Each year, more than 15,000 students receive acceptance letters for UC Berkeley. Within hours, those students log on to myBerkeleyApp and begin gathering information and experiences that will shape their decision about attending UC Berkeley, and their perception of the campus environment.
In spring 2009, the CalNet team partnered closely with staff from Student Affairs–myBerkeleyApp and IST–Web Applications to reduce the wait time for creating CalNet IDs, minimize the amount of detail new students have to remember, and improve the ability of front-line support staff to assist students with questions about access to campus systems.
Pre-SIR integration
In the past, students were not added to the campus directory (LDAP) until 24-48 hours (or more) after submitting their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR). To new students, this translated into a one- to two-day delay before they were "in the system" and able to conduct online business with the University, such as applying for housing and creating CalMail accounts.
Last spring, the CalNet team added pre-SIR students to the campus directory for the first time, allowing application owners to provide access to incoming students before they have submitted their Statement of Intent to Register.
More important, IST–Web Applications and the CalNet team added features so that incoming undergraduate students are moved from a "preSIR container" into the main campus directory within one hour of submitting their Statement of Intent to Register.
For incoming fall students who pay the SIR fee by credit card, this means they will be "in the system" within an hour of submitting the Statement of Intent to Register.
Elimination of the Student ID and PIN combination
In the past, incoming students faced a dizzying array of login requirements before they could get the basic information they needed to determine whether or not to attend UC Berkeley.
Students received an application ID from UCOP as part of the application process. Students then used that application ID to create an account with myBerkeleyApp in order to log in and see their admissions decision the minute decisions were released (as opposed to waiting for an envelope in the mail).
For admitted students, myBerkeleyApp would display the Student ID number and PIN on the home page, instructing students to use them to create a CalNet account, which, in turn, was required to view the Financial Aid Offer in Bear Facts.
This year, the CalNet team worked with myBerkeleyApp staff to modify the process so the Student ID and PIN combination was passed between myBerkeleyApp and CalNet behind the scenes. That is, students did not need to know their Student ID/PIN combinations nor enter them on the "Create CalNet ID" page (to which students are directed by the myBerkeleyApp checklist). This eliminated one significant step in the process students had to go through to create their CalNet account before they could proceed to check the Financial Aid Offer.
Convenience of single sign-on
During the summer before they arrive, incoming students are required to access more diverse Berkeley systems within a shorter time frame than at any other time in their academic career. They need to complete Legal Residence and Warn Me forms in BearFacts, apply for housing, register for CalSO, create a CalMail account, take online advising tutorials, etc., all via their myBerkeleyApp checklist. It would not be unusual for new students to need to log in to six or seven applications within an hour to work through their required action items. This year, with CAS Single Sign-On, the ordeal of logging in over and over again was greatly reduced as authentication information was shared among multiple applications.
Improved frontline support
In previous years, many frontline support organizations, like the Cal 1 Card office and New Student Services, reported numerous support calls from incoming students who were not sure where to find their Student ID and PIN. With the elimination of this step last spring, the amount of confusion and the volume of related support calls has declined considerably.
Furthermore, the addition of pre-SIR graduate students to LDAP allows Cal 1 Card staff to assist them with passphrase changes before graduate student information is officially added to the campus directory during the month of May. In the past, graduate students who forgot their passphrases before May had to go to either the Law School or Graduate Division who, in turn, had to contact the CalNet team to get a passphrase reset. In the future, the Cal 1 Card office will be able to help these students directly.
The CalNet team is very pleased to have been able to partner with the Student Affairs–myBerkeleyApp and IST–Web Applications teams to implement changes that improve the IT experience for incoming Berkeley students. We are already evaluating the impact of our efforts in anticipation of next year's crop of incoming students.