Enrollment Management Electronic Newsletter

Update on the EMS Campus Project

The EMS Campus implementation was initiated by Executive Staff as an upgrade and expansion of the existing reservation system serving the Student Center for some years. The expanded scheduling system includes four different modules or functions:

EMS Campus 2.0 database (the core of it all)

Virtual EMS (the online interface for viewing/requesting spaces)

Academic Scheduling function (the interface with Banner for academic courses and course scheduling)

Master Calendar (which integrates with our main Web site)

Each function requires a separate set of configuration processes before it can "go live." In spring 2009, we established an EMS Campus Administration group which has shared in the configuration, testing, implementation, and user training for these systems:

Don Rohel, Haydon Rudolf, and Libby Shanton (Student Center--current experts for EMS Campus and Virtual EMS)
Matt Gorman (IT Services--DBA)
Tracy Seffers, Cindy Snyder, and Pam Swope (Registrar--Academic Scheduling)

This group has been meeting regularly since February 2009. As academic scheduling coordinators are brought online, they will be made part of this group as well, with access to manuals, notes, and discussion forums through Sakai. An additional group to oversee the Master Calendar implementation has been identified but has not yet convened.

Here is a broad timeline of this project so far, and where it's headed this year:

Spring 2008

Project funding approved for a future software release (initially expected summer 2008--delayed several months by vendor).

October 2008

Vendor released updated version of the software; IT began installation and server reconfiguration.

February 2009

EMS Campus trainer Jesse Myers visited the campus for four days to assist with the installation and initial system configurations, and to provide preliminary training.

At the end of our four-day site visit from the EMS Campus trainer Jesse Myers, the IT department migrated the existing EMS database (used primarily by the Student Center for its reservations) to the new EMS Campus 2.0 version in a test environment. The Student Center staff took a week or two to become familiar with it before the system was brought up live. This testing period was crucial so that they could remain functional during the database transition.

March-April 2009

In early March, the existing EMS database was migrated to the new version, EMS Campus 2.0.

That "go live" date kicked off a period of system configuration and cross-checking, to ensure that both the existing Student Center functions AND the new academic space functionality would work properly.

As is not unusual in such implementations, technical challenges pushed back some of our initial target dates: in particular, the data interchange between the Banner system and the EMS database did not function as expected. Because accurate Banner information is critical for all of our student operations, we worked with the vendor to amend its programming, and moved ahead only when we were confident that the data being passed from one system to another was accurate.

(End-of-semester processes took priority in May 2009)

Summer 2009

During the summer, we continued working with the vendor to correct processes that pass data about academic buildings and rooms into the EMS system. All academic spaces were imported into the EMS database.

The import process for semester class schedules was tested, amended, and re-tested. Spring 2009, Summer 2009, and Fall 2009 schedules were imported into the EMS database.

Fall 2009

We have begun the process of scheduling for the Spring 2010 Semester. Given the ongoing concerns about the passing of accurate data out of and into Banner, we have approached the EMS scheduling process as a pilot with a single school, the School of Education and Professional Studies. This pilot will be repeated for Summer and Fall 2010 schedules for all other departments:

Importing each academic building coordinator's existing non-course reservations to the new database.

Reviewing and refining departmental database configurations to make sure that the appropriate controls are in place for their spaces and courses.

Making the building's general academic spaces visible through the online Virtual EMS reservation system (which will automatically route any requests to the appropriate scheduling person).

Implementing the scheduling process through the new online system provided by EMS Campus (replaces the paper process).

Training and testing as needed to ensure that the scheduling coordinators are connected and functional in the new system.

These dates have been and will continue to be deliberately broad and flexible as needed to accommodate our other work as well as that of the other departments whose cooperation and assistance we'll rely on during these months. We want to get it right--but we'll need your help and support.

Thanks to all of you who have been interested and involved and supportive--we all look forward to seeing this work progress.

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