Presenting a More Complete Picture
Presenting a More Complete Picture
Students' academic achievements are recorded in their academic transcripts. However, transcripts are not the complete story of students' undergraduate careers. Most Gettysburg College students have an active life outside of the classroom that is as important to their growth and development as are their achievements within the classroom.
During the 2008 – 2009 Academic year Kathleen Regentin, Associate Director and Special Assistant for Technology in the Center for Career Development, and Steve Lewis, Director of the Data Systems Department of IT, began work on a project that would provide students and organizations on campus an easily accessed and professional looking web presence to record students’ co-curricular profile. Kathleen worked closely with Sue Plank, Manager of Ancillary Systems and People Soft for the College Life Office. Steve assembled a team of Gary Milburn and Dave Nettecoven, Systems Analysts to work with Kathleen and Sue on the design of an “Outside the Classroom” section to the Student Center, in People Soft. Up to this point the Student Center securely contained mainly individual student’s transcripts and financial information. Later IT student employees Leo Marte (’09) and Ryan Clemens (’10).were added to the Data Systems team to review the list of topics included in the section and produce a clean and professional looking output for the data that can be attached to a student’s resumé.
The present categories that exist in the “Outside the Classroom” section include:
- Co-curricular activities
- NCAA Sports
- Honors & Awards
- Licenses and Certifications
- Club Sports Participation
- Intramural Participation Forms
- Health Insurance Information
Since some of this information is subject to the regulations of the Family Education Rights Privacy Act, at this moment the information is only available to the individual student. In the future a determination will be made as to what may be available to faculty advisors and College counselors.
According to Kathleen Regentin training will go on throughout the Fall, 2009 Semester, starting with the Student Senate in September, on the accessibility and functionality of “Outside the Classroom”. The following departments have been trained on the input and use of co-curricular data within People Soft: The Office of Student Affairs/ First Year Program, The Center for Public Service, and Greek Organizations on campus. The Center for Public Service plans to use the timekeeping functionality to record student service hours. Other departments will also use it to record student involvement in their activities.
As more become familiar with the “Outside the Classroom” section of the Student Center in People Soft, it is expected that the functionality will grow. The net winner in this effort is the students who will be able to present future employers and graduate school committees with a complete picture of how they developed during their career at Gettysburg College.