Biographic

The Biographic page, available in the Users hub, captures the basic description of a student (ST), a faculty member (FA), an applicant (AP), Online Applicant (OA), an alumna or alumnus (AL), a staff member (SF), a prospective student (PS), Withdrawn Student (WD), or a constituent (CO). Administrators with appropriate User Security are able to edit information on this page.

Not all schools use all of the information in this display.

Exam IDs are designed to allow instructors to grade exams and other course material anonymously. Exam IDs can be viewed and edited by administrators with the appropriate permissions from this page.

Edit the ID manually and click Submit or click the Generate ID button to generate a new number programmatically that will not match any existing exam ID.

Web Options

While Exam IDs can still be stored in the system and used for other purposes, they only provide anonymity within SONIS when the Use Exam ID option in Web Options has been turned on.

When the Use Exam ID box is checked, students are still listed by their name in the course roster in the Faculty portal, but their name is replaced by their exam ID in the Gradebook.

There's also a web option that controls whether students have access to their own exam ID or not. If the Allow students to view Exam IDs option is active, each student's ID will be listed on their Bio page in the Student portal. If the option is turned off, it will not appear.

Exam ID Utility

Exam IDs can also be updated in bulk using the Exam ID Utility.

Alternate Name Search

Administrators can also search for users by their exam ID using the Alternate Name Search.

If the student has a preferred name that they wish to be called rather than their given name, use the Preferred Name field to make note of this. If a student has a preferred name on record, it will display in parentheses on the roster so instructors can call them by the name they prefer.

The Biographic page contains an optional Preferred Pronouns field where administrators can enter the pronoun(s) that the user prefers. To turn this feature on, navigate to Web Options under the Systems menu and check the Enable Pronouns box. Submit the page to save the change.

By default, this field includes he/him, she/her, and they/them pronouns. To add additional pronouns, navigate to Table Maintenance and Edit the Preferred Pronouns table.

Once the Preferred Pronouns table has been selected, click Add New Record to create a new set of pronouns.

On the following page, enter the pronouns in the Pronouns field and enter a whole number for the Sort Order. The sort order controls where they appear in menus. Click Submit to complete the process.

Users can enter their own pronouns through the Prospect Web inquiry page or when applying through the SONIS Online Application.

To set pronouns for a user from the Biographic page, simply select the correct pronouns from the Preferred Pronouns drop-down menu and save the page.

Once preferred pronouns have been set, they can by viewed by faculty from their Course Roster or Advisee Listing.

Update Bio

Institutions can allow their students and faculty to update their pronouns directly through the Update Bio pages on the Student and Faculty portal.

To turn on this feature, navigate to Portal Menu Utility and select either Student or Faculty. Scroll down to the Update Bio row and click the Edit link.

On the following page, check the Display Element to ensure that the user's pronouns appear on the Update Bio page and the Allow Edit box to allow them to make changes. Click Submit to save the change.

Once the option has been activated, users will see their Preferred Pronouns at the top of the page and can select a new set. Updates made from this page change the Admin Biographic page.