by Sos Bagramyan, Assistant Registrar, Indiana University
The size and organizational nature of Glasgow Caledonian University had made paper records a serious problem at their institution, according to GCU's Academic Registrar Stephen Lopez, who presented at AACRAO's 2016 Technology & Transfer Conference.
GCU has about 17,000 students across 3 campuses: Glasgow, London, and New York. With campuses spread over such a large geographic area, considerable resources had to be spent on a paper based document system. Over the course of a 4 year undergraduate/1 year graduate student academic cycle, GSU used over 400,000 sheets of paper and spent $20,000 in printer related costs. Space was also an issue, as there was 400 4-drawer filing cabinets filled with student records. Lastly, the files of a student could easily get lost or were exceedingly difficult to access.
There was a lot of difficultly to locate files when they were requested, and even when they were found was found it took a long time to deliver these documents into the hands that need them. Prior to the development of their E-File system, GCU tackled their paper document problem in a variety of ways. They used Sharepoint forms and lists to replace paper request forms. Online graduation registration got rid of 6,000 paper forms from the record. Course and section scheduling requirements were also digitized, and 2,300 paper records were also eliminated. Finally, a card swipe attendance monitoring system also got rid of paper attendance sheets for professors. These efforts were the first steps in making the GCU system paper free.
The E-File System Solution
The E-File system GCU utilized to address its paper document problems was developed by a UK company called Folding Spaces. The system was initially designed for the retention of medical records, but was adapted for educational purposes. A remarkable feature of this system is the fact that it is completely browser based, which means any internet browser can access the E-File database. It organizes documents from different sources, such as scanned documents, emails, and uploaded electronic documents. All three of GCU’s campuses have their documents in a shared cloud database, and the campuses can now more easily work together to service their students in a timely manner. The documents in the E-File System can be tagged in a variety of ways: how confidential/sensitive a document is, the type of document it is, when the document should be deleted from the database, etc. The documents are searchable, and auditing the documents is now much easier than their loose leaf predecessors.
Some Problems to Overcome
GCU also encountered some difficulties that needed to be overcome while deploying their E-File System. It had to consider scanning guidelines, like whether or not the documents should be scanned in black & white or in color. They also had to decide whether or not the entire email thread of important email exchanges should be saved, or only the relevant parts of the conversations between parties. They also had to consider who would be able to access the system, and how much of it could be accessed by students, faculty, and staff. Lastly, the established culture of using paper documents and filing cabinets was also a difficulty to overcome. Despite these difficulties, however, GCU has a very successful, completely browser based paperless system that has saved time for the staff, resources for the university, and (most important of all) has made it easy for students to access any and all of their documents from any location with an internet connection.
Download handouts from the Monday 11:15 a.m. session here.