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UNSW Student Services Department Meeting

27 February 2006

Class Scheduling & Academic Administration Services on myUNSW

Online Class and Enrolment Management as a

Prototype of Web-based Services for Academic and General Staff

UNSWStudentServices

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Objectives

An Overview of a “Prototype” for Web / Services Delivery for staff at UNSW

To introduce UNSW Student Services staff to some of the Academic Administration focussed development activities in NS Student and myUNSW

To pose the questions:

What can portal technologies do for us?

What do we want our services to look like in an online, self-service portalised world?

What are the broader impacts on the student experience?

What are the broader impacts on the staff experience – on the ways we work?

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Several assumptions …

Web-based self-service model will prevail

“Services” used in both a technical and business sense

Business services will include transactional and informational services

… and probably some others that don’t yet exist

Portals will be “aggregation points” for services

Web-services will be characterised by:

Service Oriented Architecture technology infrastructure

Single sign-on and identity management across systems

Integration, customisation, personalisation

Workflow and rules [eg wizards]

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Several assumptions …

The majority of users of core business applications use a small number of processes / services [90/10 rule]

Reflect this in design and delivery of services

Users of these services will have:

Multiple roles [applicant, student, lecturer, researcher, financial manager]

Expectation that services will be available anywhere, anytime; intuitive; easy to learn and use; relevant to their needs; flexible

High information re-use

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What is myUNSW? Online servicesfor students

and staff

Web ‘Apps’

Content-managed

information

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What is myUNSW?

Student Adminsystem content

Role based service tabs

Role basedlinks torelated

informationand services

News & Announcements

Commonlinks

OnlineHandbookintegration

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What is myUNSW?

Complex processes are supported by…

Workflow& rulesdriven

processstages

Detailed explanations

Guide studentsand staff

Integratedpage

level help

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What is myUNSW?

Information & services basedon who you are: what you

are studying; your job

UNSW role

AcademicCareer

StudentAdministration

Systemelements

Combinations of all of these –

Role,Program,

Residency, Career,

Faculty, Campus

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UNSW History

2004 – myUNSW Portal - Students

Campus Solutions, Sun One portal, J2EE, XML, rules engines, etc [ie a kind of SOA]

Online applications and acceptances

Online enrolment and ‘active’ student services

2005 – my UNSW Portal – Staff

Student: ‘Service Centre’ enquiries for staff

Student: Online Class Scheduling and Management

HR: Employee Self-service, Online Leave processing. Paid Outside Work

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Web Services Prototype 1 – Services Centre

Tab within myUNSW

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Web Services Prototype 1 – Services Centre

360 degree, er, 270 degree view of one or more students

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Academic Admin Services access

Staff require a myUNSW role in order to access the Academic Admin tab. There are three myUNSW roles:

Advisor: provides access to Academic statements, Class Schedule (view student’s timetable), Course/grade history (past enrolments and grades by term), Enrolment summary, Holds/To Do

Service Centre: provides access to students’ Current address, current email/phone, enrolment summary, Holds/To Do

Instructor: for academic staff. Provides access to personal teaching schedule as well as course/class rosters for classes they teach (if recorded as instructor against relevant classes in Schedule of Classes)

[Enhanced for Class Management]

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Web Services Prototype 2 – Course / Class Management

Context for changes to course and class management at UNSW

Preparation for Centralised Timetabling [Syllabus+ Course planner]

Increasing need for completeness of processes and data (Student self-service enrolment, University wide timetable, WebCT-Vista requirements)

Increasing need for accuracy and forward planning (HESA legislative course publishing requirements, including Administrative Guidelines; Ministerial Determinations)

Annual or sessional nature of many academic administration processes creates operational difficulties

Course Catalogue and Class Scheduling: practices not uniform; devolved processes [School]; complex set of panels with high redundancy; difficult to train and support staff [re-education annually]

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myUNSW and Online Class Management

A Fundamental shift:

Previously staff interacted with the myUNSW Staff Portal Academic Admin functions in an enquire-only mode. The new class management service uses myUNSW as an update facility for a core academic administration function.

Provides better support for new staff and irregular users – simplified and unified service.

Workflow based process logic with irrelevant fields hidden, providing integrated page level Online Help, better validation and including useful features such as colour coded ‘alerts’.

myUNSW also provides easy access to online resources such as policies, procedures, ‘publications’, and online statistical data

Publications include: Online Handbook, Online Class Timetable, and online Class Utilisation report

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A series of myUNSW releases …

‘Class Scheduling’ release (October 2005):

Allows set up of class structures for enrolment readiness and for publication so that students may forward plan for enrolment.

Multiple, sequenced pages for detailed entry/update of all fields

Single page summary of status, capacities and enrolments for all classes in a course, with the ability to change status and capacities for any or all. Enables efficient monitoring of demand in real time, and management of quotas.

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Class Scheduling – October 2005 Release

Workflow Logic

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Class Scheduling – October 2005 Release

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Enrolment Management Release (December 2005)

Includes facilities to:

Close a class – including system-generated notification to students that they must select another [probably 1st, 2nd and final warning].

Move Students – all or some students in one class moved to another class within the same course and activity – allows better support for balancing and rationalising classes where necessary.

Message Students – auto generate emails (text only) to students within a class.

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Course Catalogue and Scheduling Requirements Releases (2006)

Includes facilities to:

Maintain course catalogue within myUNSW.

Prepare for future terms (activity group structure).

Collect additional data required for centralised timetabling e.g. anticipated enrolments, room requirements, eLearning needs etc.

Specify planned meeting schedule on week-to-week rather than term / session date basis to allow for variations within a session

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Towards University-wide timetabling …

myUNSW will be tightly coupled to Syllabus-Plus for University wide timetabling.

Only a core set of central users will interact directly with Syllabus-Plus Course Planner.

School/faculty interaction will occur via the myUNSW interface including Ongoing requests for new classes,

Closing classes and return of booked rooms,

Changed requirements etc.

Reports

End Goal – all school-based activity for managing courses and classes, including timetabling management, will be filtered through myUNSW [portal]

Staff shouldn’t need to use Campus Solutions in Client-Server or Course Planner

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Early signs are good

Through parallel ‘business changes’ activities we’ve persuaded all faculties to conduct activity ‘class’ level enrolments through Campus Solutions

Administrative staff in Schools are enthusiastic

Local systems discontinued – eg TAS in FCE

> 90% of all classes on CS for 2006

Class information needs entered by staff after timetabling [separate process for 2006]

Many students able to establish final timetable months earlier than when local systems were used

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What We Can’t Solve by Web Self-Service Alone

Academic Staff Anxieties

Complex, many factors at play

Industrial tensions

Academic Workload Policy [implementation devolved to Schools]

… Challenges for supporting Academic Administration at UNSW

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Enquiries

Student Systems & Business Solutions

Robert Morrell, Manager

r.morrell@unsw.edu.au ext. 58757

Scheduling and Academic Requirements Unit

Sarah Thomson, Head

s.thomson@unsw.edu.au ext. 58757

myUNSW Emily Middleton, myUNSW Administrator

e.middleton@unsw.edu.au ext. 58757

Acknowledgement: Presentation draws in part on material from earlier presentations developed by Daniel Steel, Adam Goc, Sarah Thomson and Geoff Whale.