An introduction to the Course Data Project Samantha Scott – Project Manager Chris Gray – Quality Improvement Officer

In a nutshell... “The Course Data Project is a multi-faceted project that will be a driver for change in how we develop, validate and market Postgraduate courses, leading to the creation of a single source (database) of postgraduate course information. This will support the delivery of accurate and consistent information to our customers and link to the systems of 3rd party organisations (e.g. UCAS) and reduce duplication - leading to greater efficiency across the organisation, improved data quality and cost savings.”

Current challenges Number of people required to be involved in the process of creating marketing and course related information Multiple, disparate sources that hold the specific pieces of information required across the institution Range of formats the key content is held in (PDF’s, single documents held on local drives, spreadsheets and databases) Ownership of different pieces of information relating to courses i.e. Faculty, Student Office, Quality, Admissions, Marketing) Accuracy – by having multiple sources – often creating conflicting/inconsistent information – data management Transparency and verification – difficulty in anyone being able to verify information end to end (Prog Spec to course PDF, to web page etc) Capacity/extra workload created due to the current practises – too busy Resource intensive to manage and update sources of information our customers may use (including our own website, 3 rd part aggregators and our own course information Not using technology effectively

Future Challenges we have to meet QAA Institutional Review KIS – currently underway for UG – PG next Important aspect of customer engagement – what our information says about us Increasingly competitive marketplace Ability to be agile and flexible in the way we promote ourselves – to do this we need to be able to obtain accurate information quickly Reputation Learning from other projects to continuously improve how we manage data Linkages with existing and future projects

Scope Scope currently is detailed as: Deliver by end of March 2013 Creation of a database that provides a single source of truth to agreed standard PgC, PgD and Masters awards Includes International Excludes Partners Should provide a framework that is expandable to all courses this could inc. UG, partners, B2B and hold other relevant marketing related information in future phases Reviews and streamlines the appropriate internal processes around course management Migrates course data from a variety of sources into one place Can link to aggregator and third part sites such as UCAS Includes the standardised data fields as a minimum to enable other systems/organisations to use the information Includes Academic Planning, Marketing, Quality, Sales, Student recruitment, Student Office, Student Experience and CRM – then for further consultation with faculties, key stakeholders and Exec Support.

Scope Idea/conception (Award Planning form) build on existing process Award development and validation and data storage (Award handbook/ programme specification, quality processes and storage on thesis) Publication, marketing online, 3 rd party aggregators, auditing and reporting Review and re-define the way we manage PG course data internally

How we could be working by March 2013 Core Data/course information from multiple users at each stage of the creation and validation process – input to a single database from across the university (not stored on word docs/pdf’s – but entered via a web portal) Additional information required is to be collated an input in addition to Marketing related information entered also for each course Outputs include automated updates to 3 rd party aggregators (eg. UCAS that are compatible) so customer see a consistent view of course content across multiple sites/formats Documents could be exported at each stage from the data within the database Links to Thesis and Tridion to ensure 1 course list feeds other databases and that interoperability exists with other systems – less manual

Work packages overview (May2012 -March 2013)

Next Steps Workshop (identifying what worked well/didn’t work so well from your experience when collating the components for KIS) so we as a project team can use this to learn from Input/check that the processes we propose and outputs/reporting meet Stakeholder needs Update in Nov/Dec as a progress update – Visuals as to how information would be entered and managed within the database – Examples of a Postgraduate course profile with the information in collated from the different sources – take a view on consistency and quality of the combined content Continued communication – with faculties via EPVC and Rosy and Quality teams – Support you in cascading information to relevant faculty staff Appreciate that we will need to embark upon training and testing – we will need faculty staff to undertake this (timing is likely to be February 2013) and work with us to advise on the best ways to do this Maintain close working relationship with Student Systems Project team

Next Steps Useful video: This presentation is available at: ons/ ons/ Please have a look at the Course Data Project Blog accessible from Search for #StaffsXcri on Twitter