MCC 360 Project Updates (April 2017 - Present)
February 2019
Works continues on the MCC Navigate platform that will provide students with timely
access to advising support as well as assistance in selecting and enrolling in courses.
The coming weeks will see an information campaign to make students aware of the self-service
features and advantages of Navigate with the goal of 100% student use for Fall 2019.
Continuing the training sessions we began in the late summer and fall, there will
be ten “Introduction to Navigate” training sessions for faculty and staff this spring.
Also, we continue to develop a robust collection of online training materials available
in the PD Blackboard site. Title III implementers are also exploring Navigate Intelligence,
an analytics application that will show advisors select risk factors in connection
with student profiles and thereby provide faculty and advisors with additional information
for their work with students. The creation of dashboards and visualizations of information
is also taking place with a data warehouse to be fully in place later this Spring.
The dashboards and visualizations will provide the college community with student
trend information in aggregate to inform analysis and the development of institutional
strategies to better serve students. In addition, the Title III External Evaluator
report on the first two years of the project will soon be made available to the college
through the FSA website.
December 2018-January 2019
In December, the onboarding support for MCC Navigate continued with a series of virtual
trainings which allowed attendees to access the Navigate training session from their
own computers. Eighteen members of our faculty and staff signed up for virtual training.
As of December 20th, 53% of professional and faculty advisors with assigned advisees
have attended Navigate training. We will continue our training sessions in the spring
as we "Go Live" with MCC Navigate on February 1st, 2019 for all students faculty and
staff.
In addition, Institutional Research, in conjunction with HelioCampus, is verifying
the Banner data tables in the data warehouse to ensure consistency in definitions
and how data is stored. This review and verification will allow HelioCampus to develop
create visualizations through the Tableau reporting tool and start us on our way to
using analytics to inform decisions around enrollment, retention and student success
initiatives.
Also, thank you to those who took part in the external evaluation session on November
15. Your input and insight was very much appreciated.
November 2018
MCC Navigate is now available to students as a self-service resource for planning and scheduling through the Student Portal. Faculty and staff training continues to progress as well with 44% of full-time faculty and staff trained on the use of MCC Navigate as of November 2018. Additional training sessions for Navigate have been added to the weekly training schedule and these sessions will run on Monday and Tuesday afternoons until the end of this semester.
The coming year will see other new resources added to the Student Portal including Online Orientation and Financial Wellness modules. Both the Online Orientation and the iGrad Financial Literacy and Career Resources platform are anticipated to be available to students in Spring 2019.
With our Analytics Officer Robin Marra on board you’ll also be hearing more about how we use data to address questions related to services for students and institutional effectiveness.
October 2018
College wide trainings for MCC Navigate began this month with Friday trainings being
offered on both campuses (alternating locations). In addition, three MCC Navigate
training sessions were offered at the All-College Professional Day. Over fifty faculty
and staff signed up to be introduced to MCC Navigate on this day.In addition to the
Navigate planning tool, the Student Portal continues to develop through other Title
III efforts as well. An Online Orientation is in development and a one-time supplemental
award to Title III projects for the coming year will support a Financial Wellness
initiative. The Financial Wellness work will build on efforts currently underway
and provide learning content for students through an online platform as well as direct
services through classroom/workshop modules and individual counseling.
September 2018
Nine MCC faculty members are participating in an online course in research-based effective
teaching practices. This pilot course, provided by ACUE (Association of College and
University Educators), is being funded by our current Title III grant. Other MCC 360
activity includes upcoming weekly MCC Navigate training (starting on Friday, Oct 12th).
These training sessions will alternate on both campuses.As well as the hiring of our
new Analytics Officer, Robin Marra, MCC360 is undertaking implementation of HelioCampus,
a data warehouse that will support the use of analytics related to student progress
and retention. Stay tuned as reporting on various facets of the student experience,
as well as administrative functions, become available through Tableau interactive
dashboards.The coming year’s quarterly MCC 360 Advisory Committee meetings are tentatively
scheduled for the following dates: Monday, October 15; Monday, December 17; Monday,
March 11; Monday, June 17
Summer 2018 (June-August)
The Title III-supported MCC 360 project has had a busy summer. The MCC 360 advisory
board met in early July to hear updates about the project’s progress. In the coming
year, the advisory board will be meeting on a quarterly basis as we begin the implementation
of grant-supported systems such as Navigate (IPAS tool) and Heliocampus (data warehouse).
During this summer, we are conducting training on EAB Navigate for faculty who will
serve as peer resources for their divisions. We have also begun to look at ways to
use the Tableau data visualization tool to help communicate actionable data related
to student success. In addition, we have been interviewing applicants for the role
of Data Analytics Officer, who will play a key role in helping the college strategize
about ways in which we can collect and use data to advance the goals of the grant.
May 2018
The MCC 360 team is moving ahead steadily with our project. Here are a few developments.
After introducing Navigate--the integrated planning and advising system (IPAS)--at
the last FSA meeting, we will be following up with super user training in the summer
where select faculty and staff will be trained on the new IPAS tool. These faculty
and staff will serve as resource people for their areas as training on Navigate is
extended to the wider college community.
We have begun work this month on our online orientation initiative and will continue
until the May 2019 launch date.
We are moving ahead with the implementation of our data warehouse to support analytics
and will be hiring a full-time data analytics officer to help facilitate this work.
Finally, in the fall, there is an opportunity for select full and part-time faculty
to participate in the ACUE Course on Effective Teaching Practices—an online educational
resource that is nationally recognized for promoting best practices in teaching.
April 2018
Construction of the test site for EAB Navigate/Campus tools is under way. Trainings
for select staff and faculty will begin in late April and early May. These trainings
will be conducted in the test environment. The MCC EAB team will be making adjustments
to the data before we go live. A month by month training plan for the wider college
community has been prepared. However, it is subject to change until we have a solid
production environment for students, faculty and staff. There will be a ten minute
presentation at the May FSA where Bryant Wint, Jillian Freitas-Haley, and Peter Shea
will discuss the roll out of EAB Navigate/Campus to the MCC community.
March 2018
Susan Anderson, Dean of Resource Development, has been appointed the new Title III Project Coordinator. (Susan replaces Jennifer Luddy, our former Dean of Institutional Research, who has accepted a position at UMass Amherst.)
The EAB Navigate test environment is in the process of being built and should be ready on March 30th for the Navigate Build Teams to start reviewing the data. A description of EAB Navigate’ s functions will be presented at the last FSA meeting of the year.
In addition, the steering committee is reviewing both data warehouse and online orientation technology as potential investments later in the MCC 360 project timeline.
February 2018
On January 2, MCC leaders convened for “The Future of Data at MCC: A Summit” to discuss
the College’s current and future needs for information and analysis. The importance
of data was underscored in MCC’s most recent strategic plan under the goal of Institutional
Effectiveness and the College’s commitment to the objectives outlined in the Title
III-supported MCC 360 project. The Summit was facilitated by Frank DeRose of DeRose
Consulting Services and was organized to draw upon the collective experiences and
expertise of those who use data to make decisions or who play major roles in the management
of information.
On January 10, the College had a day-long series of workshops related to the adoption of EAB Navigate. At this meeting, four build-teams were formed whose members included faculty, staff, and students from across the College. These teams were tasked with addressing four areas related to the college-wide adoption of EAB Navigate: Advising, Onboarding, Communications and Academic Planning. In addition, the EAB team meets virtually with the leadership of the build-teams and the technical team on a regular basis. After user training, full implementation of EAB Navigate is expected for the fall, depending on the internal team’s ability to meet expectations.
On January 30, as part of our efforts toward obtaining a CRM to store and organize our institutional data, representatives from MCC met with administrators & IT staff at UML to discuss UML’s experience with Salesforce, a comprehensive CRM built to address multiple communication and case management needs, including recruitment, retention, workforce development, and financial aid. The Salesforce CRM also serves as a ‘solutions center’ for faculty, staff, and students who have any type of question.
January 2018
The MCC 360 project has been moving forward with the implementation of EAB Navigate,
the IPAS (Integrated Planning and Advising Services) solution which the college is
purchasing with funds from Title III grant. Several cross-functional teams have been
assembled from stakeholders across the college to help plan the rollout. The EAB team
was on campus on January 10 to work with four functional teams: Academic Planning,
Advising, Onboarding, and Communication. On that day, 30 faculty and staff received
guidance as to their roles in the implementation over the next six months, while students
provided their perspectives on navigating the current system and how new features
may help them enroll at the college, register for classes, and persist into graduation
and/or transfer.
EAB Navigate will transform the entire student experience through promoting self-service
guided by technology. The tool will help faculty and staff communicate with students
more effectively, and offer more targeted just-in-time guidance. You are invited to
take some time to become familiar with this exciting and potentially game-changing
tool. Information on MCC360 and the EAB Navigate tool can be located at https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/mcc360/.
For a presentation of the project that was conducted at Middlesex, please go to https://youtube.com/watch?v=SvQoahKvF5o&feature=youtube.be
November 2017
The MCC 360 kick off presentation occurred Wednesday, November 8th, in Cafe East of the Bedford campus. Representatives from EAB demonstrated Navigate, the enterprise management software, which the college is purchasing with funds from our current Title III grant. The intent of the kickoff was to help the college become familiar with the various modules and functionalities of Navigate, and to better understand our business processes related to student access, communications, advising, and registration – as well as technology and workflow audits. The PowerPoint presentation that accompanied the kickoff can be seen on the MCC 360 webpage: https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/mcc360/. There is also a video of the day’s presentation for those who were not able to attend.
The next step is building the teams that will implement EAB Navigate. There will be a meeting with our EAB partners on January 10th for this purpose. In addition, a guide to building teams for EAB Navigate has been posted on the MCC 360 webpage.
October 2017
In September, MCC purchased a new-student product, and integrated planning and advising solution known as Navigate as part of the Title III Grant, MCC360 Success from the Start: The Path to Completion. On November 8th, EAB will be conducting demonstrations of its Navigate platform. Navigate consists of four key features: Guided Onboarding, Smart Academic Planning, 360 Advisor Dashboard, and Actionable Administrator Views. Demonstrations will be held in Café East on the Bedford campus at 9 am and again at 12:45 pm. This new and exciting product will help our students bring guided pathways on to their road to success.
In addition, MCC will be having a site visit from the Title III External Evaluators, Kathe German and Phil Sbaretta. The site visit will be Thursday, Oct 26th on the Lowell campus
September 2017
We are pleased to announce that the college has entered into a partnership with EAB (the Education Advisory Board Company), and has purchased its EAB-Navigate product and services. EAB-Navigate has an extensive number of robust and exciting features that support many objectives identified in our Title III Grant, “MCC360 Success from the Start: The Path to Completion.”
This tool will enable the college to promote a deeper integration of student planning and advising tools. Many months of dialogue, product presentations, and vendor document reviews helped to achieve this new partnership. Implementation of EAB-Navigate began in mid-September.As we enter year 2 of the Title III grant, we will shift our focus to procure solutions for CRM (customer relationship management) and data analytics resources.
August 2017
After a thorough review of the proposals submitted for the Student Portal and IPAS contract, a final vendor will be selected before the end of August. Following that, the MCC 360 committee will begin working in the fall on the next two requests for proposals — for the CRM and Data Analytics software.
July 2017
An MCC 360 Summit was held on Tuesday, June 20th in Café East Bedford. Members of the Title III MCC 360 Advisory Committee met to discuss the Requests for Proposals that were sent out to vendors on Wednesday, June 21st. The advisory committee reviewed the rubric for assessing vendor proposals and made suggestions on ways to improve it.
One change announced at the summit: Instead of submitting a single comprehensive RFP, three RFPs covering student portal and IPAS, CRM (with AANAPISI grant) and data analytics were discussed and the first RFP (student portal and IPAS) was submitted to vendors on June 21st. Eight vendors responded. The next step in the process is to review the documents submitted by each vendor and to complete the RFP rubric.
May 2017
The vendor product demonstrations for the Title III MCC 360 Project have been completed. The final vendors presenting were EduNav and EAB Navigate. The next step for the MCC 360 Steering Committee (which includes faculty liaisons from each academic division) will be to meet on June 20th for a retreat. The committee will review the vendor information as well as identify the most crucial functional and technical needs for the student success systems in which the college will invest. In July, an RFR will be completed and distributed to vendors offering student portal, CRM, and eAdvising systems.
In addition, a position for a full-time analyst position will be posted in the summer with the intention of filling the position by October 1st.
April 2017
The Title III MCC 360 project has been conducting extensive discussions and research in order to prepare for a redesign of the college’s web portal. Given that the portal impacts the entire MCC Community, this redesign represents one of the most important aspects of the MCC 360 project. A subcommittee of the Enrollment Committee let by Jennifer Aradhya met to review existing portal functions and make short term recommendations pending the implementation of a new product.
Scott O’Neil is working with a team comprising members of Admissions, Enrollment Management, Financial Aid and Information Technology to implement the first phase of electronic forms scheduled for availability to students this June, 2017. Additional teams are forming for the design and implementation of the Soft Docs technology in Student Accounts, Finance, Payroll and Human Resources.
Peter Shea is developing a digital learning mentor program in which faculty from each academic division are recruited to model best practices for teaching with digital tools and optimizing our use of the Blackboard LMS. This aligns with a project objective to increase the use of our primary learning management system to enhance student success.
Finally, planning is underway for a summit meeting on June 20th in Bedford Café East for faculty and staff involved in MCC 360 to coordinate our activities for the coming year and to review our progress.
Navigate is now available to students as a self-service resource for planning and scheduling through the Student Portal. Faculty and staff training continues to progress as well with 44% of full-time faculty and staff trained on the use of MCC Navigate as of November 2018. Additional training sessions for Navigate have been added to the weekly training schedule and these sessions will run on Monday and Tuesday afternoons until the end of this semester.
The coming year will see other new resources added to the Student Portal including Online Orientation and Financial Wellness modules. Both the Online Orientation and the iGrad Financial Literacy and Career Resources platform are anticipated to be available to students in Spring 2019.
With our Analytics Officer Robin Marra on board you’ll also be hearing more about how we use data to address questions related to services for students and institutional effectiveness.