Last October, St. Edward’s Information Technology (IT) department unveiled a new system known as My Hilltop that will eventually fully replace Edweb as the primary data-management software for the university.

As part of an Enterprise Research Planning Program (ERP) that began three years ago, many have been involved with helping to implement and improve the new portal My Hilltop, which offers better visuals and easier usability to students and teachers alike.

All these developments might seem new, but in actuality they’ve been in the works for a long time.

“We had a university-wide overview several years ago that recommended that if the university wanted to continue at the high level we are operating at, we needed to make an ERP change,” Project Manager & Content Strategist Claire J. Dunn said. “Our previous administrative software was deemed to be at the end of its life so it would not be supported on or developed on anymore.”

Some current features of My Hilltop have already helped streamline work for faculty – just ask Assistant Professor of English Writing and Rhetoric Amy Clements.

“I’ve taught at two other universities, and every data-management system has quirks. My Hilltop has quirks, but I certainly prefer it to EdWeb,” Clements said. “The process for looking up advisee data was very, very clunky in EdWeb. Also, if I’m interrupted while filing end-of-semester grades, My Hilltop will let me hit ‘save’ and then come back later to finish the process in another session. EdWeb didn’t let us do that.”

Students too have voiced frustration concerning EdWeb.

“EdWeb was poorly organized and designed,” sophomore Kayla Sulewski said. “But at least everything had labels so you could figure out where things were.”

New features will be added periodically as the IT department transfers features over from Edweb to My Hilltop.

“Degree audits and degree planning are tools that will go live on Oct. 1st. That might be something students were concerned about,” Dunn said. “So that is on track to go live in just a few short weeks, and then we’re also working on implementing the parking system. That said, it’s important to remember that this is new software and that IT folks are still learning how to use it. We’re all in a learning curve together.”

For a while, using both of these online systems will be like living in two worlds. Some features will require you to log into My Hilltop to do one thing and use Edweb to finish it.

“It’s not ideal but that’s kind of the reality for this large transition into the future,” Dunn said. “I want to make sure people know we’re on track, and we’re just crossing things off the list, which feels great.”

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