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Introduction
The School Administrators year can be divided into phases within which various task need to be performed. My vision for SAM is that it will steamline the performance of these task.
This phase/task perspective is my way of making sense of the complex and demanding School Admins role, inspired from conversations with Keith Zimmerman in particular and others involved in the Schools Administration process. Thanks: Keith, Jo Smith, Betsey Smith and the SHiPSS and Law secretarial staff in particular.
I hope this view is a useful way of looking at the problem for you and that presenting SAM in this way is useful and informative too.
The Phases of the Administrator's Year
This list of phases also acts as links to within the Task Outline table below.- Pre-Registration
- Registration
- Post-Registration
- Day-to-Day
- Planning and Development
- Pre-Examinations
- Examinations
- Post-Examinations
SAM Development Plan
I believe the central core of a working system is there now. It is usable now, in fact SHiPSS are running it as a working system at this present time.
All data structures, bar some minor extensions, are solid and (I believe) right. The general 'look-and-feel', the form design and interaction of menus and forms, is good. The detail of the behaviour of forms, in terms of keyboard control is still not perfect but it is usable. The distribution procedures, so that fast fixes and new developments are easily and quickly available, are well developed. The server, and hence sharability, aspect are in place and work for the Amory 'guinea-pig' Schools. This includes the availablilty of SBS (CHA) data 'at the press of a button' (or several).
More development work is needed though, and the following list outlines some of this work, in no particular order of priority:
- Security: who can use which forms, see/update which data
- More comprehensive 'downloads' of SBS data
- Updating SBS data from Schools SAM's
- Exam Task Focus: the exam application used by SHiPSS/Geography & Archaeology needs incorporating into SAM
- Sharing data between the various Schools SAM's
- Cataloguing and rationalising the various SAM reports
- and probably more to come...
Task Outline
This section lists the tasks associated with each phase. Column one (briefly) describes the task, column two indicates where in SAM you find the tools to perform the task, and column three notes how well (or not) SAM works in this particular area. The third column makes reference to the SAM release/version numbers in respect to fixing any shortcomings. This column may also have a Details link to a page with more information relating to a particular release and the developments and problems it addresses.
| Pre-Registration ____________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Progression preparation | Supervisor \Progression_Prep. | |
| Progression | Supervisor \Maintenance \Progression... | |
| Enter non 1st. years Module choices | Registration... \Register... | |
| Set up Groups/Activities | Allocation... \Groups... \Detail | |
| New admissions (the 1st. years) | Supervisor \New_Student... | |
| Check compulsory 1st. year Modules | Registration... \Register... | |
| Add any known 1st. year Module choices | Registration... \Register... | |
| Allocate Personal Tutors | Allocation... \Students_to_Tutors... | |
| Registration ________________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Print Student Record form | Registration... \Register... [Print] | |
| Print "Red Form" | Registration... \Register... \(Module...) [Print] | |
| Enter completed "Red Form" Module choices | Registration... \Register... | |
| Check and resolve timetable clashes | Registration... \Clash_Check... | |
| Enter extra entrant info (Scholarships, Interests, Proposed career, etc.) | Registration... \Further... | |
| Post-Registration ___________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Finalise Group/Activities allocation | Allocation... \Groups... \Membership... | |
| Finalise Personal Tutor allocation |
Allocation... \Students_to_Tutors... Allocation... \Tutorless... | |
| Print lists: Module, Tutor Groups, etc. |
[Print] from various forms
| |
| Print timetables: Student, Staff, etc. (Rooms?) |
[Print] from various forms
| |
| Scan and print Photo sheets | future extension | |
| Day-to-Day _________________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Update Student Study info: Programme, Status, Modules, Personal Tutor, etc. | select_student \(various) | |
| Update Student General info: Addresses, etc. | select_student \(various) | |
| Update timetables | ||
| Log Student Consultations | select_student \Monitoring... \[Add_Consult.] | |
| Update Student's Attendance & Assessment results | select_student \Monitoring... \[Update...] | |
| Monitor Student's Attendance & Assessments | select_student \Monitoring... | |
| Planning and Development ___________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Update/Create Programme definitions/rules | Allocation... \Programme... \Definition | |
| Update/Create Module definitions/rules | Allocation... \Module... \Definition | |
| Enter coming session's timetable requirements | Allocation... \Groups... \Next_Session... | |
| Produce Statistical reports | Supervisor \Statistics... | |
| Publish various 'reports' to the Web | [Print] (appropiate form) | |
| Pre-Examinations ___________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Check Student's Module registration (correct credits total) | select_student \(Module...) | |
| Check correct Student cohort membership: Programmes, Modules | Under/Post-graduates \whichever cohorts | |
| Check credit carrying Assessments | select_student \(Monitoring...) | |
| Check general mitigation info | select_student \(Monitoring...) | |
| Approve Exam Board reports formats | Examinations \... (see note below) | |
| Examinations _______________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Enter Exam marks: bulk by Module, by individual Student | Examinations \... | |
| Indicate/update External status | Examinations \... | |
| Check all marks are available | Examinations \... | |
| Print Exam Board Reports | ||
| Post-Examinations __________________________________________ | ||
| Task | SAM Location | Dev.Status |
| Confirm Marks and Results | Examinations \... | |
| Print/Upload Exam 'returns' for Exam Office | Examinations \... | |
| Resits: Enter Marks, Print Exam Board Reports, Returns to Exam Office | Examinations \... | |
| Progression Preparation -- completes the cycle (see, Pre-Registration above) | ||
Examinations Note: The Examinations Focus area is currently (SAM 2.34) disabled. Work is need to re-engineer the Exams queries, forms and procedures into the upgraded data structures. This work is scheduled for completion by mid-October. If you have concerns over the Exams area I can demonstrate the earlier version of SAM that was used for both the SHiPSS and Geography & Archaeology exam process earlier this Summer.
Postscript
I am not a Schools administrator and there are almost certainly ommissions and possibly some misunderstandings of the processes as presented here.
Please give me feedback on this in any of these ways:
- By phone (x3300) or personal consultation (Amory room 338)
- By email to me R.D.Burnley@exeter.ac.uk
- By email to the SUDS maillist setup by Jo Smith, SUDS@exeter.ac.uk
- Or, if I ever get time to setup and enable it, the Web discussion forum area of the Project SAM website
I look forward to hearing from you!
Ray Burnley
R.D.Burnley
