‘My Profile’ and ‘My Advisor’, two new systems launched from academic records, allow for students and faculty at SRU to get to know each other better.
Both new aspects are part of the SRU portal in the student information system Banner. The program took all the individual screens from the previous version of Banner and combined them into one screen.
According to Connie Edwards, director of academic records and registration, the purpose of the new ‘My Profile’ and ‘My Advisor’ is to help with advisement but also to better assist students in getting to know who faculty are, with pictures being used on both profiles. The new system also allows for easier navigation, with all information being located in one accessible location. Edwards said this system makes it more convenient for freshmen or transfer students because rather than just getting a name, a student gets a picture of their professor, where their office is located and information about the class the student is enrolled in.
Students will also be able to see their test scores such as SATs or ACTs, or PAPA scores for education majors. ‘My Profile’ can also tell students if they have holds on their accounts, where they will be notified if the listed hold will prohibit them from registering for the class.
Edwards said the reason for the change was due to the evolution of Banner.
“We went live with Banner in the fall of 2011 and this is just the natural evolution of the product,” Edwards said. “The company Ellucian’s next evolution was called Banner 9 and so part of Banner 9 is the advising profile.”
Edwards said one advantage of Banner 9 is the chosen name policy, which was approved by the president’s cabinet. This allows for students to change the option of going by either their chosen name, which will also be the name used on their diploma.
There are three modules that SRU will be implementing to ‘My Profile’ and ‘My Advisor’. The first module was the advising profile and the class list that shows faculty students’ photos.
“A lot of times faculty like to see what the students look like so in addition to the name they can see what students look like,” Edwards said.
The next module will be registration, which is aiming to be unveiled during the fall 2018 semester. The third module will allow for faculty grading, which will add a new way for faculty to show class grades.
