Civitas Student Success Platform

75%

Status

On Hold [On Hold]

75% complete, updated on Fri 8/11/23 12:17 PM by Amanda Kaur

Changed Status from In Process to On Hold.
Changed Health from Red - At risk with no corrective actions to On Hold.

DEGREE PLANNER (75%)
Recent Tasks

  • There are no major updates from last month's report.
  • Procurement scheduled a meeting with vendor to discuss contract implications based on failed UAT and lack of remediation to outstanding and reoccurring issues.
Upcoming Tasks
  • The core team will wait until the CO comes out with a new digital planner based on the active RFP.
Hornet Launch Automation (25%)
Recent Tasks
  • Vendor provided first look of the tool which the team has to validate against the SOW. 
  • The team has decided to put HL automation project on hold in order to prioritize the degree planner.
Upcoming Tasks
  • Meet with vendor to continue the discussion on the scope of project.

Details

Dates
Thu 7/1/21 - Tue 10/31/23
Acct/Dept
AU - All University
Service
Project Request / New Project Request
Type
Project / Annual Project Call
Health
On Hold
Portfolio(s)
  • 2022-2023 Divisional Project Portfolio (Nadya Lucas)
  • 2022-2023 University Strategic Project Portfolio (Nadya Lucas)
Created
Thu 7/1/21 8:28 AM
Modified
Fri 8/11/23 12:17 PM
Link to Strategic Planning and Mandates
This will link the project to the University strategy it supports. If it is not a strategic project, don't select any.
Student Success Imperative
Problem / Opportunity
Briefly summarize the problem or opportunity you propose to address. Write this in terms of the organizational problem being addressed, not in terms of the solution needed.
Smart Planner was bought out by a company that plans to sunset it to promote their own tool. Although the vendor has not stopped supporting it, university leadership wanted to be proactive about replacing Smart Planner. While this was the impetus behind this project proposal, there is bigger opportunity to find a solution that provides a more seamless experience for students, and faculty and staff advisors as well.

In the last several years, Sac State has implemented several applications with the goal of ensuring student success, including both administrative tools as well as tools for students to manage and track their academic progress. These tools include Smart Planner, College Scheduler, a Progress to Degree meter, and the Financial Aid meter. These were grouped into a toolkit called the Keys to Degree Toolbox. While each of these applications was successfully implemented, the student experience for each of these tools was less than ideal and there was no unified, seamless experience that tied all these tools together. Therefore, this project looks beyond Smart Planner replacement to implement a student success platform that provides a unified suite of tools.
Goals & Objectives
Objectives are specific, measurable, and timed outcomes of the project that are stated in terms of the problem solutions or opportunities users will experience.
• Based on steering committee recommendations and executive sponsor recommendations, proceed with procurement of the preferred solution, including the Information and Communication Technology review process for accessibility and security, and obtaining a current Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) and Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).
• Coordinated review of roadmaps for all colleges.
• Cleanup of degree audit, as needed
• Establish a process for updating the typically offered attribute for all courses; Update all typically offered data
• Implementation of the application, including but not limited to migration and editing of Smart planner roadmaps, data integration, configuring single sign on login, establishing security protocols including admin and user permissions, and conducting testing
• Partner with Orientation and Advising (Academic Advising and faculty advisors) on best practices and guidelines for incorporating the new suite of tools to assists students
• Configure reporting/analytics and determine best practices/guidelines for optimal use of reports and analytics, particularly as they relate to course demand or student success interventions
• Conduct change management including engaging stakeholders, building awareness, communication, and training
• Implement across campus with targeted change management, including communication and training
Area Lead
The person in your area who will help lead the following: document requirements, bring in appropriate resources (e.g., faculty, students, staff, etc.), and oversee tasks, testing, and training.
Amanda Kaur
Functional Teams and Other Resources
Please do your best to define personnel needed for your project, as well as your best estimate of the number of hours needed from those project team members.
NOTE; Hours will depend on the implementation plan TBD with vendor.
Functional Team
* Michelle Faul
* SA Systems Analysts (2.0 FTEs)
* Miesha Williams
* Trev Neeley
* Mary Shepherd
* SA Communications team
* Marc Fox
* CMS developer
* Faculty point person (1.0 FTE)
* Associate Deans/Chairs
*Jim German

Technical Team
* IRT ERP (CMS) developers (.25 FTE)
* IRT Campus Applications Team (20 hrs)
* IRT Identity Management (16 hrs)
* IRT Web Developer
* IRT University Reporting
Risks and Dependencies
Identify any factors that can affect the outcome of the project including major dependencies on other events or actions. These factors can affect deliverables, success, and completion of the project.
• Vendor availability: Professional service support is included with implementation.
• There will likely be resource contention for IRT staff as well as the functional team as they are also involved in other projects/initiatives.
• Change Management is an integral component of this project since adoption by students, faculty and staff is critical
• Unknown unknowns that may arise as we review and possibly streamline processes
Executive Sponsor
Each project must have an executive sponsor (VP / Cabinet level executive).
Robert Nelsen
Initial Constraints
Identify anything that significantly limits the project team’s options in planning and executing project activities. These might include applicable laws and regulations, mandated target dates, financial limitations, resource limitations, etc.
Resource Contention. Many of the functional resources are also working on other high priority initiatives and projects.
Dependency on the Degree audit overhaul being completed as well as completion by Academic Affairs of roadmap revisions and templates

Description

The goal of this project is to replace Smart Planner with a solution that integrates a degree planner with a scheduler, and a registration tool, with the ability to incorporate advising notes. The new application should also provide an optimal and consistent experience on any platform including mobile footprints. The degree planning tool should be able to accommodate the various requirements in our major roadmaps, including concentrations, along with co-requisites and pre-requisite, providing dynamic messaging to users on optimal pathways. The application should be able to integrate with PeopleSoft seamlessly, and ideally with other applications such as Platinum Analytics, CourseLeaf Catalog, and the Degree audit. Availability of canned reports and analytics is another criterion along with ease of maintenance.

Manager

AK
Amanda Kaur

Stakeholders (3)

DA
Danielle Ambrose
University Registrar
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
Registrar
Tue 8/24/21 12:28 PM
EV
Enzo Vernone
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
PM
Tue 8/24/21 12:28 PM
SS
Steven Salcido
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
Sponsor
Tue 8/24/21 12:27 PM