SIS receives upgrade

Tufts faculty submitted grades online for the first time with last semester's final grades. Until then professors had to enter grades on paper bubble sheets and have them walked over to Dowling Hall. The new system, which was successfully piloted by five professors during the 2002 Summer Session, allows all instructors to post their grades online using the SIS application.

"Overall it was a huge success," said Patricia Sheehan Director of Technology for Academic Services and Student Affairs. "Everything went great and there were very few problems. There were only functional things that some faculty would like to see change." There are no plans for any changes this semester as long as everything continues to run smoothly.

There were over 30,000 grades for this cycle, all of which were posted during the time span of approximately one month.

"Technically speaking there were no issues," added a proud Sheehan. "There were no volume issues or system access problems. There was a lot of data and for the most part it went perfectly."

Sheehan was skeptical at first whether the system was going to work. "The information sessions were not well attended, which at first made me nervous. But it is evident that the faculty was confident in what they already knew about the program. There was a sense of comfort among the faculty and not a lot of angst."

For the faculty, this new process will allow for several luxuries. The most important benefit is that professors are able to submit grades from off campus.

"It was convenient for me since I was able to post grades without having to return to campus," said Scott Palmer, an instructor of expository writing.

As for the students, there was only a subtle change in that students could receive grades faster than from past usage of SIS. "From the students' perspective they were getting a better level of service," Sheehan said. "Most departments would collect all of the sheets from their faculty at one time and deliver them to be scanned," which took much more time.

The new system has brought about very few complaints. One concern is that of access, Palmer said. "Adjunct instructors, and to a lesser extent, graduate students, are not provided computers and thus have to make other arrangements to post grades. It can be tough since many of them are rushing around to get all those loose ends tied up before break," he said. Palmer feels that if online grading is going to be mandatory, instructors should have easy access to the tools needed to carry out those procedures.

Despite these few concerns regarding grading deadlines and policy decisions not directly tied to the functioning of the system, Sheehan said that the limited calls from faculty were mostly concerning forgotten passwords.

"We are talking with the deans' office now to digest how the semester went, but overall I think it was a huge success."