PantherTrail

Our new student tracking system changed from PantherTrac to PantherTrail since some college publication had the same name. As always, when you start something new, there are a few difficulties to overcome. Since whoever operates PantherTrail will have access to student information such as picture, student ID, and current schedule, all the tutors and learning specialists had to receive security clearance. Everyone had to retake the FERPA training (some of us had to take it several times for some reason) and get cleared by several people. That took several weeks. We had a few initial obstacles with the card scanners, as well. The system now works fine, and students are used to signing in with their PantherCards. The reports are the current obstacle. We print reports for various reasons: to show students their lab hours, to see our peak times, to note participation in various events, to track student progress, etc. The reports are currently done in excel, and are very confusing. The old Accutrack gave a lot of hassle at the front end, but the reports were nice and easy. I definitely can't say the same for these. Hopefully, a better system will emerge. It took me half the day to print reports for one math class. I'm not prepared to invest that much time in printing reports for every prep class scheduled.