IRP Student – A Year in Review 

December 17, 2021

2021 marked a shift from planning to implementation in modernizing and upgrading UBC's Student Information Ecosystem. The Integrated Renewal Program - Student (IRP Student) has made noteworthy progress towards this renewal over the past few months.  

The first community-wide engagement was held in September, where students, faculty, and staff were introduced to IRP Student, including; timelines, benefits of the Program, the Program’s community engagement model, and an exciting first look at IRP Student was showcased (watch the session recording here). Two Community Confirmation Sessions were hosted and had excellent attendance and feedback from stakeholders. These sessions provide opportunities for stakeholders to see the outcome of the design work completed to date. The first wave of the hiring for the program was completed, and the first project milestone for IRP Student was reached on time - all great achievements! 

On November 4, 2021, a review of Milestone 1 was conducted. Milestone 1 was a pre-planned point in time to check the progress of the Program against the plan and to confirm that it is on track. 55 deliverables and five key decisions were reviewed, which confirmed over 85% of deliverables are on track with the remaining 15% requiring sign-offs which were quickly resolved. 

IRP Student would not have been able to achieve all it has in 2021 without the tremendous support and help of the UBC community. IRP Student sponsors, stakeholders, Community Design Consultants, Student Process and Outcomes Committee (SPOC) members, the Academic Model and Transformation Advisory Committee (AMTAC), and many others contributed significantly to the success of the program. 2022 will bring many more accomplishments through continued partnerships across both campuses. 

Below, some of the design highlights of 2021 are featured. 

Academic Requirements  

In 2021, the academic requirements and academic progress report functionalities with Workday were explored to learn about system capabilities and any limitations against the requirements. The extent to which Workday Student supports the program’s needs, gaps, and issues were identified and functional workarounds were brainstormed to meet UBC’s needs. Additionally, the scope and approach to the overall configuration of academic requirements (e.g., programs that currently use Degree Navigator reports) were agreed upon. 

Over the last few months, the re-usable degree requirements in Workday (known in Degree Navigator as degree type requirements) were set up for the following programs: 

• Bachelor of Applied Science (Vancouver and Okanagan) 
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (Vancouver and Okanagan) 
• Bachelor of Music 
• Bachelor of Commerce 
• MBA 
• Bachelor of Arts (Vancouver and Okanagan) 
• Bachelor of Science (Vancouver and Okanagan) 

Enhancements from Workday were received that made the display of the academic requirements even better for UBC students! In 2022, configuring academic requirements for majors, streams, options, minors, and more will be focused on! 

Pathway Declaration 

In 2021, the team tested what declaring/changing/dropping of majors/minors would look like in Workday with a small subset of Arts and Science Vancouver undergraduate programs. A first step was taken towards setting up Okanagan graduate program transfers between related disciplines: 

• Masters to Ph.D. 
• Ph.D. to Masters 
• Masters to Masters 
• Ph.D. to Ph.D. 

During the year, Community Design Consultants worked with the program to complete the “addable program” worksheets for programs. Furthermore, an agreement was reached on the scope and approach of what would be configured in Workday as part of pathway declaration (e.g., non-competitive majors) and work started with the School of Kinesiology and Faculty of Forestry to set up their processes in Workday. 

Sessional Evaluations 

In 2021, in consultations with UBC Leadership, the UBC community, and IRP Student governance, the future of sessional evaluations in Workday was defined. In addition, work started on setting up sessional evaluation rules in Workday for the Faculty of Management, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and the School of Health and Exercise Sciences. 

Next year, the rules for all programs that currently run sessional evaluations in UBC's current Student Information System will be set.  

Admissions 

2021 was a year of exciting new beginnings for the Admissions area. A Proof of Concept for the Admissions Solution was developed and gained approval on July 29, 2021. The team is now engaged in design and development work which will continue through 2022.  

Learner Financial Support 

In the Summer of 2021, the Stage 1 – Discovery Phase was completed, which included a total of 21 workshops with key stakeholders, a proof of concept of the AwardCloud functionality based on our most critical requirements, and a fit-gap analysis. All the work from this stage resulted in the decision to move forward to Stage 2 – Design and Implementation Phase with Deloitte as the implementer, and AwardCloud as the solution. 

More information on AwardCloud: 

• AwardCloud will be a separate system, which will integrate with other student solution systems to deliver end-to-end award management processes, enabling high-quality service and an enhanced user experience. 
• Using AwardCloud means staff will no longer have to complete many current manual processes and rely on offline tools to perform their work, resulting in greater efficiency and error rate reduction. 

The Design and Implementation phase officially kicked off in October 2021, starting with planning activities such as refining the implementation plan, drafting various technical strategy plans, and preparation work for design. Three surveys were sent out in October to award program managers and chairs to capture the current processes on award application, adjudication, and award/funding packaging. This valuable information will support the continued work to inform design options and decisions. The design work, which started in November, includes foundational topics such as user roles and security, and profile management. 

Learner Financial Management 

There were numerous key highlights for this area of focus in 2021. Successful Customer Confirmation Sessions were hosted in March and October to demonstrate tuition charges setup in Workday, including registration-based fees, course fees, and installment-based tuition; sponsor contract disbursement; U-Pass exemption request, and other functionalities. 

The team has configured about 95% of the rules for assessing undergraduate and graduate tuition and approximately 70% of the rules for assessing student fees. The team has successfully configured the usage of anticipated payments to account for pending awards and sponsor payments on a student’s financial account, as well as the usage of a student cohort for senior citizens to exclude them from tuition and fee assessment. The next few months will focus on designing and configuring student refunds, student fee opt-outs, payment precedence groups, and start looking at the student financials user experience - for both staff and students.  

Registration, Scheduling, and Transfer Credit  

In 2021, hiring and onboarding Business Analysts, Subject Matter Experts, and a Transformation and Change Lead set this team up for success. Two Registration demonstrations were completed and work continues on the design of these areas in Workday. 

2022 will include design, design, and more design! The team will be focusing on the design of:  

• Standard Timetables 
• Exam scheduling 
• The student view of exam schedule 
• Registration appointments 
• Tokens 
• Pre-req waiver/eligibility override 
• Waitlists; Co-located courses (previously known as cross-listed courses) 
• Special topics variable 
• Course Section Complete - scheduling E2E (What is Section Complete? Steps a user needs to do, to complete the section for it to be accessible for registration), 
• Reserved Capacity  
• Course Section Clusters 

Curriculum Management, Assessment Outcomes, and Learner Management 

2021 included several highlights in these areas. The definition of equivalency for courses was finalized and the future state of course eligibility rules (prerequisites/course restrictions) was discussed. Elements of the Workday course definition with Senate Curriculum Committees to determine design in Workday and curriculum proposal requirements were reviewed. Credit/D/Fail policy configuration was analyzed with the Senate Teaching & Learning Committee and Advising Directors. A decision was made that class size and class average should continue to appear on UBC transcripts. 

Other highlights include: 

• Most recently, Academic Unit Validation 
• Final approval of ‘new’ course codes 
• Defined instructional formats 
• Discussed delivery modes 
• Streamlined the configuration of minors 

Work will continue, along with the Senate secretariat, to identify where processes and information may need to be updated in the new year. The focus will also be on validation of course and program of study information, review, and approval of new grade values by Senate Academic Policy Committees as well as student status reasons in Workday.