Department(s) / colleagues involved

Student Personalised Information Programme
Central Timetabling
Academic Departments

Our aim was to …

The aim of this project is to make the module selection process clearer and more consistent, easier for students to make their choices, and to support students choosing options outside of their department. The current module selection process is largely determined by individual departments, with the only central requirement being module registration must happen in the first weeks of the academic year. This organic development of processes means that there is little consistency between departments, and this can make it confusing for students trying to select modules outside of their department, and can make module selection particularly challenging for students on joint honours degrees or inter-disciplinary degrees.

What we did …

The key objectives of the project are to:

• Create a single defined window in Term 3 for departments to offer early module selection
• Continue to operate a defined window for module selection in Term 1, for those departments where being able to try modules before making a final decision is important
• Implement a single central system which students can use to select their modules following a clear and unified process
• Review current processes and systems to ensure they support the project objectives; Module Approval, Course Approval, Module diets, Module Catalogue, Timetable construction, Staff study leave, and Module choice confirmation by departments

The benefit/impact has been …

The anticipated benefits of this project will be that students have access to module information much earlier, allowing them to make informed choices. Students should have an improved experience of module selection due to the reduced complexity of the process. Enabling larger numbers of students to participate in module selection in Term 3 will allow them to prepare for their modules over the summer. There should be reduced clashes in students’ timetables, as timetables will be built on more accurate information, and some students will receive their timetables earlier as a result of selecting modules in Term 3. The project will also maintain flexibility in module selection where this is important to the culture of a department, and flexibility for students to change their choices where appropriate.

This supports the Education Strategy by …

It enables more effective interdisciplinarity by making it easier for students to select modules outside their home departments. By aligning the module selection window students will be able to easily see all their module options and have real choice in making their selections.

Our next steps will be …

This project has recently been approved by the SPI Steering Group, and the approach has been approved by a number of committees including AQSC. Some of the work streams within the project are already underway, for example Module Approval, but now detailed scoping of the next work streams in the timeline will be undertaken. As these work streams are better understood, solutions will be developed which support the overall project aim of enabling a unified process for module selection in Term 3.

To find out more, you can contact …

Roland Ingram, Process Owner, Student Personalised Information (SPI)

R dot Ingram dot 2 at warwick dot ac dot uk