Board of Regents - Photo by Taylor Heckart
The Board of Regents Academic and Student Affairs Committee met on Nov. 9. During this meeting, the regents discussed the creation of a new degree program, student information systems, accessibility issues surrounding UAOnline, enrollment report and accreditation.
According to Provost Denise Runge, UAA is offering a new Bachelor of Business Administration in Business and Data Analytics with the intent to be used as a replacement for a previously eliminated degree – Management Information Sciences.
Provost Runge said in the meeting that the degree program will provide necessary training to students, as the state of Alaska has a substantial need for trained data scientists and people to fill analyst-related job openings.
Provost Runge said, “there are no significant additional resources that need to be invested. In other words, most of the courses that would be necessary to complete this degree not only already exist, but are also already offered regularly.”
Afterward, UA’s Chief Information Technology Officer Benjamin Shier shared a presentation on the need to modernize the University of Alaska’s 30 year old Student Information System. Shier said his vision for the system includes a modernized look, streamlined use and a greater student experience.
Student Information Systems is a software that allows educational institutions to easily manage student information online. Fully upgrading all components of the Student Information System will be a long process, but modernization has begun.
In the modernization process, the Student Information System was moved to the cloud so it may be supported by experienced vendors.
Shier said that the cloud allowed UA campuses to throw away hardware in data centers that used a lot of space, power and required ongoing maintenance.
Deconstructing 30 year old personalized code would not present much of a solution without something to take its place.
Shier explained that one of the most significant IT projects is an upgrade to UA platforms.
“It will specifically target the online interactions with our students through those platforms and it will also address a significant amount of 30 years of code and customizations that have made it very difficult for the university to leverage the latest feature from the vendor,” said Shier.
This means that – through the disposal of 30 year old code – students will have better access to updated UAOnline features and have an easier time doing such things as registering for classes.
The vendor Shier mentioned is Ellucian. Ellucian was and still is a leading platform in education but according to Shier, difficulties in using the platform arose from years of building custom approaches within the platform instead of using the platforms pre-programmed abilities.
These custom approaches attempted to adapt Ellucian to UAA, but instead led to the inability to utilize Ellucian’s updates.
Shier mentioned UAOnline’s interface proves difficult to use for blind or visually impaired individuals using screen readers to register for classes or check billing information. UA will be adapting to a different format to make the use of screen readers easier.
UAOnline is also not very compatible with phones. Shier said they’re working to provide a solution in the near future.
The project has been given a deadline of two years to complete. UA systems aim to be completely up to date by December 2025.
In that same meeting, UAA Chancellor Sean Parnell said that UAA student admissions are up five percent with a 4.4 percent increase in credits hours. The slight difference in percentages represents that students average less credit hours than there is headcount.
Provost Runge noted many different programs have had accreditation site visits, reports and self study submissions over 2023. The programs under review included multiple engineering, diet and nutrition, public health and physical therapy programs, all with “extremely positive feedback.”
UAA online systems will see many changes in the near future but these changes will enhance the student experience.
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