Overview
Background
The purpose of this project is to develop a consolidated set of system tools within EUCLID to administer the PGR student lifecyle. Currently these tools exist partly in EUCLID and partly in PPMD which was developed as an add on to EUCLID when the original project descoped PGR administration as a priority.
The tools developed will provide a solid foundation for the implementation of the PREP project (Postgraduate Researcher Experience Project) in 2015/16 if funding is achieved and a model for additional functionality to be built in the same way in the future. The prioritiy of these changes within the PGR lifecycle was confirmed by the Researcher Experience Committee (REC) on 3/3/15.
The core reason that the project is required is to move the functionality and data which is currently held within the Postgraduate Progression Monitoring Database ( PPMD ) into EUCLID so that all of the centrally delivered PGR administration functions can be administered in one place removing duplication of data and processes.
Scope and Objectives
The objectives of the project are:
- To pull all of the PGR administation into one system, removing duplication of data and processes reducing effort on these tasks across the organisation. - To provide a solid foundation for the PREP project from a systems perspective. - Build on the framework developed in the re-design of the EUCLID student hub to allow the addtional data to be added in a clean and consistent manner.
The scope of the project is as follows:
- Analysis of the data and processes which are stored and actioned in PPMD. - Move all the process which are specific to PPMD into EUCLID where required. - Develop any added value processes around the functionality which is being moved over rather than just moving as is. - Migrate any data required from PPMD to EUCLID. - Expose any new data now stored in EUCLID in ESSMU. - Allow all parties to the processes to see the data as required including the student. - Decide how long the PPMD data which is not moved across is required to be accessible to staff.
Out of Scope (In scope of PREP project or SAC046 -Student Funding)
1) Enhancements to Annual Review Form 2) Introduction of new staff relationships with the student (e.g Thesis Committee Co-Ordinator) 3) Workflow for examiners form to make sure are sign-off by all (Scope will only include straightforward upload of documents) 4) Student Funding (this will be delivered for all students not just PGR in SAC046 Student Funding Project)
Deliverables
The deliverables of the project will fall into the following areas:
Core Functionality 1) Set-up of examiners data and linkage to students record. 2) Thesis workflow tracking of all inputs including those from examiners. 3) Thesis events and date tracking to monitor progress from intention to submit to completion. Including upload of related documents. 4) Progress and Outcomes for all events for a PGR student to recorded. 5) Draw a clear distinction in the students record between corrections and re-submission with different workflow/processes for each. 6) Ability for staff to edit letter templates themselves rather than through Student Systems support team. 7) Formal Letters to student produced and saved against the students record to document decisions made. 8) Allow full access to all parties to the data and processes (Students / Administative Staff / Academics). 9) Consolidation of the concessions processing within EUCLID providing workflows for their approval.
Data Set-Up 10) Data Migration (scope to be determined)
Reporting 11) Expose additional data captured within the ESSMU universe alonside current student dataset. 12) Core set of reports developed to support business process. Archiving 12) Decommissioning of PPMD. 13) Provide access to historical data as required.
Support Information 14) Produce a set of online resources to support the new software tailored to the different audience groups.
Benefits
The project will deliver the following benefits
System Consolidation
| Description | Benefit (Tangible or Non-Tangible) |
1 | Consolidation of the PGR data in one system will save staff a large amount time in administering the student record of this type of student across two systems. It will also reduce the amount of time spent keeping EUCLID and PPMD in line for the elements which currently overlap but are required to be held in the two systems to support different business processes. | 0.5 day of staff time per year for each PGR student
4000 x 0.5 = 2000 days |
2 | The version of Coldfusion which PPMD is currently implemented on will require itbe upgraded if PPMD is still required. If PPMD is removed then this cost will no longer be required.
| Ongoing costs removed |
3 | Support days for PPMD will no longer be required both IS APPs and Student Systems.
| 6 – 10 days support cost |
| 4 | Improved tools which moving to EUCLID provides - notes/documents/lettters/workflow. Building on the framework of the newly developed Student Hub | Useability |
| 5 | Framework on which PREP project can be built on within EUCLID | Scalability |
Access to Schools and Students
| Description | Benefit (Tangible or Non-Tangible) |
1 | Currently all communication between the college and school about this data is done outside of EUCLID and PPMD as schools have no access to PPMD and therefore cannot see the data.
| 0.25 day of staff time per year for each PGR student
4000 x 0.25 = 1000 days |
2 | Current student have no visibility on student self-service of these elements of their student record, they cannot see the examiners set-up for them, they cannot see the dates which are recorded for thesis to be submitted, they also cannot easily if they have had concessions granted and what impact this has had on their end dates and thesis dates.
| Cost of time for staff to answer questions about record rather than being able to refer to self service
Also pulling in a set of students not currently using EUCLID into using this as source of information. |
3 | Moving the application of Interruptions/Extensions and Leave absences online initiated by the student and visible to all will make this process much more visible and effectively saving staff time in terms of chasing the forms and viewing where the forms are. The changes will then be directly implemented into EUCLID doing away with the need for the coldfusion form currently used by the Student Team in Student Systems for this type of request. | 0.25 day of staff time for all students which ask for record changes.
This is across Student Systems and the Schools and Colleges.
1000 * 0.25 = 250 days |
Success Criteria
- PPMD can be decommission and all processes are available within one system - PGR adminitration data is open to all parties involve including students. - Solid foundation produced for the PREP project going forward.