Ellucian Demonstration

Registrar & Advisement

Questions 6/3/13 8:30AM

  1. Can the institution set the proxy users for certain populations as a rule? For example, athletes’ current grades can be seen by advisors? Trio students’ grades can be seen by advisors?

Response: Yes. Banner’s security functionality provides the ability for ISU to control which administrative users have access to student records

  1. Does textbook refer to textbooks for each class? Can this information be sent in file and/or report format for bookstores? (to use in ordering) what [does] student see? Answered – can add some for web

Response: Banner provides the ability to store textbook information at the course master that can default to each section or the textbooks can be specifically added or maintained at the section level. Banner Student Self-Service and Banner Faculty and Advisor Self-Service functionality provide the ability to add links to institution bookstore providers. Students and faculty can use the new page to access selected bookstore providers and query the required materials.

  1. How many Illinois banner schools are there? Include in web answers in RFP response

Response:

  1. Does the course scheduling module interface with Collegenet easily? Is Collegenet an established partner? Yes, is the answer

Response: Yes Collegnet is an Ellucian partner

  1. If new code needed by technical, is that ISU or Ellucian?

Response: New codes are added by ISU. Typically, they are added by authorized functional users.

  1. Can we see the plan of study/recommendations that students can print from the system?

Response: Sample Degree Audit output

  1. Can you identify multiple cohorts for a single individual? If so, how are these handled? For example, NCAA athlete at-risk student, and international student.

Response: Banner provides the ability to have an unlimited number of cohorts, attributes and sports activities for an individual student.

  1. Are the functional users “user interface” going to look like the branded views?

Response: Yes the system will provide the ability for the administrative system to have the same look and feel as the portal.

  1. How does a dismissed student petition for reinstatement?

Response: that depends on ISU business rules. Typically you can use Banner Workflow to create a reinstatement request form that gets routed based on characteristics of the student and institution rules.

  1. What ability do you have to set rules for reinstatement from dismissal?

Response: That depends on ISU business rules. Banner’s provides the ability to store an academic standing of “reinstatement” and define maximum registration hours and academic performance requirements based on institutional requirements. Additionally, early alert functionality can be used to track reinstated students.

  1. “Quarter to semester calculation” (as it relates to articulation is “performed automatically” (Loose Quote) “EDI XML transcripts are automatically loaded.” (Loose quote) Does “automatic” mean “out of the box”, or BI that needs to be developed?

Response: Quarter to semester calculation is defined as part of the Banner implementation. EDI and XML transcript functionality is delivered by the system. There is some set up as part of implementation.

  1. How does the system interface with u.select?

Response: I requested clarification on u.select

  1. Can staff impersonate a student to see what the student sees?

Response: Banner does not provide the ability for staff to impersonate students. In some areas (i.e. Degree Audit and Student Billing) students and staff have the same view of the information.

  1. [Can] the parameters for who can be included or excluded from a specific course registration be dynamic?

Response: I requested clarification on this requirement.

  1. Can term start and end dates overlap with other terms? What kinds of petitions are done in degree audit?

Response: Term start and end dates can overlap with other terms. ISU business policies determine what kinds of petitions are done in degree audit.

  1. How are forgiveness program GPA’s applied to institutional GPA’s after forgiveness program is applied?

Response:Banner tools can be used to apply ISU’s rules on forgiveness polices and GPA’s and to update the transcripts accordingly.

  1. What are the [word unreadable] rules around academic status and grade changes?

Response: I requested clarification on this requirement.

  1. Show housing and dining tabs on general menu, and how to interface with them.

Response: Banner provides housing and meal functionality as part of the baseline solutions. Clients seeking robust residence management functionality with self-service access choose to use of Ellucian partners. Additional information can be provided upon request.

  1. Do you have an NCAA module?

Response: Banner’s Athletic compliance pages provide the ability to track sport and athletic eligibility.

  1. In your event management/registration module, can attendance be tracked and individually tied to student record? Can it be tied to registration as a pre-req?

Response: Banner Events management provides the ability to track attendance and associate it with a student record. Banner tools can be used to load attendance as an attribute whichcan be used as a pre-req.

  1. At the clerical placement, does is show where the placement is located? Where is the contract info for placement located? Can I search by location? Rather than only being tied to student record?

Response: Banner provides the ability to show placement information for clericals. Banner document management can be used to store the contract information.

  1. [Does] todays demo represent the response time? What happens with heavy loads? Can you explain the numerous 3+ sec responses up to the 8 sec response? How many tables make up the stud data? May be technical. Will a lot of these set up tables have preloaded data? Where can we see a comprehensive list of the items that are preloaded? Is there a data dictionary? When we add types, does it update data? How do you ensure the expression builder doesn’t drag down the system from poorly formed query? Data dictionary for rules?

Response: The system responses are much faster than what you have seen during the demos in most cases, especially Banner Self-Service and Portal Pages are much faster. What you have seen during the demos is small footprint (hardware wise). Ellucian will help optimize the system performance as well during implementation.

Ellucian provides Data Dictionary for Banner and it comes with SEED Data. The data will be configured per Illinois State University’s requirements as part of the implementation process.

For Expression Builder, You can set up alerts on the system and stop them to make sure there those queries not being a drag on the system and work on optimizing the queries once you see the alert.

  1. What is your experience as to how difficult it is for functional staff to assume responsibility for translating and maintaining business rules as banner rules?

Response: Ellucian’s professional services team provide comprehensive implementation support.

  1. We use multiple bookstores; how is that handled?

Response:Banner Student Self-Service and Banner Faculty and Advisor Self-Service functionality provide the ability to add links to institution bookstore providers.

  1. How are the plans of study that are used built into the system? These would be the plans based on approved catalog copy. Response: Plans of Study are built in the Degree Works tool. Please see the screenshot below

  1. Can the calendar/class schedule/email be “synced” with smart phones, i.e. iPhones, iPads, androids? Can the calendar/class schedule also have a ‘proxy user’ list with permissions? Can you ‘push’ calendar events to certain students? A certain population and/or specific student? What ‘program’ is the calendar function associated with? Can it interact with MS Outlook?

Response: Calendar, Class Schedule and Email can certainly be synched. If you are allowing the same calendar to be used on a smart phone, that will show up on the smart phone as well. Ellucian Mobile application that was demoed also has Class Schedule component. Banner Proxy functionality provides the ability for students to include their class schedule as part of the permissions that they allocate to external users.

  1. Can student see/access an evaluation of their education endorsements (ESL, etc.) that are not part of a degree (major) or minor?

Response: Yes. Education endorsements can be dynamically presented to students based on data on their record that would qualify them to see the endorsement.

  1. What if a course is on an electronic transcript, but there is no articulation in our system? How is this handled? What are the tracking features of probation/dismissed/reinstatement decisions?

Response: If a course doesn’t have an institutional equivalent built, when the articulation is done the articulation indicator is set to no equivalent. You can choose to build the institutional equivalent or do a manual articulation

  1. Are incomplete default dates seen elsewhere, by advisor or administrator?

Response: ISU policies will determine who has access to incomplete default dates. That data is stored in pages typically accessed by administrators and faculty.

  1. How well does Ellucian work with the imaging software, such as Imagenow? How well does Ellucian work with verifications and transcript requests through National Student Clearinghouse?

Response: Banner Student, Banner Workflow and all other add-ons like Portal where you have seen the Document Management being demoed will only work with Banner Document Management Solution which is based on EMC’s Application Documentum. There are significant advantages and pre-built Integrations that come up Banner Document Management Solution. Ellucian Recruiter (CRM) currently does support ImageNow Integration and we are working on Recruiter being certified with Banner Document Management solution which is on the roadmap for 2014. However, there are certain Banner customers that use ImageNow as well.

National Student Clearinghouse is an Ellucian Partner. The e-transcript api streamlines and automates the processing of transcripts between institutions. Banner provides the ability to generate verifications within the administrative system. Some clients choose to use verifications through National Student Clearinghouse.

  1. For student queries, can the result be exported to an Excel file? If yes, please demonstrate. For example, the query I will do this week is the list of incoming freshmen preview registration dates.

Response: Banner provides the ability to export the data on any banner page to an excel spreadsheet

  1. What is the grade release process?

Response: Grades are released after they have been verified and rolled into history based on institutional policies.

  1. Advisor Appointments:Can advisors block out busy times on their calendar so students can’t schedule during those times? Does this calendar integrate real-time with MS Outlook?

Response: Banner doesn’t provide this functionality.

  1. Can we limit and/or define who can substitute coursework in a student’s degree program?

Response: Security rules will control who has the ability to create exceptions in a student’s degree program.

  1. Can this system track academic record of a hybrid (Undergrad and Grad) program? For example, a student is simultaneously undergrad and grad for 2 years before getting both degrees at one time.

Response: Banner provides the ability to track a hybrid program.

  1. How do final grades get verified and published?

Response: Grades are verified as the faculty enters them. Banner prevents the faculty from entering an invalid grade code (i.e. “q”). Banner also presents the faculty with valid grades for the method of grading of the student (i.e. p/f if the student is taking the class pass fail). Additionally, Banner’s Class Roster process can be run in verification mode to produce a grade roster for each section that can be used for manual verification.

  1. If we discover learner has incorrect SSN on file, how do we process the change?

Response: Banner provides the ability for authorized users to overwrite the SSN. Banner stores the history of all changes to a person’s SSN.

  1. Do we have the ability to track overrides placed on a student’s record?

Response: Yes. Banner provides the ability to track overrides placed on a studen’s record.

  1. In terms of derived alerts, can data be pulled in from an outside system, i.e. housing/dining? For example, student has dining plan but is not registered for classes?

Response: Yes assuming some representative data has been loaded into the Banner system. In the specified example, you could manage your meal plans outside of Banner but load a value in Banner’s meal plan field to indicate the meal plan has been processed. That information could then be used in the early alert processing.

  1. How does the system handle non-textbook course materials? For example, clickers, workbooks, etc. that may not have an ISBN?

Response: Banner can store this information in a variety of way that would be informational only.

  1. Do you have the ability to create commencement name cards for reader and reports?

Response: This would be a report that you create.

  1. Can the system create list of available transfer equivalents for a student who wants to find a summer class at their local community college?

Response: Students can see this information in Degree Works. This information could be generated as a report and made available to the students via the portal.

  1. How does the transcript system work with external vendors such as parchment, national student clearinghouse, etc.?

Response: National Student Clearinghouse is an Ellucian Partner. The e-transcript api streamlines and automates the processing of transcripts between institutions. The Banner solution has open and published APIs and Web services which can be leveraged for this type of integration.

  1. Can registration be adapted to suggest alternate schedule options based on course schedule of student selected courses?
  2. Response: Banner does not provide this functionality
  1. What is the difference in functionality between reserving seats for defined groups and blocking courses from “x” groups?

Response: Reserve seating provides the ability to hold seats in a section based on the characteristics of the student or curriculum (for example—hold 10 seats for freshman or 5 seats for education majors). Registration restrictions provide the ability allow or prohibit students from registering from a course based on characteristics of the student or curriculum (for example—freshman student only or not for math majors).

  1. Is pre-req for course registration only able to be courses? Could you show how a TB test result could be a course pre-req?

Response:Banner tools can be used to update a student attribute field based on the TB Test result. That attribute could be used as a course pre-req.

  1. Show fsaAtlas on top tab. How do you interface with it?

Response:fsaAtlas is an Ellucian product and is fully integrated with Banner.

  1. Do you have built in help? How robust is it?

Response:Banner provides robust page, block and field specific help.

  1. Can you show again how a student can view their grades? Where do they see their academic status with their grades? How are grade changes displayed and how is the student notified?

Response:Student can view their grades in a channel via the portal or via their smart phone, tablet etc using Ellucian mobile. ISU policies will determine where the academic status will be displayed for students

  1. Can the system correct a required, repeated 0-credit course offered only as “credit/no credit? It is necessary to repeat 8 times and earn “credit” for graduation.

Response: Yes Banner will provide this functionality.