Why Stellic?
Academic advising is one of the the six major administrative areas that the Student Services Excellence Initiative was tasked with improving. In Fall of 2021, the project assembled a working group comprised of representation across all nine divisions and major programs across the university. This working group was tasked with learning the current state of academic advising systems and software offerings, determining where gaps exist and root causes (if shortcomings are due to improper implementation, or other variables).
After conducting an exhaustive assessment of academic advising technologies at JHU, the working group uncovered many pain points with the current state of systems in use across the university enterprise. Many processes are manual or localized, making it challenging for students to plan their classes and degree progress, and creating barriers for staff and faculty to access the data they need to effectively support students. The goal of this project is to simplify, streamline and enhance the experience for students and learners, academic advisors, academic program coordinators, faculty advisors and other staff in support of our students and their academic journeys at JHU.
Four major categories of prioritized need emerged from the working group:
- a note-taking repository
- an early warning / alert system to enable advisors to identify students / learners who may benefit from additional advisement or JHU support resources
- degree audit & academic planning tools for both students and advisors
- a comprehensive dashboard making it simple for advisors to access a comprehensive record of student / learner advisees.
After a comprehensive year-long search and selection process to evaluate vendors on the market, including closer examination of software currently utilized in some form at JHU, the working group put forth a recommendation to adopt Stellic for all functions (dashboard, early alert system, degree audit and notes). Stellic was selected because of its user-friendly and modern interface, its reporting features, its accessibility to students, and its comprehensive features addressing the priority needs put forth by the working group. The contract with Stellic was officially signed at the end of May 2023 and the project launched in the summer of 2023.
“Stellic has a modern and responsive user interface…I urge the university to switch to this application.” — Whiting School of Engineering, faculty member
The project team has put together a proposed governance structure for both the implementation project and for when the project moves into operations mode. The project team has begun working with the schools and divisions to begin the work necessary to create a detailed two-year implementation plan.
