[Using Sakai] Question about Sakai -> Registrar integration

[Gordon, Patricia (psg3a)]

Hi Amber,

We have integrated our Gradebook to export final course grades to our SIS via a relay server. The exported grades are first sent to this relay server, where the SIS system gets them for import and approval by the instructor on that system. Here’s a link to our user guide that describes the process from an end-user perspective:
            http://www.sis.virginia.edu/CenterHelp/helppdfs/ResrcFaculty%20GradingCollabandSIS.pdf
We did the programming in-house. The process has a dependency on the daily roster data feed we get from our SIS. This data is available to instructors to select their roster(s) when creating their course sites. It also updates the enrolled student membership in a site for adds/drops/withdrawals. This keeps the systems mostly in sync (but our Sakai instance lags by a day to updates made in the SIS).

Pros: this is especially useful for courses with large enrollment sets since our SIS has no grade import capability. It also automates the process for getting grades from Sakai to our SIS for all courses that use the Gradebook to calculate final grades.

Cons: We’ve made and must maintain a lot of customizations in Gradebook. For example, since we decided to disable the capability to enter letter grades in our Gradebook, we later decided to add a customization to provide instructors with a way to import final letter grades from a spreadsheet for export to SIS. If you’re interested, this user guide describes this from an end-user perspective:

   https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/access/content/group/ac005a57-c82f-48b8-0075-aae7c8407ca8/User%20Guides/import-letter-grades.pdf

We’re happy to answer other questions about our customizations and process if you have them.

Cheers!
Trisha

Trisha Gordon
UVaCollab User Support Manager
https://collab.itc.virginia.edu<https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/>
collab-support at virginia.edu<mailto:collab-support at virginia.edu>

Information Technology Services
University of Virginia
PO Box 400198
Charlottesville, VA 22904
e: psg3a at virginia.edu
v: 434.243.5465
skype: usstrisha
virtual office: http://tinyurl.com/trisha-vo



From: sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org [mailto:sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Amber D. Evans
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 2:20 PM
To: end-user-support at collab.sakaiproject.org
Cc: Sakai T&L; Amber D. Evans-Marcu
Subject: Re: [Using Sakai] Question about Sakai -> Registrar integration

Hi folks,

Sorry about the likely inappropriateness of this cross-posting, but I knew you would know where to send me if there was another listserv better suited for the below question.

I'm with Methodist College of Nursing and we're running Sakai 2.8.1 with Gradebook (not Gradebook 2).  We're using CAMS (comprehensive academic management system from Three Rivers Systems) that stores and reports our official Midterm and Final Grades among other things.  We are trying to determine the various ways a connection can be setup between the Sakai Gradebook and CAMS so that when faculty have their grades ready in Sakai, those grades can be easily moved/ported/sent/etc. into our CAMS.

We know UC Davis has a away for grades to automatically port over.  I cannot remember if Virginia Tech has an automated process or not.

Can you please answer the below so we can make an educated decision?  You can reply to the listserv or to me privately. Any answers you give will be most helpful and appreciated!

  1.  What is the solution or process at your school for sending grades from Sakai to your Registrar?
  2.  Is it:

     *   an automated schedule (e.g., Oct. 14th, letter grades are automatically sent over to your Registrar?) or
     *   semi-manual (faculty press a button in one system or another to transfer the grades over), or
     *   manual (faculty download an export from the gradebook and then import that into the other system OR they type the grades in by hand).

  1.  For any of the above options, did it require in-house programming or 3rd party programming solutions?

     *   If yes, who did you use?

  1.  What is the pros/cons of your current setup?
Thank you!

Sincerely,
Amber D. Evans

Ph.D. Candidate, Instructional Design and Technology, Virginia Tech
Coordinator of Continuing Education & Informatics Instructor, Methodist College of Nursing
10+ years experience in Higher Education, Training, CMS/LMS, & Professional Development
= = =
amber.evans at gmail.com<mailto:amber.evans at gmail.com>  |  http://amsdiane.blogspot.com/  |  http://www.linkedin.com/in/adevans  |  Text "amsdiane" to 50500
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"Non scholae sed vitae discimus"  ("We learn not for school but for life")  -Seneca
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