Over the past few months the Enhancing Student and Curriculum Management (ESCM) programme has undertaken a fundamental restructure and recoding of the module records in SITS for the 2017/8 year. This means the current module codes will change. These new records will be used from November onwards for timetabling, module selection and other planning activities in readiness for the 2017/18 academic year.
Key changes
The main objective of the module record restructure has been to reduce the number of module records and to make the module records easier to understand. By recoding our modules, we have:
- Reduced the number of module records in SITS by almost 50% (from approx. 8500 to 4500)
- Simplified how to identify the retake instance of a module by denoting first registration modules with the character of ‘F’ and retake registrations with the character of ‘R’. This will replace the character occurrences of A-M (first registration) and Z-N (retake)
- Introduced clearer rules for the creation and closure of modules in SITS
We will also be introducing a module delivery status, which will allow us to record whether a module is available in a particular academic year.
What will this mean for me?
Any member of staff will be able to find new module codes through a self-service ‘module look up’ report. In addition, the Curriculum View will display the new modules when the academic year is set to 2017/18. Module leaders will be emailed towards the end of November to let them know what their new module codes will be for the 2017/18 academic year
By holding a module delivery status, we can prevent suspended or closed modules from appearing on module lists. In combination with clearer rules about what constitutes a module, this will help us control the number of module records over time – both through how modules are created and when they are closed.
What about my students who have outstanding reassessments in 2017/18?
Students who still have outstanding reassessments (i.e. who have deferrals or are trailing) on modules originally taken in 2016/17 (or earlier) will remain on the old module codes during 2017/18.
What do I need to do next?
Module leaders will receive a personalised email detailing their new module codes for 2017/18 shortly. Please bear in mind that the module leader allocations are currently based on the 2016/17 module records and that there may be further updates prior to the start of the 2017/18 academic year.
Details of the new module coding structure is provided in the Module Model Staff Guide.
For more information and Frequently Asked Questions, visit our blog at : https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/escm/faqs/new_module_model/ or contact ! SITS Help