Next Generation Student Information Services

The goal of the Next Generation Student Information Services Program (NGSIS) is to create and deploy technological solutions that help students fully engage in rewarding learning experiences and achieve academic and personal success, and that help faculty and staff provide a rich and supportive educational environment.

Through targeted investment in information technology, over the past nine years, NGSIS has introduced a wide variety of new services for students and staff, providing real-time information about all aspects of the student experience. As a result, NGSIS is now actively supporting over 25 individual student and administrative applications in addition to the current core Student Information System (SIS)/ROSI system. Included in this list are some of the most successful NGSIS services for students, faculty, and staff, such as ACORN, Degree Explorer, and more recently, Timetable Builder, Award Explorer, the Course Information System and Accommodated Testing Services (ATS).

As with many operational teams at U of T, the NGSIS development team had to pivot quickly over the past several years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these pressures, the NGSIS team continued to make significant improvements to our suite of supported applications, as well as to initiate a new project to implement a new Student Advising Service (CRM) using Salesforce.

In addition, in order to help U of T chart a new course forward in replacing and/or renewing our core SIS, the team also contracted Deloitte Consulting services to complete an environmental scan of potential student information systems in the marketplace to replace ROSI in the future.

Through this work, we have established that currently there are no vendor or cloud-based solutions that will easily accommodate U of T’s requirements. As mature cloud solutions are likely years away, U of T should continue to keep an eye on the marketplace but also invest in current solutions such as ACORN, Degree Explorer, Course Information System and Award Explorer. In addition, consideration should be given to improving the ROSI user experience using in-house resources over the next several years.

For a more detailed explanation of these strategic recommendations and specific projects for the coming year, please explore the remaining sections of this report.

Following close consultations with divisions, U of T is currently implementing an enterprise vendor application, Salesforce Student Success Hub for Higher Education, to support academic divisions in transforming their student advising services. This innovative solution will present the interconnected student story, streamline the student and staff experience, promote evidence-based student support practices, ensure consistent and transparent service delivery, and increase administrative efficiencies.

NGSIS is currently working in partnership with the Office of the Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education to implement the solution with the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education. After which, the service will be assessed for future expansion to other divisions.

Building on the discovery work completed in 2021-22, the scope and timeline for the initial implementation in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education have been finalized, and a framework for future onboarding of additional divisions is under development. The target date for Phase 1 Foundational Release, detailed below, is winter 2023. Development work has already begun for Phase 1 and the team is working towards finalizing testing and training plans. Further rollout will occur throughout the spring and fall of 2023.

Functionality for Phase 1: Foundation – Staff Onboarding includes:

• Success Teams Assignment – structure of assigning staff to the student population they support
• Referrals – Internal, External, Student Facing (emailed referral information)
• Staff Appointment Scheduling
• Interaction Tracking and Notes – to track student communications and staff tasks
• Internal Knowledge – build categories and content
• Reports and Dashboards

And the Key Integrations proposed for Phase 1 include:

• ROSI Integration
• SharePoint Integration
• TCard Photo Integration
• Security Auditing
• Outlook Integration (Plug-In)
• Staff Single Sign On

U of T has contracted with some of the leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms in the past few years and the demand for integration with our core Systems of Record has increased significantly.

Over the past decade, a standard method for integrating systems has emerged, including a standard to secure such methods. NGSIS has established resources in the Microsoft Azure Cloud that support these standards and facilitate the exchange of data between the core systems and the SaaS platforms.

The NGSIS Digital Platform enables integration with other systems and platforms to support the efficient flow of institutional data.

A Proposed Evolution of ROSI: Continued Modernization
ROSI itself continues to be a legacy application, albeit a web-based one, and questions remain regarding the future of our core student system. Should U of T replace ROSI with a modern cloud-based vendor product; should we redevelop this system using the latest in Java development tools; or should our future direction include a combination of both vendor and homegrown solutions? Should U of T consider using an API-centric approach to enable composite applications that use functionality from multiple applications, including Salesforce, ROSI and SharePoint?

To prepare U of T for this, and future SaaS integrations, an initiative to design and implement a new User Interface framework with a new API-centric architecture for administrative systems was instigated. The NGSIS Digital Platform can call these APIs, thereby transferring data into or out of these platforms on behalf of users or other systems. The new User Interface framework, named OASIS (Online Administrative Student Information Services), can be used to support academic or administrative processes that require interaction with one or more SaaS platforms.

The new integration capabilities, with the new User Interface framework, will enable U of T to use a variety of different SaaS platforms, each suited for a particular purpose, and combine them to support unique business processes without major changes to the platforms themselves.

Leveraging API Development
NGSIS has established a team to focus on systems integration. The team develops interfaces and APIs to support the flow of information across multiple systems. The objective is to reduce the duplication of effort expended in entering the same data into different systems, and for decision-makers to access the right information, in the right system, at the right time (I.e., when the decision maker needs it).

Rather than copying data from one system to another every week, or every night, data are accessed in real-time at the source of truth. Using only the sources of truth reduces the number of sources that need to be secured. Working from the sources of truth provides confidence that the data are accurate.

The Integration team manages resources that enable divisions to develop and publish their own APIs for their own integration purposes – with ROSI or other systems. This will reduce the need to wait for NGSIS developers to become available.

The Integration team enables other projects to be successful and has communication paths with other teams that are implementing solutions, as depicted in the image below.

Several new APIs have integrated external systems that update ROSI in real-time, namely Salesforce and Slate. This reduces the number of systems that administrators need to update, saving time and reducing discrepancies between systems.

A total of 22 APIs are currently in production, including:

• Candidacy, Admissions and Confirmation APIs
• Degree Confirmation APIs
• Job Evaluation API
• Absence Declaration APIs
• Phonebook APIs
• SharePoint API
• Student Profile API
• Accommodated Testing Services APIs
• U of T Timetable Application Rest API
• ROSI REST API
• Open data API by UofT
• OASIS Timetable Admin API
• OASIS Log Service REST API
• Candidacy REST API
• Accessibility Services API

Authentication / Authorization

• Authentication
  Since 2004, web applications at U of T have been integrated with Shibboleth Single Sign-On, also known as WebLogin, for user authentication. UTORid is the credential used for Shibboleth. Modern applications now use a different method to authenticate users, called Open ID Connect (OIDC), which is compatible with a broader number of applications, including native mobile applications. U of T will support both types of authentication methods (Shibboleth and OIDC). Applications that integrate with Microsoft 365, e.g., to access SharePoint documents, will need to authenticate users using Azure AD.

• Authorization
  User authorizations (i.e., determining what a user is allowed to access/execute in an application) need to be finer-grained than in the past due to increased security risks. Applications and systems (e.g., Degree Explorer) usually have their own authorization mechanisms, which makes it difficult to maintain the correct authorizations as people and devices/components, move or change status, since each application or system must be updated individually. The solution is to consolidate the authorization methods into a limited number of options. A proof-of-concept project started in late 2021 to determine the appropriate technologies to support Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) in addition to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). Once implemented, applications will be modified one by one to integrate and support the new ABAC capabilities. ABAC will enable U of T to improve compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (where applicable), improve on-boarding and off-boarding efficiencies, and simplify operations.

Development of new functionality and extension of implementation to additional divisions remains a focus with the set of applications that support the administration of course and program development, review and approval, and publication and offering. While separate, these applications are being developed with points of integration with each other and with other NGSIS services.

Course Information System (CIS):

The Course Information System provides convenient, online services to support the administration of courses for instructors, departments, and faculty offices. CIS provides instructors with a streamlined way to:

• Assist with the creation of their course syllabus by providing tools to inform the development of their marking scheme as well as guidelines on faculty and institutional policy statements.
• Submit and duplicate final exam papers in a secure, online platform.
• Provide administrative details regarding assessments for students writing with accommodations.

Looking ahead, CIS is planning for future releases that will include the following enhancements:

• A new end-to-end Syllabus Builder Module that would enable an instructor to create a syllabus for their course completely within CIS for the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, with a target of winter 2023.
• Extend the new Syllabus Builder Module to other undergraduate divisions, including the Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto Scarborough, and University of Toronto Mississauga.
• Enhance the capabilities of the Syllabus Builder Module, with a focus on accessibility and usability.
• Bring undergraduate courses at the University of Toronto Mississauga onboard to the Exam Modules within CIS, with a target of 2024.

The import of Course tagging from CM has been implemented to enable course instructors to identify and associate specific learning experiences as components expected to be completed by all enrolled students. This functionality will support clarity and transparency regarding student learning experiences within their programs and courses. Additional functionality was also delivered to allow instructors to provide additional session-specific information (subcategories) to course experience tags imported from Curriculum Management (see the entry for Curriculum Management).

Administrators can now also access previous sessional data stored in CIS. This new functionality offers our administrators their data in a well-organized and easy-to-retrieve format while saving time, as there is no more need for storing and managing copies of information offline. In addition, it increases the overall security of the system as it ensures that only the right people can access the right files, which is of critical importance given the highly confidential nature of our documents.

Accommodated Testing Services (ATS)

Started in March of 2019, and formerly known as Test and Exam Services, the Accommodated Testing Services (ATS) project leverages NGSIS products to introduce significant benefits to students registering for accommodated test writings, to instructors providing test details and documents, and to administrators tasked with keeping ATS processes working efficiently and in a timely manner. The system is being designed and implemented to support the administration of Accommodated Tests and Exams. Instructors, students and administrative staff will find the new process seamless, transparent and intuitive, providing easy online access to information through pre-existing U of T platforms. There will be multiple phases to this initiative. The ATS application is deployed in the new Azure Cloud, utilizing API calls also residing in the cloud.

Phase 2 of the project will include the launch of a student request module on ACORN and the full roll-out of a new Accommodated Testing Services administrative application. Phase 2 expected completion is at the end of the calendar year 2022 or early 2023.

Following phase 2, phase 3 will focus on enhancing the various system components via rolling production releases, until all in-scope processes are completed and stabilized. There is also a plan to expand the work done within ATS to Accessibility Services. Requirements exploration will begin in the form of a discovery phase this year.

For phase 1, ATS completed two pilots (fall 2019 and winter 2020) that included participation from the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, the Faculty of Arts & Science (three departments), the Faculty of Law, and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. The Accommodated Testing module in CIS was rolled out to all University of Toronto St. George (UTSG) instructors in fall 2020. Based on feedback received from instructors, administrators and ATS staff in fall 2020, a series of enhancements were rolled out at key times of the year between the winter 2021 and winter 2022 sessions. Additionally, new administrative functionality was introduced for academic administrators to manage accommodated testing within their units and the first modules of the new ATS staff system were completed.

Curriculum Management (CM):

Curriculum Management was the first product to be delivered through our original partnership with Kuali Inc.

The application allows divisions to create, maintain and retire courses and programs using customized divisional governance processes, and in tandem, allows NGSIS to create a central repository of courses and programs for U of T that can be integrated with various NGSIS systems. The SIS team has also developed specialized governance committee reports as well as diagnostic reports and lists for the divisions. Curriculum Management (CM) data is also exported for inclusion in publications generated by Curriculum Publisher (CP).

The focus of work for 2022-23 will be the extension of CM to all graduate programs at U of T so that we have the entire inventory together and in a consistent format for inclusion in the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) Academic Calendar. Analysis work will be undertaken to extend the configuration to cover the complexities of graduate program structures at U of T as well as data needs in the Office of the Vice-Provost Academic Programs and in SGS with respect to tracking programs and academic change. The target is late summer 2023 for the import of all programs into CM, configuration of workflow, and training of staff to use the system. The graduate divisions will be invited to implement CM for their graduate courses along with their programs. Those second-entry divisions not yet using CM may wish to implement graduate and undergraduate curricula together. We will consider the scope of that work.

Before the 2021-22 governance cycle, Work Integrated Learning category tags were implemented for undergraduate courses. Subcategory tags have now been added for the divisions that choose to record these at the canonical level. Additional UI configurations have been made to improve publication (HTML replacing plain text in some cases) or to add divisional data (addition of Engineering “Graduate Attributes” including the import of initial data).

Curriculum Publisher (CP):

Curriculum Publisher (CP) is a U-of-T-developed content management website that optionally interfaces with Kuali Curriculum Management (CM), allowing divisions to publish a public-facing Calendar or Academic Handbook. CP has undergone a major technical upgrade to Drupal 8.

Following platform upgrades in each of the past two years, all instances of CP will be further upgraded to Drupal 10 over the coming year. This will be completed as each Calendar instance is prepared for publication, as will any adjustments each division’s request to their format.

The CM project to import graduate programs could result in some reformatting of the data that is now included in the SGS Academic Calendar published via CP. Some analysis work will need to be completed to facilitate the transition when the first CM populated Calendar is published.

In addition to the formatting and data import changes that divisions requested for their Calendars and handbooks, the focus of work in 2021-22 was the upgrade of all instances from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9.

	Curriculum Management		Curriculum Publisher
Curriculum Management & Curriculum Publisher Usage	Undergraduate Courses & Programs	Graduate Courses	Calendar / Handbook
First Entry
Faculty of Arts & Science		X	Calendar
University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM)		X	Calendar
University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC)			Calendar
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design			Calendar
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering		X	Calendar
Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education		X	Calendar
Faculty of Music		X	Calendar
Second Entry & Graduate
Faculty of Information			Both
Faculty of Medicine	X	X	Handbook (MD Program)
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)	X		Handbook
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy		X	Calendar
School of Graduate Studies	X	X	Calendar

Last updated September 2022