UNSW Student Services Department Meeting 27 February 2006

1. UTES UNSW Student Services UNSW Student Services Department Meeting27 February 2006 Class Scheduling & Academic Administration Services on myUNSWOnline Class and Enrolment Management as a Prototype of Web-based Services for Academic and General Staff

2. 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?

3. 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]

4. 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

5. Online services for students and staff Web ‘Apps’ Content-managed information What is myUNSW?

6. What is myUNSW? Role based service tabs Student Admin system content Common links Role based links to related information and services News & Announcements Online Handbook integration

7. What is myUNSW? Integrated page level help Workflow & rules driven process stages Detailed explanations Guide studentsand staff Complex processes are supported by…

8. What is myUNSW? Information & services basedon who you are: what you are studying; your job UNSW role Combinations of all of these – Role, Program, Residency, Career, Faculty, Campus Student Administration System elements Academic Career

9. 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

10. Web Services Prototype 1 – Services Centre • Tab within myUNSW

11. Web Services Prototype 1 – Services Centre • 360 degree, er, 270 degree view of one or more students

12. Academic Admin Services access • Staffrequire 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]

13. 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]

14. 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 serviceuses 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

15. 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.

16. Class Scheduling – October 2005 Release • Workflow Logic

17. Class Scheduling – October 2005 Release

18. 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]. • MoveStudents – 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.

19. 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 plannedmeeting schedule on week-to-week rather than term / session date basis to allow for variations within a session

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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.