In Summer 2022, the Office of Information Technology successfully launched its new pilot program, ScholarSteps: a streamlined system to support the academic review process at UCI.

OIT’s Student & Academic Services division partnered with UCI’s Office of Academic Personnel in late 2021 to create a new platform to replace AP Review, the legacy faculty merit and promotion software, in just nine months. The technology powering AP Review was sunsetting and UCI needed a new solution.

The academic review cycle at UCI is used to evaluate academic appointees, research professionals and service professionals such as faculty and cooperative extension specialists. It’s a complex process, involving many different reviewers, that can often take months to complete and can involve upwards of 100 steps for each reviewee. 

The team knew that creating a system to replace AP Review wouldn’t be easy, but with the end date looming, they got to work in quick, iterative weekly sessions to begin improving upon a small prototype that had already been created. Over the next nine months, they worked tirelessly to prepare for the pilot launch this past summer. 

“Nine months is not a very long time to build custom software, but our team understood that a tailored solution was the best way to support UCI faculty and staff,” said Shohreh Bozorgmehri, director of student and academic services at OIT. “The ScholarSteps team was able to partner with the Academic Personnel team to streamline a complex process.”

While the review process itself remains largely unchanged, an intentional decision intended to facilitate a seamless transition for faculty and instructors, ScholarSteps really shines in the user experience improvements, which have been designed to simplify and support the administrative process.

Department staff are now able to track each submission’s progress through the system and have more access to make changes during the process, instead of relying solely on administrators to handle these requests. Viewing attachments and publications, which often come in large file sizes, is also now cleaner and easier than before.

Maral Dakessian, who works in the Dean’s Office at UCI’s School of Medicine, has been using the program during the ongoing pilot, “ScholarSteps is easy to use and I really appreciate the Dashboard feature. With approximately 100 faculty files in my queue, the dashboard allows me to adjust the filters so I can view and prioritize my assigned files easily.”

Many academic units have already signed up as early adopters, and the pilot will remain open for the remainder of the 2022-23 review cycle. The feedback so far from units participating in the pilot has allowed the team to tailor and update the system in real time, and continuing to do this with additional input ensures the best product is available for its full launch in 2023. ScholarSteps will officially replace AP Review for the 2023-24 review cycle.