation)
 Committee on Institutional Cooperation - CIC
 Under enrolled
 Dean Reports (SLIS)
 How many applications
 Accreditation reports (SLIS)
 PhD annual reports
 Progress reports
 Ability to save customized reporting parameters
Phase VII – Post Graduate Information
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Where graduates employed
Job title
Industry
Taulbee Survey
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Additional feature requests:
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System Health Check – when the user logs in, the system checks communication with
database and reports a status signal
Ability to communicate application status with students via text message
Notes from GEMS User Analysis Meeting February 11, 2013
Items not incorporated in above outline
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Communicate where student data is coming from
Improve GEMS performance (redo schema, explore hardware options, Melanie willing to
help design schema)
Independent study, edoc management
SLIS has internal db that course faculty manage
Data analysis / some standard reporting
Some customized reporting / ability to save report parameters and re-run
Are we going to go paperless for admissions process?
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Technical Documentation and schema to follow
Jira software project management system currently being tested for deployment
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