2006 Campus Technology Innovators: Student Information Systems
TECHNOLOGY AREA: STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Innovator: University of North Texas Health Science Center
ALEXANDER: UNTHSC’s SIS is
keeping
medical students ahead of the curve.
Challenge Met
As at most medical schools, the large class
sizes and lecture environment at the University
of North Texas Health Science Center
meant little faculty-student interaction.
Individual students at extreme ends of the
performance curve easily attracted faculty
and administrators’ attention, but the
majority of students floated from matriculation
to graduation anonymously.
Yet, at the Texas College of Osteopathic
Medicine (a component school of UNTHSC),
administrators wanted a better way to track
students, and protect them from academic—
and financial—pitfalls. “The average indebtedness
of a medical graduate is more than
$110,000,” says Jerry Alexander, director of
academic information services at UNTHSC.
“When a student is assisted through a
proactive approach and is able to successfully
graduate, the large investment of the
student, as well as the state of Texas, is protected.
Our goal is ‘no medical student left
behind.’”
Alexander and the Academic Information
Services team stepped up to the plate to
design and implement a comprehensive
online student tracking system.They focused
on bringing all reports into real-time, electronic
delivery: As soon as a student exam is
graded, that information is immediately
available online, integrated into his complete
academic record, with full drill-down capability—
from pre-admission data through the
most recent test grade. So much data now is
available that a full counseling report for a
fourth-year student can run over 15 pages.