Clearing the Way for Student Success

The STEPS Orientation Management project focused on the way new program students are invited to and register for the Madison College Orientation, Advising and Registration events. Improved processes mean students have less duplication of effort and spend less time signing up for an event and more time in important activities such as visiting with an advisor or registering for classes.

Improvements include these quick wins:
-Elimination of the "shadow system" that required students to provide their information multiple times.
-Time saving for staff who no longer have to pull data from multiple systems. 
-Time saving for students who are encouraged to activate their accounts prior to the event so they have more time at the event to spend on  registering and advising.
-Enhancement of attendance management allowing the college to better direct, track and report student attendance for the events. The new process records which students have been invited along with copies of their invitations within the student administration system.
-Centralization of information allows for better communication with stakeholders, such as center advisors, who can now access the information as needed without having to request a status report from the event coordinators.

The total time savings for this project is roughly 2-4 weeks per year, freeing up time to work on program enhancement, learning outcomes and curriculum development. 

According to Marty Crabbs, management/process analyst for Learner Development, "Students feel like they are 'in college' and part of the Madison College student experience sooner."  

Congratulations to Marty Crabbs, business owner, Jason Wiedenhoeft, team lead, and to team members Peri Mills, Gretchen Arneson, Claudia Griesbach, Mary Yang, Rona McNeil, Kay Wagner and Lori McRoberts. Special thanks to our subject matter experts Fran Moritz, Renee Alfano, Stephanie Dean, Regina Mosher and the consultants from CedarCrestone.