Jeffrey CastleDesktop Support Manager

Brian WallaceStudent Administration Manager

Psychology Department, LSA

BackgroundSize of the department

89 Faculty Members187 Graduate Students60 Administrative and Research Staff1800 Psychology Undergraduate Concentrators310 Undergraduate Classes (roughly 8000 undergraduate

seats filled)177 Graduate Classes41 Faculty members with active research grantsThe department has received over $72M in direct research

cost over the last 5 years

The StoryThe academic enterprise takes an extraordinary amount

of effort and coordination to manage. Academic units need access to central and local data quickly and efficiently, often in aggregate form, to make decisions.

The Story: Central and Local DataIn 2001 at the Department of Psychology central and

local data was tracked and stored in disparate systems of data management:

M-Pathways

Paper

Word

ExcelFile Maker Pro

Meeting

Maker

Email

Personnel Memory

The Story: Data ManagementThe choice of data management was left to each

administrative office and typically based on the knowledge and experience of the personnel within the office.

Much of the data across the administrative offices was redundantly tracked using different metrics and granularity.

Generating reports using data from the various offices was extremely difficult and impossible if the report had to meet a tight deadline.

The Story: M-PathwaysLikewise, M-Pathways provided access to central data,

but creating reports across the various CPUs was very challenging.

When data needed to be aggregated from M-Pathways, Prism, and local data the task could involve multiple administrative offices and at times be beyond staff skill level.

The Story: A Change Was NecessaryThe goal for change was a single system with the

following properties:Each administrative office has the ability to manage the

information directly pertaining to its responsibilityShare information from each administrative office across

the departmentPull information from units outside the department as

neededQuickly and easily aggregate data to generate canned or ad

hoc reportsSupports evidence based decisions

The Story: We Decided To Build A SystemThe department chose to create its own solution referred

to as the Psychology Department Information System or PDIS.

A contractor was hired to gather requirements and build a web database system.

After 3 years of work the contract ended.We currently have a fulltime web applications developer

on staff.

Where Are We Today?PDIS Planned Services Exist TodayCourse Planning and Scheduling Enrollment Tracking and Reporting Collecting Faculty Preferred Workload Requests Collecting Faculty Annual Performance Reports Performing Faculty HR Administration Performing Staff HR Administration

Reporting Research Financial Information Reporting Department Financial Information

Performing Graduate Student Funding Management Space Analysis and Reporting

DemoPDIS

Preferred Workload FormTime ScheduleAnnual ReportTeaching Obligation Report

Looking Toward The FutureIn June 2007 a team (we call ourselves the xDIS

team) formed to investigate if modules within PDIS could be adopted centrally and scaled to be provisioned to academic units across UM.

Team members: John Gohsman, MAIS Steve Schlecht, Nick Hadwick, the College of LSA, Dean’s Office Shane Fortune, Business School Lynn Johnson, School of Dentistry Nathan Eriksen, School of Information Jeff Castle, Therese Kummer, Brian Wallace, the Psychology

Department Linda, Randolph, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer

Science

Looking Toward The FutureThe xDIS team is focusing on Faculty HR and

Course Planning solution with regard to Undergraduate and Graduate Office Academic Operations

Looking Toward The FutureWe surveyed the campus community asking

how you do business regarding faculty administration and course planning.

We are using the data to help us write a business case for a central solution.

The SurveyWhat tools do you use to manage your course

scheduling processes?

The SurveyWhat tools do you use to manage your course

scheduling processes?Vendor Applications:

LSA’s MRS System File Maker Pro Ctools Corel Office Products

PDIS Point Of ViewBefore PDIS: Our time scheduling planning used to be

literally thousands of email messages between the Chair, Area Chairs and Administrative Program Coordinators. The negotiations were subject to the most recent email message regarding a particular faculty member or class.

After PDIS: Faculty use the Preferred Work Load tool to tell the department what they want to do. Area Chairs review the information and may do some negotiation. Finalizing the department time schedule has been reduced to half hour meetings with the Chair, administration and Area Chairs.

The SurveyWhat are critical pieces of information that

you need for course planning that are not available from central data resources?Faculty teaching preferences and flexibilityFaculty teaching obligations and buyoutsFaculty availabilityUnit curriculum needsTeaching history and evaluationsOther units’ time schedulesDepartment focused information

PDIS Point Of ViewPDIS is a proof of concept that the following

information can be accessed and aggregated in one system.Faculty teaching preferences and flexibilityFaculty teaching obligations and buyoutsFaculty availabilityUnit curriculum needsTeaching history and evaluationsOther units’ time schedulesDepartment focused information

The SurveyWhat are the critical pieces of faculty information that you

maintain locally because it is not available from central data resources and how do you use this information?Course release, banked courses, and buyout informationFaculty leavesTeaching loadTeaching historyRoom preferencesCourse room requirementsStudents who need particular courses

The SurveyHow do you use this missing information to support your

faculty management needs?Hire lectures to fill gaps when faculty are not availableAccommodate faculty requestsMaking teaching assignmentsTo avoid scheduling conflictsOffer variety in courses and faculty who teach themMake commitments regarding teaching loadsTo know who is teachingCourse planningCommitment managementConnect appropriate faculty to courses

The SurveyHow do you manage faculty teaching

commitments, banked-time, buyout and sabbaticals for purposes of course planning?

Looking Toward The FutureWe appreciate your time today and thank you

for the opportunity to share what we are doing.

When our project gets off the ground we’ll need your help to create a solution that works best for U-M.

Questions?