project:

Intranet/Student Evaluation System

client:

Sarah Lawrence College

design partner:

N/A

Sarah Lawrence College is a private and independent liberal arts college located 15 miles north of Manhattan. The college is known for its rigorous academic standards and low student-to-faculty ratio of 6-to-1. Kanban began working with Sarah Lawrence in 2009.

Challenge

Sarah Lawrence College utilizes a unique grading system whereby academic evaluations are conducted in lieu of grades. As a mission-critical process, a web-enabled system was required to streamline the evaluation process and provide archiving, search, and security functions, among many other improvements.

solution

Kanban interviewed an extensive number of faculty and established a steering committee made up of key professors and deans. An agile and collaborative approach was established with weekly on-site functionality reviews. The .Net technology stack fit within the overall technology standards and architecture.

results

The new student evaluation application incorporated a number of key features and improvements:

  • Version control, auto-save, and rich-text editing addressed serious shortcomings.
  • The system integrated with email to allow for alerts and direct communications.
  • A new security framework established printing controls and associated unique IDs.
  • The application integrated with legacy systems.
  • Usability improvements reduced the burden of completing evaluations for faculty.
  • Reporting and metrics allowed for the timely monitoring by the Registrars Office.

technology

The team integrated the following technologies:

  • MS.Net
  • C# .Net
  • Spring Framework for .Net
  • NHibernate
  • Jenzabar Internet Campus Solution (JICS Portal)