Administration of distance learning study programs in the information system of Higher Education Institutions

1. 511126-TEMPUS-1-2010-1-RS-TEMPUS-SMGR Administration of distance learning study programs in the information system of Higher Education Institutions Risto Malcheski, risto.malcheski@fon.edu.mk SlavchoChungurski, chungurski@fon.edu.mk FON University – Skopje, Macedonia

2. Introduction • Evolution from traditional to distance learning studies • Whole study programs or only parts of study programs can be served as distance learning programs • Administration of these study programs can be challenging • It should be integrated with the existing information systems • Example of functional requirements and business rules

3. Users of the information system • External • Students • Personal profile • Exam registration • Various inquiries • E-learning • Alumni • Personal profile • CV update

4. Users of the information system • Internal • Management • Vice Dean • Full Access, not dependent of teaching staff • Chief of Student Affairs • Full Access, not dependent of teaching staff • Mobility Coordinator • Defines the compatibility issues • Professors • Updating the exam results • E-learning content • Administration • Student Affairs • Administration of certain segment of student records • Administrator • Administration of e-learning system and user roles

5. Functional requirements of the system • General requirements • Rigid (time and rules must be obeyed) • Specific nomenclature of the resources • Search, reports and alerts on various data • Mail merge and correspondence, envelope printing etc. • Student exchange evidence in both directions • Academic year and semesters • According to the laws, the system provide evidence of various forms of studying • Marks • Update of the marks, visible for the students • Unified lists of registered exams

6. Functional requirements of the system • Study programs and subjects definitions • Unified subject coding • Basic and elective subjects • Study programs, scientific area, subjects, credits • Subject dependencies • Automatic or manual distribution for study groups per study programs, streams, modules, branches or language • Enrolment of students, based on rules for prerequisites according to the study program • Level completion and title awards, depending on credits achieved

7. Functional requirements of the system • IDs and student records • Each student has separate ID for each study program enrolled • Finance • Definition of services at the faculty (university) • Alert on payments • Definition of various types of scholarships • Definition of various types of payments and packages • Subjects and programs compatibility • Mapping of compatible subjects for different study programs, according to decision of mobility coordinator • During transfer, all recognized subjects are entered into the student’s record • Definition of equivalent subjects between actual and past study programs

8. Functional requirements of the system • Exam registration • Electronic registration, automatically filled with background data from the student profile • Registration inquiries and lists are completely generated from the system • Enrolment • Electronic registration • Mail delivery confirmation • Rankings are generated automatically, based on pre-defined rules

9. Functional requirements of the system • Automatic reports and documents • Candidate lists • by schools, cities, countries, age, status, average mark, etc… • Exam reports • Attended, registered, (not)passed etc… • Average marks per subject, professor, stream, study group etc… • Confirmation reports and documents • Passed exams, diploma, diploma supplement, student status etc… • Graduation report with scientific areas with their participation in the program (including all subjects) • Books of records, filled by student affairs • Possibility for electronic export (DOC, DOCX, XLS, PDF, XML)

10. Business rules • Diploma – three types • Plain, issued by the faculty (university) • Double, issued by two faculties, separately • Common, issued by two faculties, for common study program • Marks • Each mark has automatic addition of description mark • Mark can be integral, with several components (marks from colloquiums, exam, additional activities, note etc.)

11. Business rules • Academic year and semesters • Alerts for students without status, after the final term for enrolment in a proper semester • The system rejects exam registration for a subject from semester which is not verified • Enrolment of a semester depends on number of credits earned, which is defined by the study program • Resources and schedules • The composition of study groups can be defined by professor, assistant or demonstrator

12. Business rules • Study programs and subjects • Students can change their study program until their graduation. This is a must, if they repeat an academic year and there is a change of the study programs • One faculty has separate study program for each stream and academic year • Subjects should be grouped by semester and/or branches • Subjects can be defined with parental faculty. • Subjects can be mandatory or elective, relational or non-relational • Student can not register for exam for relational subject without passing its prerequisites

13. Business rules • Study programs and subjects (…continued) • Subjects are defined in the scope of the faculty (university) with their unified codes for all study programs • A subject has only one scientific area, unique code, same class funds and credits for all study programs, professors, language etc… • The system should provide information about representations of the scientific area in a study program (%, number of credits, number of subjects) • Each student can belong to multiple study groups, defined by the system administrator, according to professor’s recommendation. This distribution can be achieved automatically, also.

14. Business rules • IDs and student records • Student records: personal data, study records and financial records • Only chief of student affairs (and predefined officers) can access IDs and marks of the students • Main student status: active, conditionally active, stand and unresolved • Study modes: regular, work & study (depending of the Law), self-financing and exchange student • Student profile status: candidate, student, senior, alumnus, graduated and unsubscribed • Additional student status: transferred from external study program, transferred from internal study program, initially enrolled

15. Business rules • IDs and student records • Active student has fulfilled all prerequisites of the study program and has not financial debt • Conditionally active student must fulfill his condition to enroll next academic year • Stand student is the one who sign written inquiry for his status. If there is a change of study program, during his stand, he must transfer to the new study program. • If student has financial debt or violate the final term for semester enrollment, he get unresolved status. • All activities are frozen for stand and unresolved students • Student can not unsubscribe if he has financial debts.

16. Business rules • Finance and insurance • Financial services are defined in a scope of university, faculty, study program or subject. • Students can use scholarships if they fulfill predefined conditions, or by decision of the management. In the system, scholarships are special type of payment model • Each student has single payment model. Changes of the model are possible only if the fees by the old model are covered • At the time of enrolment of new academic year, student must choose appropriate payment model for that academic year • Insurance lists are updated annually.

17. Business rules • Subjects and programs compatibility • Each subject belongs to single scientific area, but multiple study programs and multiple professors • In case of transfer, total number of passed exams and earned credits are processed by destination study program. All transferred subjects are automatically inserted as part of destination study program • Dean signs a decision note for subject recognition for transfers. Electronic copy of the note is attached in the file of transferred student

18. Business rules • Exam registration • Exam registration is rejected in any case of financial debts • Violation of defined terms for certain events are not allowed • Student can cancel exam registration until the final term for registration • Student status for exam: passed, not passed, not attended, on additional task

19. Business rules • Enrolment • Candidates have unique application ID, related to their profiles • Student affairs officers can change faculty, stream or language. • After enrolment, application ID is erased and replaced with student ID • In case of multiple study programs enrolment, candidates get separate application ID for each study program

20. Business rules • Automatic reports and documents • Partial certificate contain current situation of the student. Full certificate contain information about completed cycle of studies • Some reports are confidential and hidden for public • There are alerts before printing of documents if the student has some problematic issues. It doesn’t mean that the officer can not issue the document • Certificates are printed with templates accepted by the management. They can not contain sudden line and page breaks. • Student profile should contain message box. It is used for messages from the officers and professors, but not other students