Students select newly designed modules after update

The culmination of more than a year’s work has seen 6,149 students successfully select their modules for the next academic year using completely updated processes ahead of our move to semesters.

The module selection process, where students choose what they want to focus on from lists of available modules within their degree programme, is key to providing students with the best possible experience, enabling them to tailor what they study according to their interests and career aspirations.

It has always been a part of student life, but the Portfolio Review Project (PRP) saw changes made to every programme and, as a result, a massive project to rebuild the process from scratch.

What work was involved?

An enormous amount of work was put in by teams from across the University, starting with rewriting all modules – around 2,000 – and in most cases, redesigning them to fit new PRP principles; uploading each one to RISIS (ordinarily, these would roll over from one year to the next), plus designing the structure of programmes and interpreting these to make the module diet structures required for module selection.

Professional service teams and academics worked together to set up 4,170 module diet structures across all programmes and parts of study. The teams used their expert analytical skills to design complex system ‘rules’ to ensure the correct options were presented as simply as possible to students on screen during module selection.

Programme Administrators and SIS team colleagues made time to subject these new set ups to rigorous testing to ensure a positive student experience. In many programmes the new system rules replace the need for checks to ensure students have a balanced selection of credits across the semesters.

Academics held module selection briefings to engage students with the process and teams were put in place to ensure that when the time came, students knew what to expect and could be supported in real time with any queries or difficulties as they made their selections.

'A huge achievement'

Professor Elizabeth McCrum, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, said: “It was essential that we establish an effective module selection process, and all the steps leading up to it, for this year.

"Thanks to the hard work of all those involved, we can have full confidence in the quality of the modules, the organisation of the programmes, the accuracy of the information provided to students and the overall student experience. It’s a huge achievement, and everyone involved should be proud.”

Module selection is now set up for business as usual in future years – the information on the systems can be rolled over and only small adjustments will be required to keep everything up to date.

With the Part 2 and 3 module selections now closed, the processes this feeds into are now underway. Knowing how many students are on each module means timetabling sessions for Part 2 and 3 next academic year and assessment and resource planning can begin. Staff can begin preparing to deliver the modules and students can get ready to study them.

Colleagues from the following key teams were key to the success of the project and what has been achieved, their ability to collaborate has been invaluable: Academics, CQSD Module Publishing Team  Programme Administrators from across the University, SIS Team, Teaching and Learning Deans and the PRP Project Team.