[DRAFT]
This is a guide to SAM3 functionality with a comparison of the equivalents in SITS. It is an attempt to "audit" the functionality of SAM3 and at the same time comment on the "fit" with SITS of that function. The comments are not in any way meant as a critique of SITS and in some places my ignorance of SITS will invalidate my comments. This document should be considered as a draft until I have had my comments considered by SITS aficionados and ammended accordingly.
It should be noted at the outset that the SITS database has a more extensive range of data than SAM3. It also services more user groups and their needs, such as Admissions, Registry with HESA returns and the daily UCAS transactions, and others. SAM3 was designed only to service the needs of School based Administrators. It does this by importing large amounts of it's data from SITS and giving Schools a simplified yet extended set of data which they can control and manipulate. The success of SAM3 in Schools has been, I think, giving Schools control of "their" data, and the easy of use in doing it. SAM began life back in the SBS days, before SITS, now with SITS the Schools can have centralised data but with the immediacy of access they require. Ease-of-use is an issue thats not directly relevant to this document, particularly as it is such a hard thing to quantify. Usage goes a long way to ease-of-use.
The rest of this document is formatted in two columns, the first column is SAM3 functionality, the second, SITS. Any "..."s indicate incomplete research at this time. The guide is broken down into the following sections:
- Programmes
- Modules
- Teaching & Tutorial Groups
- Address data
- Student's Personal data
- Student's Study data
- Schools & Departments
- Reports
Programmes
SAM3 stores enough data for it's needs including key fields like: Programme ID, Name, Duration, Level.
The Base data is drawn from downloads from SITS with some massaging to fit SAM3 database structures.
Each Programme is allocated to one domain or two for CH Programmes. A domain is a concatenation of the School code (e.g. HPS for SHiPSS) and the Department code where appropriate (e.g. HPSSOC for SHiPSS, Sociology).
Generally only the owner of a Programme can alter data relating to the Programme. Ownership being determined via the Domain fields.SITS has a more extensive range of data field relating to Programmes. Although it is not always easy to navigate the more complex structures involving Course, Route and Programme tables. ... ... ... ... ... ... Modules
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Teaching & Tutorial Groups
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Address data
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Student's Personal data
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Student's Study data
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Schools & Departments
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Reports
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...