Attending: John Buckett, Emma Baker, Sue Brooks, Ray Burnley, Sarah Cooke, Gisela Fischer, Barbara Powell, Elizabeth Stewart, Anna Verhamme, Stevie Woodley, Keith Zimmerman and Caroline Innalls

1. Apologies for Absence

   No apologies were received

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting held on 22 January 2003

   Minutes approved.

3. Matters Arising

   SAM Payments: At the last meeting JB agreed to chase up issuing of invoices for SAM payments from Schools – this has now been done.

   Feedback on Current Issues/Problems with SAM: It was reported at the last meeting that a data cleansing operation was underway and the missing code relating to Personal Tutor (PT) handling was being reinstated. PT Synchronisation is now fixed.

   Classification: It was pointed out at the last meeting that the classification displayed on the SITS exam board reports dropped the decimal point for division 2 classes; i.e. 2.1 read as 21 and 2.2 as 22. It was reported at this meeting that a colon will be used, e.g. 2:1

4. Exam Period

   The group agreed that this was the best ever! Everything went extremely well and sincere thanks was given to Ray for all his hard work.

5. September Re-Sits

   It was agreed that we continue with SAM until December (after Postgraduate exams).

6. Life After SAM

   RB is already working on a data warehouse project, that will take nightly data feeds from SITS and make the data available for a few, specific, School based applications. The applications in question are:

   • Maths - data feed for their in-house web-based system
   • SHiPSS - Module templates on the web
   • SHiPSS - Web-based Student Programme/Module Evaluation
   • Modern Languages & SHiPSS - A web-based replacement for the Groups functionality of SAM3 for assigning and timetabling teaching groups (Tutorials, Lectures, etc.)

   The project builds on the SAM3 backend MySQL database and the associated scripts that download data from SITS for SAM3. It is intended as interim project, with the expectation that eVision or other central administrative systems will replace the need for these School based applications. The project is due to be on-line by mid September this year (2003).

   So far the project hasn't been named. RB, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, suggested DWIPSI for Data Warehouse Interim Partial Student Info. It sounds a little twee, but it does indicate the temporary and limited scope of the project as stressed by IT Services Managers.

7. Any Other Business

   John thanked the Group, and especially Ray for all his input and hard work.