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After a slight pause in publication the October 2010 edition of the SAINT Newsletter is finally here! The team have been hard at work and have now released some new developments that should prove to be very useful! Further details can be found below.
We would like to help keep SAINT Users better informed about our work so if you can think of an item for inclusion in a later edition then please get in touch. What would you like to know?
Many modules have multiple occurences possible due to different periods or places the module is taught. Rather than having to have mutiple copies of documents on Blackboard for each occurence, it is possible to get SAINT to map from one module occurence to another. For example, if a module occurence B has the same teaching materials and lecturer as occurence A, SAINT can be set up easily to allow all the students on the B occurence to access the A occurence on Blackboard so the lecturer only has to load documents to one version of the module.
Module mapping in Blackboard (.doc format
) (.pdf format
)
Module surveys and End of Year questionnaires can now be launched via e:Vision. This has been piloted in two schools and is now being rolled out to Live for all academic schools.
Setup required for Module and End of Year Questionnaires - October 2010 (.doc format) (.pdf format)
Module Surveys via e:Vision - October 2010 (.doc format) (.pdf format)
Up until 16 August 2010, SPI records that had an “Agreed PIT Code” (generated by CSP) would have an e:Vision letter published at 23:00hrs daily. This letter would then be visible via e:Vision if it had been made available to view.
The result of this was that if the student had progression information from a previous set of Examination Boards, this information was overwritten with the ‘latest’ Progression / Award information and the historic decision lost. Additionally, if a student had multiple SPI records for a particular Examination Board period (for example, the student was allowed to progress to the next stage of their course, but also had to do supplementary assessment in the current stage), the letter produced via e:Vision used the highest sequence number SPI record and so only a partial/incorrect result was visible via e:Vision.
At a recent Administrators Forum, it was unanimously agreed that if a system could be developed that tracked all progression decisions, then this system should implemented. After a great deal of work by the team, the documents below show how this can now be done.
Multiple Results Letters (.doc format) (.pdf format)
A re-organisation of staffing in the Directorate of Academic Administration has led to a review of work/meeting commitments. As other communication channels are now available, it has been suggested that the SAINT Forum may now not be needed.
The Academic Schools Administrators Forum meets monthly and is a useful conduit of information to and from academic schools, the SAINT Team and the Hub, especially concerning academic policy and student data processing. This forum along with information posted on the SAINT website and the SAINT Newsletter, would enable developments to be requested and reported. In addition, there is a new group called "ISC Administration Systems Group" which is a standing sub-group of the ISC (Information Strategy Committee), concerned with oversight of University administrative systems such as SAINT.
With these in place, it is envisaged that the disbanding of the SAINT Forum would not cause any issues that could not be raised elsewhere and there would be no reduction in oversight of the system. If you would like to comment on this proposal please do not hesitate to contact the SAINT Team.
Training in the basics of the Data Protection Act and how this applies to the University of Bradford is now available. You can book onto this course via the Staff Development website, meanwhile there is now a growing web resource regarding this important issue.
You can find out more at the new University of Bradford Data Protection webpages
In the coming year, the SAINT Team intend to continue the review of documents on the SAINT website, updating things as necessary and pruning the outdated and superfluous. We may contact you later in the year for suggestions for inclusion / review and for your opinions on how we should publish them so you can find what you are looking for. At the same time, we will be reviewing our training courses and will be contacting users directly to help ensure everyone gets the support and training they need.
You can contact us by emailing saint@bradford.ac.uk or by calling the ICTServiceDesk on x3333.
