The Graduate School received a small UIF award in December of 1999 for the development of a Web-based system to facilitate administrative communications between the Graduate School, graduate students, Graduate Program Coordinators (GPCs), Graduate Faculty, and Graduate Program Assistants (GPAs). It will be a natural extension of the MyUW (http://myuw.washington.edu ) Web portal currently available for students. MyGradProgram, like MyUW, will also serve as the vehicle for completing various administrative procedures on the Web in a secure manner. Some parts of MyGradProgram will be operational by Autumn Quarter, 2000.
The Graduate School Process Improvement Team has found that problems interpreting and understanding Graduate School policies, procedures and resources are often due to poor communication. This may result from a variety of factors such as "information overload", staff turnover, and administrative issues in our large decentralized environment. MyGradProgram aims to improve this situation by providing targeted communications to viewers. For example, a graduate student who has recently received a first teaching assistantship might see information relevant to new TAs. A graduate student passing the General Examination may be presented with information about dissertation requirements and resources. The system will update student milestones on a nightly basis.
MyGradProgram will also provide a resource for departments to target communications through the Web interface for GPCs, GPAs and their designated alternates. Departments will be able to provide messages and links to students at designated milestones, and update departmental profile information.
MyGradProgram may also foster interdisciplinary education by offering features like an option for students and faculty to "subscribe" to lecture and symposia announcements for a given set of disciplines, or by giving students the option to include an abstract of their research to share with other UW graduate students.
MyGradProgram will serve as the framework for conducting administrative business between students, graduate departments, and the Graduate School. Students will be able to submit master's degree applications on the Web beginning Autumn Quarter, 2000. Departments will also be able to manage doctoral supervisory committees on the Web beginning Winter Quarter, 2001. See http://www.grad.washington.edu/dept_info.htm for details regarding these developments. Other services which may be included in MyGradProgram are Graduate School petitions, student program change requests, student on-leave requests, departmental admissions decisions, departmental requests for GSFEI funding, graduate appointee health insurance, etc.
The system will use the same UWNetID authentication used by MyUW. This means that each participant must have a valid UWNetID and password. Some administrative actions may also require use of the SecureID card currently used by the UW mainframe administrative systems. The Graduate School will authorize student access based on Student Database records. The Graduate School will also maintain an authorization database of GPCs and GPAs. Authorized departmental personnel will be able to maintain non-student authorization records through their Web view.
A transaction log will be maintained for every action performed in MyGradProgram, whether initiated by students, faculty, authorized departmental personnel, or system generated. This will include date, time, who performed the transaction, prior state, and descriptive text. Student transaction logs will be available for departmental use.
MyGradProgram will be accessible 24 hours a day, from off-campus as well as on-campus. As with MyUW, most computer platforms will be supported, including PCs, Macs, and Unix/Linux systems.
The Graduate School is forming an advisory group of Graduate Faculty, graduate students, GPCs, GPAs and information technology staff for MyGradProgram. This group will probably not meet in person, instead using email and electronic discussion forums. Participation is informal, and you may drop out at any time. If you are interested in participating, please contact John Drew at jdrew@u.washington.edu for further information.
MyUW: http://myuw.washington.edu
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