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Date:         Wed, 20 Jan 1993 13:37:45 -0600
From:         "Bob Eaton, Computing Services, U. Sask." <EATON@ADMIN1.USASK.CA>
Subject:      Re: Grades by Phone?

Hello all,

In response to Mark Olson's query, here is a summary of the UofS's
brief experience.  In my opinion this is truly an excellent
application for telephone technology.

Some notes:

The report was prepared by Terry Roebuck, leader of the two-person team
that develops our telephone applications.

The University of Saskatchewan is has app. 14,500 FTE students although
we register app. 21,500 during the year.

TERM1 is the first of two winter session terms and runs from September
through the second week of December.

IVRU is the Interactive Voice Response Unit purchased from Periphonics.

SNO is the Student Number.

PAC is the Personal Identification Code (in this case date-of-birth).

ADMIN is a cluster of two VAX 6430's:  ADMIN1 and ADMIN2.

SaskTel is the local telephone company.

SIS is the Student Information System.

Hoping this is helpful,
Bob

_______________________

Robert B. Eaton,
Manager, Administrative Applications
Computing Services
University of Saskatchewan                       Email: EATON@ADMIN.USASK.CA
SASKATOON, SK                                    Phone: (306) 966-4854
S7N 0W0    CANADA                                FAX:   (306) 966-4938

_____________________

      The Grade Reporting Service of the University of Saskatchewan

The Grade Reporting Service of the University of Saskatchewan was turned up
on January 4th, 1993 for the distribution of Term1 final marks.  The
potential audience was about 18,000 students.  Requirements for use were a
touchtone telephone, a valid student number and a security identification
code -- in this case -- date of birth.

The Grade Reporting Service (GRS) is a client server application.  The
client exists on the IVRU, and the server on ADMIN1.  A student enters SNO,
PAC and selects a session for grade reporting (from a limited choice
consisting of this year's regular session, Intersession, Summer Session and
Summer Research).  Only rudimentary data checking is performed on the IVRU
-- primarily limit and range testing for SNO and PAC.  Data assumed to be
valid is then sent to the server.

A message header and the variable data gathered from each caller is sent to
ADMIN through a MUX/deMUX (known as the SPLITTER) which uses the message
header to route to the grades server on ADMIN1.  The Grades server is a
small (100 line) "C" program that accepts SNO, PAC and session as input, and
if the SNO and PAC are valid, returns a prepared string of all of the
students class/marks pairs through the splitter and back to the IVRU.  In
the event of a mismatch or other invalid data, an error code is returned.
The SERVER is a stateless entity operating with with inquiry rights to the
Student Information database (hence, it can not "write" into
the database).

The IVRU translates the returned digital string into voice clips, and "says"
the marks (or the appropriate error message based on the error return code)
to the caller.  Complete mark reporting was provided, including non-numeric
grade reporting (such as withdrawal or absent).

Students were NOT trained on the use of the system, nor was ANY
documentation provided.  A small poster was sent to all college offices
inviting calls from January 4th on, in a service window of 6:00 pm thru 2:00
am Monday through Friday and 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday.  A full 32
lines were used by the IVRU.  The Office of the Registrar performed
acceptance and volume tests on the system, and the "go" vote was held on
Dec. 18th.  IVRU staff worked during the Christmas holidays to complete
additional statistical reporting systems, and an "at home, over-the-phone"
Fixer program that allows IVRU staff to question system statistics and
characteristics from a telephone.  Alas, system documentation is
yet incomplete, but is being worked on now.

Between the hours of 5:pm through 2:00 am on January 4th (day 1) 3049 calls
were received by the IVRU.  2747 of these calls were in the valid (open)
window.  Grades were read to 1974 students.  Volumes were also significant
on January 5th (3790 calls), January 6th (2121), and January 7th (2585).
User interest has steadily diminished since, but still averages about 1000
calls/day.

As of January 11th at 4:00 pm, 16,897 callers were answered by the IVRU.  Of
these, 11,214 received grades -- the majority of those not receiving grades
were callers outside of the grades window -- but a significant number were
callers with problems in using the system, primarily in the use of the
"POUND" key (many did not know what it was).  These callers simply called
back, and later stats (later in the week, that is) show a marked increase in
the % getting grades on the first try.  For example, in the period January 4
- 7, 13,453 calls were received, 2,195 of which were not in a valid garde
window. Of the 11, 258 callers getting a chance to use the GRS, 79.41% were
correct on their first try.  The % of success has since risen to over 90%.
Of those students who enter a valid SNO, 96.42% were able to verify with a
correct date of birth.  The system directed others to contact the RO for
possible DOB data errors in the SIS.

A SASK TEL traffic study has been operating on the 665-3900 hunt group since
the 4th, and will continue until Jan. 15th.  Preliminary (verbal) reports
indicate that the peak "hit" attempts on the group occurred between 6:00 and
7:00 pm on the Mon-Tues-Wed (4,5,6; the first three days of the GRS).
During this three hour period, about 54,000 call attempts were initiated.
(We processed about 3000 of these).  Full reporting from this study will be
released when available.

During this 1 week period, the total admin CPU for grade reporting was 15
minutes.  Response was almost instantaneous at all times.  Peak call volume
response on the IVRU was excellent -- a test program normally requiring 5
minutes to compile under no load was complied in under 6 minutes in full
load on the IVRU.

The Registrar's Office reported only minor problems with callers using the
system -- the majority of these were callers with "How come I'm listed as
taking ..." or "what does Incomplete mean".  A significant number of grades
were not yet keyed in on Monday, and callers were informed that "No grade
was yet reported".  By Friday, the grade backlog in the RO had been cleared
in time for the regular SIS batch update (around 5:00 pm).

The IVRU was staffed during this period and a member of the IVRU Team
remains on 24-hour call.  The system crash of ADMIN1 allowed us to test
under "system fail" situations, and was beneficial (to us, at least).

Any metric of success for GRS must be in the hands of the users.  Certainly
we have received compliments on the system, especially on the simplicity and
speed of response.  The Registrar's Office is pleased with the system, and
is receiving positive comments (though these should be forwarded from them,
and not me).

Terry Roebuck
January 11, 1993
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU