In less than a year, Washington University in St. Louis will begin using Workday Student, the replacement for most of the university’s student information systems, including WebSTAC and WUCRSL. The yearlong rollout will begin in September and conclude in fall 2025. To learn what is changing and to preview aspects of the system, faculty and staff are encouraged to register for Workday Student “Sneak Peeks,” a monthly webinar series beginning in January.
“The transition to Workday Student will impact all faculty and staff who support students through instruction, advising, course management and other activities,” said Provost Beverly Wendland, executive sponsor of the Student Sunrise project. “A lot is changing because of this transition, and we can minimize the inevitable bumps by becoming familiar with these changes early. The Sneak Peeks are designed to highlight the system and create opportunities for dialogue about the changes.”
Additional readiness activities planned
Other readiness activities are also underway. Now that the system’s design is complete, it will undergo additional intensive testing, which will be conducted by the project team, members of the project’s campus teams, as well as those on faculty and student advisory groups. At the conclusion of the transition year, Workday Student will have been tested for four years, which is longer than any university using Workday Student has tested.
Faculty, staff and students also can try out training resources. These pilot efforts will include hands-on exploration of the system as well as the opportunity for valuable feedback for the project’s training team. The team is developing learning resources — including videos, eLearning courses, step-by-step tutorials, guides and in-person classes — that the community will access through the Workday@WashU website and other channels.
Given the number of changes around academic planning, course searching, registration and advising, the Student Sunrise team, in partnership with each school, will hold a registration “dress rehearsal” event called “Mock Semester.” Targeted for November, the activity will allow students to practice the activities they will need to undertake beginning in February 2025 in preparation for registering in Workday for fall 2025 classes.
“Through these activities, we can help ensure that our faculty, staff and students are as prepared as possible to begin using Workday in 2024-25,” said Erin Culbreth, senior associate provost and Student Sunrise executive project director. “We encourage everyone who is impacted to attend the opportunities that interest them.”
For more information about the transition to Workday Student, visit sunrise.wustl.edu.
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