FY23.3.x: Functional Design (Slate+Advising)

Executive Summary

The purpose of this document is to detail the functional design of the tools that will be used to facilitate the Slate+Advising Platform that will be deployed with this project.  It will be supplemented with a more detailed Technical Design that covers the specifics of the application elements that will comprise the overall toolchain.

Functional Components

The following sections will detail the functional components that are required to successfully implement this project.

Student Relationship Management

Purpose

A critical requirement for all advising team members is to have a comprehensive view of the students that they are tasked with advising. This includes contact information, as well as a view of their progress in the program, and a complete history of the interactions with the advising team.

Functional Requirements

The following functional requirements must be delivered for a successful implementation of this application component:

• Collect information from students as required to support requests and process flows and store in the student profile
  • Workflows to be defined in the technical specification, but some candidates are program change requests, leave of absence requests, etc.

• CPA Application
  • Students complete a form to apply for a Certification of Professional Achievement.
  • Upon completion of the form, a confirmation email goes to the students and to spsadvising@columbia.edu.
  • The advising team processes the application and enters a decision on the form 
  • Query
    • Create query exporting the form data using the same format for three types: unprocessed, in review, and complete
      • Enable access for Advising Operations role.

Event & Appointment Management

Purpose

A critical requirement for all advising team members is an up to date view of all of their scheduled activities, and the ability to make changes either through their own actions, or through scheduling forms provided to students and/or colleagues. Basically, anything that ends up on a calendar needs to be tightly integrated into the Slate+Advising solution.

Functional Requirements

The following functional requirements must be delivered for a successful implementation of this application component:

• For Advisors
  • Create/Review/Update/Delete advising appointments through Slate
    • Advising appointments via Active Scheduler
  • Synchronize Slate event calendar with individual advisors' Google calendars
• For Students
  • Create/Review/Update/Delete appointments with advisors based on calendar availability
  • Create/Review/Update/Delete attendance in events on the Slate calendar
  • Allow students to add appointments to personal calendars (Google, possibly others)