TECHNOLOGY
success, but now we are collaborating and working cross-departmentally in new and nimble ways to accomplish this four-year graduation goal. We are working harder than ever on a campus-wide scale, which is helping to create a more inclusive culture.” Miller and IRT’s scope is extremely broad. Operating a team of 100 staff with a $10 million budget, the team’s expertise includes management of enterprise systems, campus applications, identity management, cyber security, technology service centers, websites, mobile apps, reporting, learning space provision, wireless and other infrastructure. Faster, smarter A large part of IRT’s recent energy has been channelled into implementing the Sac State Graduation Ecosystem, encompassing a series of integrated tools backed by analytic capability to help students succeed faster. Central to this is the KEYS to Degree Toolbox, a suite of online tools designed to help students manage all aspects of their University experience – from scheduling
their courses, managing financial aid, to assessing their progress via real-time dashboards, and, ultimately applying for graduation. Short for ‘Kit to Empower Your Success,’ the KEYS to Degree Toolbox includes the Smart Planner program, a bolt-on to Oracle’s PeopleSoft enterprise system from The Burgundy Group that was launched at Sac State in fall of 2016. “This helps our students, a large proportion of whom are first generation, to set a semesterby-semester plan using a guided roadmap to achieve academic goals and finish on time,” Miller adds. “And while we continue to collaborate with colleagues in Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to build all of our degree programs in the tool, we’ve reached a threshold of 8,500 students who have tried using Smart Planner, which is around 40 percent of those who are currently eligible.” Miller communicated the University goal to complete implementation of Smart Planner, i.e. make all degree programs available by the end of spring 2017. Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and IRT each play an ongoing
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