Responses to 2010 SIS Administrative User Survey
Below are questions and comments from respondents to the 2010 SIS Administrative User Survey, followed by explanations or answers to those comments and/or questions.
QUICK LINKS
- Why can’t the Help Desk provide as much assistance as they do for finance and HR?
- When will we have iKeys that work with Macs?
- Can we be advised of what automated messages students are receiving?
- Setting defaults: a number of comments had to do with inconveniences that can be resolved by setting defaults, for example, carrying a student’s ID as you transition between pages or setting Business Unit as a default in View Customer Accounts. Click here for instructions on setting defaults.
- How can I see both enrollment and financial information on a student without going back to the main menu?
- In selecting Lookup (magnifying glass) for term, why isn’t current term always first rather than scrolling down from 2020?
- Why can’t I return to the Student Center tab, but am sent to search?
- Why can’t we use the browser Back arrows to navigate?
- It would be helpful for the Task field in the PTAO to accept lower case values.
- Departmental Aid issues
- Why don’t I see exactly what the student sees when I view the administrative view of the student’s Student Center?
- Why can’t departments process name changes and admission revocation?
- When searching for courses offered by a given professor, do I have to search grad and ugrad separately?
- Will we be able to see descriptions of topics courses?
- Why can’t we create multiple exceptions in Academic Requirements without having to save and begin anew for each?
- When will administrative staff be able to send an email message to a whole class?
- Can we include add/drop/swap/edit in orientation?
- How can we get credit count and cumulative GPA on the academic requirements report?
- How can I show a student’s schedule as a grid rather than alphabetized?
General
Why can’t the Help Desk provide as much assistance as they do for finance and HR?
Help Desk analysts for Finance and HR have IS responsibilities that allow them to view what users are viewing. SIS Help Desk analysts are not provisioned with administrative user roles that provide access to confidential information on student records, therefore are of limited assistance for administrative users.
When will we have iKeys that work with Macs?
The new Gemalto token that can be used with Macs is currently available, and ISDS is working with ITC to help with the roll-out.
Can we be advised of what automated messages students are receiving?
The SIS team will post copies of system-generated student communications to the Local Experts Collab site and send a notification. This will not include messages that come from central offices.
Navigation
How can I see both enrollment and financial information on a student without going back to the main menu?
If you have been granted appropriate access to both Student Records and Student Financials, and you have access to the administrative view of the student services center, you can view both enrollment and finance information from there.
In selecting Lookup (magnifying glass) for term, why isn’t current term always first rather than scrolling down from 2020?
We advise users not to use the Lookup, since it is just a list of all options. It is quickest to just type in the term or set the term as a default (click here for instructions).
Why can’t I return to the Student Center tab, but am sent to search?
The SIS team was asked to modify the search page to show program in the search results. The modification resulted in not being able to return to the Student Center tab, but it was considered more essential that program show in search results.
Why can’t we use the browser Back arrows to navigate?
Oracle recommends not using the Back arrow as it may cause issues with the time out and with navigation. This is becoming a more common issue with many systems and programs.
Access
Why does it take so long to get an employee access to SIS?
The SIS access process is complex and manually intensive, and it has taken awhile (and additional staffing) for HR to streamline it to some degree. ITC is working with ISDS to implement an electronic access process, but that is at least a year away. Even after an access request form is submitted, access cannot be granted until the Electronic Access Agreement and FERPA form have been submitted and any required training is completed. If all that is complete and access has still not been granted, please email sisaccess@virginia.edu with the specifics of the role requested and the dates the forms were submitted and training, if applicable, was completed.
I don’t have the access I need.
You should discuss your access requirements with your supervisor and data security contact.
Performance
Advising transcripts take a long time to run.
The delay is because it takes time to pull information from the database and format it in pdf.
Reports
How can I get one-on-one assistance with my reports?
For those who would like to have one-on-one assistance in addressing their Discoverer reporting needs: we have weekly Q and A sessions which are very lightly attended, so often it is possible for a member of the Reporting team to assist a person with their reporting needs and questions individually. The schedule is located at http://www.sis.virginia.edu/reports/#QandA.
My Discoverer reports take a long time to run.
- For those who find Discoverer Plus with the SIS Reporting database to be slow: please write to RPTSupport@virginia.edu with examples of the kind of trouble you are experiencing. Different situations may have different causes, e.g.:
- From login screen to appearance of the Workbook Wizard: if this is the first time Discoverer has been used on a computer, or a new version of Java has been installed, this will be slow. If you are a very infrequent user of Discoverer, the applets may have to be downloaded again when you login, making it slower. But you should not experience slowness each time you use Discoverer (assuming you are running a reasonably current computer and browser). If you are experiencing this, you should contact RPTSupport@virginia.edu and let us know your Java version (in Discoverer, you should click Help/About Discoverer, and among other information you will see something like: Java Virtual Machine: Sun Microsystems Inc. 1.6.0_21). We may be able to improve things by altering some of your Java settings.
- Opening an existing workbook and submitting it: This should not be slow. How long the workbook then takes to run will depend on how complex it is. If it is a workbook you have written, you may want to consider attending a Q and A session to have us look at it and see if there are changes that could be made to improve it. Also, if you frequently submit workbooks that take some time to run, you may want to write RPTSupport@virginia.edu to request access to Scheduling Manager, so you can schedule your reports to run in the background, or during off hours.
Comparisons to the Information Warehouse are not really helpful. SIS is much more complex than ISIS, so many queries will take longer. This is because of the complexity of the database, not Discoverer.
- When (for the first time in a session) you start creating a new workbook, or editing an existing workbook, it is normal to have an hourglass for several seconds on the Select Items tab of the workbook wizard. This is due to our having many security roles. Discoverer has to check your security to see what can be displayed to you. Different users may have access to the same Business Area, but will see different folders in them, due to having different security roles. Changing the selected Business Area may again cause this delay. However, if you return to the Select Items tab later in the same session, you should not experience this delay again.
Finance
It would be helpful for the Task field in the PTAO to accept lower case values.
ISDS is implementing a solution to this issue so that the system will force upper case for the Task field.
- There are a number of working groups convened to address departmental aid issues, both in the short and long term. Some of the issues they are exploring include:
- The possibility of developing new tools for budgeting and awarding.
- Documentation and training gap analysis.
- Ways to get more accurate budget data to schools earlier in the timeline.
- Whether we can consolidate funding sources (except for grants)
- Reporting data and requirements for reporting
- Calendar and timing of award entry, expanding window to get awards entered
- Reconciliation
- Students across careers (MEDS and GSAS, LAW and GSAS, etc.)
- The goal is to roll out short term solutions in 2011, and identify long term enhancements to be rolled out in 2012
Student Records
Why don’t I see exactly what the student sees when I view the administrative view of the student’s Student Center?
Although they are similar, the administrator’s Student Services Center and the student’s Student Center were designed differently, and therefore have some differences. The SIS team is compiling side-by-side comparisons to be posted to the SIS website. We will notify you when they are available.
Why can’t departments process name changes and admission revocation?
The centralization of these processes was a University decision based on policy and necessary business practices because of the tight integration between SIS modules.
When searching for courses offered by a given professor, do I have to search grad and ugrad separately?
No. You can use instructor’s last name and the campus to perform a search within class search.
Will we be able to see descriptions of topics courses?
This is an enhancement request from many universities, so we are waiting to see if Oracle will resolve the issue rather than each university creating its own customization that will have to be maintained individually.
Why can’t we create multiple exceptions in Academic Requirements without having to save and begin anew for each?
Exceptions must be created by student. If a large number of students are receiving the same exception, you might consider making it a rule so the system counts the course as fulfilling a requirement.
Will administrative staff be able to send an email message to a whole class?
This request is on the SIS enhancement list.
Can we include add/drop/swap/edit in orientation?
This is being proposed to the Orientation Office as part of a SIS demo during Orientation.
How can we get credit count and cumulative GPA on the academic requirements report?
Each department determined how it wanted report formatted. If you want more information included, contact srsupport@virginia.edu.
How can I show a student’s schedule as a grid rather than alphabetized?
Click the button at the bottom of the schedule that reads “show weekly schedule.” Note that if a class is not meeting in a particular week because of a holiday that the class will not appear in the grid.