UA Startup Targets Improved Information Systems and Services for Faculty and Students

The University of Arizona has licensed a tool to integrate student information systems and learning management systems to UA startup FishTail Technologies. The software, which simplifies the use of the University’s complex D2L curriculum management system, resulted from the inventive work of a collaborative, multi-unit team from the UA Office of Instruction and Assessment (OIA) and University Information Technology Services (UITS).

Adam Brokamp, UITS Senior Business Analyst, led the development project, which began in 2012, and included UITS team members David Baty, Jayaram Timsina and Alexander Angeles. OIA team members included Mark Felix, Garrett Flora and Mark Bryant.

Five years ago, the team set out to solve a very specific problem: the UA student information system did not integrate with the D2L learning management system employed at the university. In serving the UA’s 40,000 students, faculty requests to set up or make changes to class sections in those systems was taking inordinate amounts of time.

For example, hand-building 2,700 courses used to require highly specialized technical knowledge, as these systems did not have a user-friendly interface.

“The annual process would essentially shut down our office for one to two weeks every year,” says Felix. “Not only did it disrupt our work, but we’d be unable to respond to our normal flow of service requests for three or four days instead our normal turn-around time of a few hours.”

Having undergone continuous improvements and now in its fourth version, the API-driven system with its user-friendly interface allows faculty, instructors and staff – those who used to make these very requests – to input changes on their own and for audiences to see the updates in near real-time.

“Costs for a similarly featured system to do what we’re doing and service a University the size of the UA would range into six figures,” says Brokamp. “It would have less features and just be wrong for the faculty.”

Not only has the new integration tool empowered faculty through self-service and faster results, it has freed up the UITS and OIA teams to focus on their core competencies: continuously innovating improvements to UA systems and solving bigger, more systemic challenges.

Read the full story at Tech Launch Arizona.