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Case Study: Southern New Hampshire University Evolves Using Kuali Curriculum & Catalog Management

Southern New Hampshire University transforms their curriculum in ways that improve business processes across the institution, powered by Kuali Curriculum & Catalog Management.

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SUMMARY

Southern New Hampshire University transforms their curriculum in ways that improve business processes across the institution, powered by KuaIi Curriculum & Catalog Management

PROBLEM: Paper-based Dependencies

In 2016, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) offered multiple modes of curriculum-online, on campus, international, and competency-based. The institution was ready to expand their curriculum to include additional languages beyond English.

However, paper-based dependencies made an expansion nearly impossible. SNHU needed a software solution to improve current processes, facilitate growth, and extend the reach of the university

SOLUTION: Kuali Frees Resources

SNHU chose Kuali Curriculum & Catalog Management to digitize their processes.

Kuali's Curriculum Management solution offered a much-needed governance system. Administrators in the Registrar's Office built guidelines and best practices into the configurable software solution, leading to fewer mistakes and miscommunications.

Kuali's Catalog Management solution provided a far more efficient and accurate catalog; SNHU could essentially push a button and Kuali Catalog Management would export the carefully developed curriculum into a publish-ready catalog.

Not having to worry about all of the manual efforts lets me actually focus on [ important ]projects which are moving our university forward quite a bit. - Mike O'Connor System Analytics Dir., University Registrar's Office Southern New Hampshire University

RESULTS: A Pathway Improved To Curriculum

From 2016 to 2021, the world changed, and so did SNHU's offerings. Through the five years of using Kuali's solutions, SNHU has adapted to meet the needs of students, and Kuali has reliably supported the institution's efforts along the way.

How SNHU Evolved With Kuali Student

SNHU's original modes of curriculum-online, on-campus, and international-are now all managed in one instance of Kuali Curriculum. Additionally, a Spanish language curriculum and policies have been added. SNHU's Curriculum and Catalog administrators have their hands full; they processed 2,000 competencies last year and over 800 proposals in the last two months alone, excluding Experiences and Policies.

Kuali Curriculum & Catalog Management makes all of that possible. Without a flexible and configurable solution like KuaIi, the registrar's office may not have been able to manage the volume of work required.

"I don't think the curriculum office could have kept up this year if we didn't have Kuali," said O'Connor.

The three biggest benefits Kuali Curriculum & Catalog Management provides to SNHU are the system's governance functionality, visibility provided by the catalog, and transparency through the curriculum tool.

Catalog is awesome because it is an accurate and up - to - date representation of course offerings and academic policies they will have to adhere to. - Mike O'Connor System Analytics Dir., University Registrar's Office Southern New Hampshire University

Improved Governance Across Camp

Before KuaIi, governance was difficult to enforce at SNHU. Simple things, like faculty regularly submitting incorrect or incomplete forms, seemed nearly impossible to fix. More complex and concerning problems also occurred, such as marketing and admissions using an outdated catalog, or not-yet-approved programs, in marketing materials.

Kuali Curriculum Management facilitates the ability to enforce governance across the entire campus, keeping faculty, marketing, admissions, advising, scheduling, transfer credit teams and more in the know.

  • Faculty: Features such as progressive disclosures , required fields , and help text allow faculty to complete proposals correctly the first time, aligning with policies and best practices from the get-go.
  • Marketing: SNHU's large marketing department can see what's coming down the pipeline and when it is officially " approved," allowing campaign preparation in advance of exciting new changes . Marketing is automatically notified when changes are made to the catalog so they can update marketing materials and the university's website .
  • Admissions: Similarly to marketing, the admissions department needs to know when and what changes are made to the curriculum. Visibility into the process and automated notifications keep admissions informed .

Reduced Errors & Increased Visibility

SNHU's many catalog offerings were difficult to manage through paper-based processes. Just the activity of adding curriculum proposals to the catalog took an average of 18 days per year, or approximately 3 weeks. And that excludes the actual publication and formatting of the catalog with policies and addendas.

With Kuali Catalog Management, all approved changes in Kuali Curriculum Management are pushed to the catalog when it is published. That means SNHU got 3 weeks back. Plus, addendas auto-populate to document changes, giving administrators even more time back.

Increased Cross-silo Communication Through Transparent Dependencies

Like many institutions, SNHU's academic departments were siloed. These silos occasionally caused problems when courses were changed; curriculum flowed across departments, but communication did not. When courses were managed on paper, departments weren't motivated to communicate and at times, not even aware of changes made by other departments.

Using the Dependencies feature in Kuali Curriculum Management, faculty could clearly see how curriculum was affected when a course was changed. For example, when the Department of Physical Sciences changed their 100 level courses, they could see how those changes impacted general education requirements and other dependent programs or course requisites and corequisites.

SNHU also uses Dependencies to track how courses relate to learning experiences, such as Prior Learning Assessments or Badging. Additionally, they use dependencies to track competency mapping to courses and programs.

departments began communicating well, a change that was motivated in part by transparent dependencies in the Kuali Curriculum Management solution.

What's Next For SNHU

In 2022, SNHU will make big changes to the internal workings of their catalogs. This change will consolidate courses and improve the scheduling and graduation-planning experience for all students, on campus or otherwise. Additionally, this project will impact administrators by reducing management work, in some cases by up to 5 times.

"This university catalog project will lead to business process improvement across the entire university," said O'Connor. "We wouldn't have the resources to do this kind of project, at least on the curriculum side, if we were managing everything manually and doing all the communication that Kuali does."

O'Connor and SNHU look forward to continually improving their curriculum and catalog with Kuali Curriculum & Catalog Management.

Transform Your Processes. Elevate Impact.

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Facilitate Growth

Institutions shouldn't be limited by their curriculum and catalog management processes. Kuali's modern solutions open doors for growth.

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Improve Governance

Automatically update other departments with notifications. Help them stay in-the-know by adding them to the workflow so they can see what's coming soon.

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Reduce Manual Effort

Repurpose resources used on manual entry for more important work that adds value to students, faculty, or staff.

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Break Down Silos

Increase transparency across program and course dependencies and improve inter-departmental communications with Kuali.

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