Each year, from March through May, the Applications Development team provides support for the Registrar’s Office Academic Performance Evaluation (APE) process. This process involves assessing approximately 18,300 Undergraduate and 2,600 Special Students against appropriate rules and regulations built into the DARS encoding. This assessment determines a student’s academic standing at the University. A positive or negative decision determines eligibility to continue.
This annual activity has been transformed over the years with the addition of 50+ custom built DARS processes, reports and analytics being put into the hands of the RO’s Academic Evaluation team. Innovations introduced into the APE processes via the DARS academic audit engine have had the cumulative effect of a far more timely and accurate assessment of student standing being generated by approximately 90% fewer RO staff since inception. There is a high degree of confidence in the integrity of the data, which is also used internally in support of student retention efforts and externally by students planning their academic future.
The APE process continues to evolve each year. It is the support from the Applications Development Team in close collaboration with the RO that gives this process the flexibility needed to meet the numerous demands of the annual cycle. APE related automation innovations introduced over the last few cycles have also allowed ITS staff involvement in the process to be reduced from 1 dedicated person over the 3 months to .5 for the 2010 cycle, with further reductions anticipated in 2011.