No indication of myZou final grade problems

By Robby Lewis

Published Dec. 7, 2007

MU administrators say they are confident that the new online student information application myZou will work fine as teachers input final grades to the system for the first time.

In its first full semester of use, myZou has created some problems, including the headaches it caused MU students with financial aid delays.

MU Registrar Brenda Selman said in an e-mail that it is not unusual for a new system to have challenges.

"Like any new system that replaces multiple complex systems that have been customized for multiple years, the challenges have been to meet the expectations that everyone has for the new system," Selman said.

Once classes are over, teachers will enter grades into myZou for the first time. Selman said there is no current backup plan in place, but myZou has already been successful in departments that have needed grading.

"We have already had successful grading periods with the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine," Selman said. "We are offering sessions to assist the faculty with entering grades. In addition, the 'help' feature will assist faculty by guiding them through the process."

In the past, teachers filled out "bubble sheets" for final grades that were then scanned into the computer, Selman said.

Faculty Council Academic Affairs Chairman Tom Phillips said he believes the new method will have fewer problems than the old method.

"The problem with the old method was that it was easy to miss a bubble," Phillips said. "This will ultimately be a much more efficient process. It will get the grades into the registrar faster."

Faculty Council Faculty Affairs Chairwoman Leona Rubin said she has heard that some teachers have concerns about the process.

"This will be the first time that I've used it at all," Rubin said. "I've gone through training sessions for it. I know that people have run into problems with it. I know some people have concerns about cross-reference courses."

Rubin said her biggest concern is for professional courses.

"I think myZou will be fine for entering grades for regular courses," Rubin said. "Our biggest concern is for professional courses, which has professional students that do projects off campus. There's no real good way to grade them for what they've done and enter it into myZou."

Rubin said professional courses are hard to grade because professional students are not on the same semester system that most students are on.

"MyZou doesn't handle the issues of professional students who have to go out into their field and do internships," Rubin said. "That's just wrong because we're not in a semester system in the vet school, so students will do something for two weeks and then do something else for two weeks and it's challenging to grade all of this."

Phillips said he hasn't heard teachers' worries about problems with the system.

"I haven't heard about anybody being worried about it," Phillips said. "It seems pretty natural to be doing it this way. It's somewhat old fashioned to be doing it from a Scantron sheet. It seems like it was an inevitable change. We do everything online, so it would be strange not to do this with an online system."