Jenzabar: The new student management system
Taylor Deaton, Assistant Editor
Students and faculty have just completed their first semester of registration under the new system, Jenzabar. Jenzabar is the new student management system for North Greenville University, also known as the system we used to register for classes for the spring of 2019. There have been mixed feelings revolving around the program, as allowing students to register themselves for classes is a North Greenville first, so here is an overview of Jenzabar and all it entails.
Carla LaPlaca is the Academic Business Analyst and Modular Manager for North Greenville University. LaPlaca has been involved in the entire process of transitioning Jenzabar into the school’s student management system, and recently participated in Jenzabar system training.
For those who are still confused as to what Jenzabar is, it is composed of two parts, which are “a relational database for storing and processing information” and “a web-based user interface (aka portal) which facilitates faculty and student interaction with the database,” explained by LaPlaca.
Jenzabar has been used since June of 2018 by NGU, but preparations began over two years ago.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com
LaPlaca explains that the “flip side of more power and increased functionality is the amount of time it takes to complete initial configuration, data entry, and testing. Balancing normal duties on top of these new essential tasks has probably been the biggest challenge for those of us on the core conversion team.”
“Advising and self-registration tools empower students to take ownership of their academic journey,” states LaPlaca when discussing why students are registering themselves for the first time ever this semester.
She goes on to explain that “this is a game changer for the advising process by expanding the advising session window outside of the registration dates and freeing faculty advisors to help students explore their academic and related career goals.”
While students haven’t been discreet about expressing frustrations with the new system, it hasn’t been exactly easy for the Registrar’s Office either. “Sometimes the lines are long, and the forms are stacked pretty high,” says LaPlaca, “but it’s been exciting and encouraging to partner with students and their advisors and watch all of this begin to come together.”
The university is constantly making improvements to the new system, and LaPlaca shares that “training and internal collaboration are ongoing, [the university] is increasing efficiency and equipping faculty and staff to better serve our students, but this is only the beginning.”
LaPlaca is most excited about “helping students learn to take advantage of the tools there and utilizing their feedback to keep getting better at what we do.”
LaPlaca spent the entire week of Nov. 5 in training for the Jenzabar system, and shares that it was “challenging, exhausting, exciting, encouraging, and overwhelming but definitely worthwhile.”
NGU is working extremely hard to fix problems involved with Jenzabar, but considering the program only launched in June of 2018, it has proven to be successful thus far.
LaPlaca ends her explanation behind the transition into using Jenzabar with this:
“Anything worthwhile takes time and effort. God has blessed NGU with the potential to reach, serve, and minister to so many. Jenzabar is and will continue to be merely a tool. The success or failure of that tool depends on whether we, the wielders, are good stewards. I am choosing to embrace the growing pains associated with the privilege of being a small part of this innovative season in NGU history. It’s pretty incredible so far.”
