Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cumrec-l
Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 09:51:02 EST
From:         Mark McConahay <MCCONAHA@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject:      Touchtone Grades Inquiry

In response to Mark Olson's query regarding the use of phone to
distribute final grade information;  below is a summary of a pilot
project we implemented at Indiana University, Bloomington at the
end of the fall semester.  A couple of notes not included in the
summary report:

      1.    Student PIN - PIN is initially set to month and day of
            birth, but must be changed by the student when first
            entering any student access system.  In addition tot he
            Grades, students have access to registration, degree
            audit Inquiry and a scheduling facility for students that
            are PIN protected.

      2.    Grade processing was completed on 12/22/92;  thus,
            students had access to the grades files prior to the end
            of grade processing.

      3.    No traffic control mechanism was used or planned at this
            time.

      4.    We use Perception technology Equipment Vocomm 5 and
            combination BTII and BTIIIs.

I hope you find the summary useful.  Please feel free to call or
write if youy have questions.

Mark McConahay
Associate Registrar
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana  47405
(812) 855-2472
mcconaha@ucs.indiana.edu

                   Touchtone/Voice Response Grade Reporting
                   Pilot Implementation 12/17/92 - 01/11/92
                                Summary Report


Project Description

A project to allow student access to current and past semester
grade information via the telephone was completed in December of
1992.  Two components were completed:  1) a new transaction
(similar to the existing GR12, Student Grade Inquiry) developed by
UCS personnel (Project #8763, Touchtone/Voice Response Grade
Reporting) and 2) the IVR application GRADES developed in "C" on
the micro-vax 3100s by the Office of the Registrar.  The
applications were completed and tested by early December of 1992.

Information regarding the service was announced to two groups:  1)
walk-in students visiting the Office of the Registrar and 2)
currently enrolled students who called the Office seeking grade
information.

Student Notifications

There were 350 announcements given to students who cam to the
office from 12/17/92 through 12/24/92.  The total number of phone
calls received from 12/17/92 - 12/31/92 was 2,944 (Note - Not all
of these calls resulted in the announcement of the touchtone grades
inquiry application).  Thus, no more than 3,294 individual students
were notified of the new service.  (See attached Summary)

Student Calls

There were 26,266 phone calls received by our Voice/Response
equipment from 1/16/92 - 1/11/92.  A summary of calls received by
day is attached.  Please note the following items:  1)  TATER2
refers to the backup production processing machine.  The majority
of the calls received on this unit were received on Friday 12/18/92
while the applications on the primary production unit (TATER1) was
being updated. 2)  Two "Total" lines are provided on the summary
report.  The first represents the totals for the entire time
period.  The second "Total" represents a summary of inquiries after
12/28/92 and provides a better "average Connect Time" for each
session. During the initial stages of the pilot, we experienced
difficulties with the application and equipment recognizing
disconnects;  the result was an exaggerated average connect time.


Total Students

The attached summary reports lists a column representing the number
of students who updated their Personal Identification Number (PIN)
on each day.  There 4,126 PIN updates performed from the touchtone
grades application.  Thus, there were at least that many unique
students who called and used the system (PIN may only be updated by
the student via this application if the PIN is equal to the month
and day of birth.

Student Calls by Time of Day

Attachment 2 is a graphical representation of all calls received by
time of day.  Please note that 45% of all calls were received
between the hors of 10:00am and 3:00pm (Excluding Saturdays).

Telephone Lines Used

On Friday, 12/18/92, all 30 telephone lines allocated to the
application were used.  However, use was compounded due to the
inability of the phone equipment and the application to recognize
a caller disconnect.  Thus, 30 lines were probably not required to
handle the load on that day.  It appears that 20 lines would have
sufficient based upon activity on the following Monday.


Busy Signals Encountered

On Friday, 12/18/92, students experienced busy signals during the
1:00pm and 4:00pm hour time slots.  There were 98 and 94 busies
respectively.  Each of these time periods corresponds to a period
where the application was interrupted to install modifications.

CPU Usage

Throughout the pilot period, the number of transactions,
input/output and the amount of CPU usage was monitored.  The CPU
average was between .004 and .008 seconds per transaction.  This is
a very acceptable usage.  In the opinion of UCS, if the CPU usage
was multiplied by 5, the usage would still be tolerable.
Input/output were also considered to be nominal.

Communication Services

Communication Services set up protection in the trunk lines between
the Bloomington Switch and the Campus switch.  The system allowed
a maximum of 30 calls to be forwarded to the campus switch via the
trunk line, thus protecting communication in and out of campus.
This was a successful implementation for them.  Their assessment
is, however, that they need to analyze the number of incoming calls
and the number of lines (say 100) before given a full blessing to
a full blown implementation of the Grades system.

Summary

In summary, the Touchtone Grades pilot implementation was a
success.  Many more students used the system than we expected,
providing a very good first run of the system.  With the exception
of some problems experienced with the equipment and application
early in the time period, the implementation was operationally
smooth.  We learned how to configure the system to handle phone
calls in a convenient and orderly manner and found problems with
the equipment that could only be found with large numbers of
callers.  We were also able to gather CPU utilization figures and
phone line estimates.


Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU