Michaelmas term 2010 saw the introduction of a brand new locally written module registration tool known as SES (Student Enrolment System).
The tool works in conjunction with a course or module database known as DAISY which is being developed by the Social Sciences Division with help from MPLS. DAISY currently contains over 300 Graduate training courses hosted by MPLS departments (as part of their Graduate Academic Programme or GAP); Social Sciences will be adding a selection of their Graduate training courses before Christmas (2010).
All available courses can be browsed via the SES tool within WebLearn and students are allowed to request a place on one or more courses. The request is passed along to the course administrator who can either reject the application or accept it in which case the student’s supervisor is contacted and asked to give their blessing. If a student is accepted then they will receive a confirmation email. DAISY will take care of inter-departmental billing but this facility is not operational this academic year.
The ‘student’ interface presents a hierarchy of divisions and departments and the courses that are offered (see screen-shot). This can be browsed or all courses can be searched; both course title and description are searched. Students can also see a list of current, upcoming and past courses but as WebLearn does not collect attendance data, this list has no official status.
There are interfaces for course administrators and supervisors, these show a list of course requests and the current status of the application. It is also possible to bulk register students, this facility is typically used by the host department to pre-register their own students before throwing the course open to others.
Social Sciences will require their students to register for specific courses in Hilary term 2011. The other divisions are well aware of the system and are carefully considering whether to use it in the future.
There is a small amount of overlap with HR Information System (HRIS), however, the focus of SES is on students whereas HRIS targets staff training.
