1. UTES #1 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 UNSW Student Services UTES

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

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

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

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

9. UTES #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. UTES #10 Web Services Prototype 1 – Services Centre  Tab within myUNSW

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

12. UTES #12 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]

13. UTES #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. UTES #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 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

15. UTES #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. UTES #16 Class Scheduling – October 2005 Release  Workflow Logic

17. UTES #17 Class Scheduling – October 2005 Release

18. UTES #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].  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.

19. UTES #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 planned meeting schedule on week-to-week rather than term / session date basis to allow for variations within a session

20. UTES #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. UTES #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. UTES #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. UTES #23 Enquiries Student Systems & Business Solutions  Robert Morrell, Manager r.morrell@unsw.edu.aur.morrell@unsw.edu.au ext. 58757 Scheduling and Academic Requirements Unit  Sarah Thomson, Head s.thomson@unsw.edu.aus.thomson@unsw.edu.au ext. 58757 myUNSW  Emily Middleton, myUNSW Administrator e.middleton@unsw.edu.aue.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.