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Don Hossler (Ed.). Building a Student Information System: Strategies for Success and Implications for Campus Policy Makers. New Directions for Higher Education, No. 136. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. 88 pp. Paper: $29.00. ISBN: 978-0-7879-9607-9.
When I first looked at this monograph, I thought it seemed a little thin. After checking other recent issues in the New Directions for Higher Education series, I determined that this issue is a bit undersized as other recent issues average over 110 pages. Of course, quantity does not correlate with quality, and what does appear in this monograph is certainly important for anyone involved with implementing student information systems on college campuses. At the same time, there are some oversights in this volume (discussed below), that reduce the monograph's potential value.
Don Hossler has been working with and writing about technological issues related to student information systems for years; and given his recent work as an administrator involved with the implementation of the Peoplesoft® student information system at Indiana University, he is a perfect editor for this issue. In addition to the Editor's Notes, which include a little background on Hossler's involvement in the implementation of the system as well as some definitions of key systems terms, the monograph consists of five chapters written by administrators and consultants who have been involved in student systems implementations.
The first chapter (co-written by Hossler and William Gore) provides some background on the development of computerized information systems in colleges and universities. The authors make some claims with which I do not agree,...