SIS Systems

[toby_osborn]

Hello everyone,

I work as an systems administrator for a smaller college.  We are currently starting up a review team to look at our Student Information System.

I was hoping maybe some of you could answer a few questions.

What SIS system are you using now?

What do you like about it?

What do you not like about it?

Would you recommend it to another college?

I'd really like to hear from people on all sides of the system.  As an end user, or an system admin. 

[Stef_retired]

 @toby_osborn ​, I've shared your discussion with the Canvas Admins​ and SIS & Integrations​ groups; comments from all contributors will remain unified in a single thread below your prompt. If you're not yet a member of those groups, please click on the group link and then select Join Group from the Actions menu at the upper right of the group home page.

[toby_osborn]

Thank you!  Sorry I posted twice, I did not see the second group until after I had already posted the first post.  I will keep this in mind in the future!

[kona]

Greetings! I'm a Canvas Admin and here are my responses to your questions about our SIS (student information system):

• What SIS system are you using now? Jenzabar
• What do you like about it? Nothing. Sorry, that might sound awful, but there really isn't anything I like about it.
• What do you not like about it? Pretty much everything. Seems like we're always having problems with it, it's not easy to find things, you can't use the back button (kills me every time), doesn't integrate with anything (we had to do all of our Jenzabar/Canvas integrations ourselves outside of the systems), and overall it just isn't user-friendly
• Would you recommend it to another college? NO. I don't know of a SIS I'd recommend (is there such a thing as a good one?), but I definitely wouldn't recommend Jenzabar.

[toby_osborn]

Thank you Kona!

We are currently using CAMS Enterprise.  We are also doing all the integrations ourselves. 

I also appreciate the honesty in your answer.  We want to make sure we make the right choice so any information is good information!

[jenn_stevens]

Ha! Same answer as Kona, except we're using Banner, with Luminis Message Broker to integrate.

The LMB generally works well, and we've become addicted to the almost real-time updates in terms of drop/add - but Banner as a whole is a dinosaur that really struggles with updates.  @toby_osborn ​, I'd maybe suggest looking at Workday? It seems to be all the rage in SIS circles these days.

[toby_osborn]

Thank you for the information Jennifer!  I just started looking at Workday.  It is kind of nice to actually see a SIS that publishes some real information about their product online.  Almost none of the SIS that i've looked up so far have any kind of actual information outside of a commercial spot type video.

[James]

I amplify Kona's response as I'm the one who had to do the custom integration, but it didn't stop with Canvas and Jenzabar, it extends to Jenzabar and anything (single sign on, student accounts, student email, public website, ...).

I also see it from the faculty perspective and I had a little training 15 years ago on web accessibility and it drives me nuts. I often log into the server and access the database directly because finding it through the web interface would me take longer. I've also written a lot of custom interfaces to speed up the queries that people use (like pulling all of the relevant student information onto a single screen).

There isn't a single field primary key for a section - it's a combination of session, year (there is no "term" field), course number, and section number. Everything I do has to be keyed off those four values instead of just referring to section 12345. I much prefer the Canvas way of doing it with having an integer ID for everything (except for page view log data).

I will say, though, that we're on an older version that we're trying to move off of -- or that the company doesn't want to support any more -- and so I can't speak to the new interface. I've been warned that all of my custom integrations will break when we do that. We may take the opportunity to re-evaluate systems at that point, but we have about 28 years of data in this system so I don't hold out hope that we will change.

[toby_osborn]

James,

Thank you for the response.  That actually sounds like some of what we are dealing with with CAMS Enterprise. 

[dwillmore]

Hello,

• What SIS system are you using now? Datatel is also known as Colleague and bought by Ellucian
• What do you like about it? It rarely crashes
• What do you not like about it? Many things, but I don't know if it is because of the way we use it, our homegrown programs, or the system.   It could be all of these things.
• Would you recommend it to another college? In my limited scope, it seems to be overpriced for what you get and all of the add-ons you have to buy, but I have nothing to compare it to at this time.   My current job is the first job I have had in academia.

Coming from the IT business industry I am able to tell you that I have never seen as many overpriced systems with such poor user interfaces as I do here in academia.  Canvas is an exception that proves the rule.

[toby_osborn]

Thanks for the comment David.  I haven't actually heard of your system yet.  I have heard of Ellucian however.  I've also had the unpleasant experiences of trying to find systems within higher ed that are not overpriced for what you are receiving.  The sis market seems to be extremely difficult because a lot of the so called higher rated systems only support k-12 so the market for higher ed seems extremely limited, that is why I started this conversation.  I'm hoping to find a system that maybe i've overlooked!

[dwillmore]

Toby,

If you want, I can ask our Administrative Technology Director if he would mind getting a call from you. He would be able to give you far more information on the subject than I.

Thank you,

Dave Willmore

636.922.8514

[irshaad_alha]

Hello Tobby,

I also echo James and Kona's responses. We also use Jenzabar and attempting a custom integration which has been really challenging to say the least. We are making use of the Canvas CSV Gateway which will take a burden off our shoulders.

As David mentioned, it is truly refreshing to know there is a counter balance out here and that is Canvas:smileycool:

Good luck with your review!

[rschimpf]

Toby, my college is also working on integrating cams with Canvas.  It's been a difficult process. If you'd like to pool ideas, just let me know.

Have you seen this discussion?

rschimpf@cogswell.edu