Karen Hutslar tells Academic Senate new online audit system will roll out over next two years

Jim McDonald speaks to members of the academic senate Tuesday afternoon in Pierce 128. (Jeffrey Smith/Staff Photographer)

Central Michigan University Registrar Karen Hutslar led a presentation at Tuesday’s Academic Senate meeting to showcase progress made on the development of the online audit system.

The online audit system, set to go live on CentralLink in 2013, will allow students to determine exactly where they stand in scheduling and the progress for their degree. Students will be able to see what course requirements have been satisfied for their major and minor and what is still in progress.

The project began in January, and Phase I testing began Oct. 8 for more than 75 faculty and staff volunteers.

The addition of more degrees, majors, minors and graduate programs will occur in 2013 and 2014.

“Really, this will be a rolling process over the next two years. We’re working with the 2011-12 bulletins, the 2012-13 bulletin, and we’ll go on from there. It will take us a couple years to get everything programmed, and then we’ll start working on the 2013-14 bulletin when it comes out,” Hutslar said.

Phase I of the project consists of an audit of general education requirements, an audit of the Master of Science in Administration degree and an advising workbench where staff and faculty can review academic information and student demographics.

“Our number-one priority is working on the coding and the rules for the majors, minors and graduate programs and the degrees,” Hutslar said.

Other progress being made on Phase I is adding functionality to do degree substitutions and major, minor and graduate program modifications in the system. Possible future development on the project includes showing course descriptions and major maps, linking with major maps and integration with course search and registration.

“Eventually, there will be the complete picture where a student can go out and at any point in time see where they are in their program,” Hutslar said.

Senator and Professor of Psychology George Ronan said the system will prove to be beneficial for students.

“I think it’s a huge positive tool for students. I think it will do a great job keeping them on track,” he said.