In late 2006, the University of Maryland became one of the founding members of the community source Kuali Student Service System, a consortium of higher education institutions developing a next generation student information system. Other consortium members are the University of British Columbia, Florida State University, the University of California at Berkeley, San Joaquin Delta Community College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University. Kuali Student is part of a larger organization, the Kuali Foundation (www.kuali.org), which houses several community source projects.

Kuali Student

Through June 2007, the Kuali Student team’s efforts were centered on planning for a five-year Kuali Student implementation. In July, the Kuali Student consortium moved into the next phase: high-level design and technical infrastructure.

Maryland subject matter experts and business analysts, including representatives from Academic Affairs and Administrative Affairs, have participated in workshops at the founders’ institutions spanning North America, in addition to conducting extensive and intensive meetings here on campus. The purpose of these workshops and meetings is to provide the vision for Kuali Student in the form of high-level requirements.

On the technical side, our growing Maryland team has been busy working with the other member institutions in evaluating the infrastructure components within which Kuali Student will run. Just a few of the deliverables from this effort are the Web service engine, business rules engine, security and transaction components, and workflow.

These efforts, both functional and technical, will culminate in January 2008 with the delivery of 1) a full, formally described plan for the system (that is, a 20,000 foot view of the entire Kuali Student system broken into logical groups by function), and 2) an all open source set of infrastructure components evaluated, tested, and selected. Kuali Student Test Drive, a working proof-of-concept demonstrating the technical depth and breadth of the infrastructure, will also be made publicly available. All work will be published on the Kuali Student Web site, www.kuali.org/communities/ks.

In January, Phase Two of the project will begin with development of a more detailed design for the system’s first release, Curriculum Management, and the beginning of system programming. The Curriculum Management release will include the course catalog; the program and course approvals processes, as governed by the Vice President’s Advisory Committee and the Programs, Curricula, and Courses Committees; and other technical and business aspects of the approvals process.

To learn more about the Kuali Student project, visit the Kuali Foundation Web site (www.kuali.org) and click on the Kuali Student Community link. For a quick overview of the project, start with the Program Charter’s appendices, and the “Delivering the Functional Vision” and “Technical Architecture Principles” documents.

Kuali Financials

Another of the Kuali Foundation’s open source projects is Kuali Financials. In 2008, the university will be evaluating the Kuali Financials software as a possible alternative to Maryland’s current financial system. The evaluation will determine whether the comprehensive financial suite is capable of sustaining an institution the size and complexity of the University of Maryland.