Planet Guide to Quals Online

Contents

Background

Introduction to the guide

Roles and responsibilities

Creating the Quals Online dummy module

Creating an item to represent a quals online asset

Populating the mailings (sections)

Background

Qualifications Online offers a single approach to supporting students at the qualification level online. This support takes the form of a single website for each qualification which includesa core set of resources that students will need for their student journey. Faculties 'own' the sites and can add content which is specific to each qualification. Faculties can also add assets(items) 'owned' by other parts of the University e.g. the Library or the Careers Service. The Quals online websites will be viewed within StudentHome.

It should be noted that Planet will be replaced in phases over the period 2013 - 2015 by the Vantage system and in due course Quals Online data will reside in Vantage. Data entered via Planet can be interrogated and downloaded using the Circe MI system.

Introduction to the guide

This guide sets out the steps required to record assets for Quals Online websites on Planet. This replaces the previous process of maintaining asset information on wireframes/ Excel spread sheets. The procedure requires the creation of dummy modules to which assets can be linked. The Planet mailing structure is used to link items together in such a way that they mirror the Quals Online website sections.

Roles and responsibilities

There are three steps in setting up a Quals online site. In some parts of the University and under certain circumstances each step may be undertaken by a different individual. It is also possible in other parts of the University that the majority of the procedure is undertaken by a faculty PPA. The guide covers the procedure as it may be divided between 3 separate roles:

Faculty Curriculum Administrator / Creates the Quals Online dummy module i.e. creates one dummy module per quals online website. Note that this may be the PPA in some faculties (e.g. Science).
Unit Administrator / CreatesPlanet 'items' at the appropriate time for each assetbelonging to the faculty / unit. Note that this may be a PPA in the faculty for a faculty asset or an administrator in a service unit such as Student Services Careers Advisory Service.
Production & Presentation Administrator (PPA) / Creates mailings for the quals online module and associates items with the mailings.

Creating the Quals Online dummy module

This can be completed by a faculty Curriculum Administrator (or other user with the appropriate permissions) using screens

  • PL000,
  • PL001,
  • PL002
  • PL019

Enter PL000 into the screen id box to see the 'Select module' screen. Click on the 'Create' button.

Figure 1

Complete the screens using the images below as a guide. There are notes about the individual fields below each screen shot.

Figure 2

Module code / The dummy module code should refer to the quals online website, e.g. the dummy module code for the Q71 quals online website is QQ71.
Start year / A start date in the future should be used on this screen. There will be an opportunity on PL019 to adjust this start date to something more meaningful.
Contact person / We recommend that the OUCU of the PPA be used here.
Chair / This can be for the OUCU of the Curriculum Administrator who created the dummy module.
Module type / Select 'OU pack' from the dropdown menu.
Subtype / Select 'Quals online website' from the dropdown menu.
Part module type / Select 'Not a part module' from the dropdown menu.
Administering unit / Select your unit from the dropdown menu.
Subunit / Leave this blank
Programme / Leave this blank

Clicking on SAVE in PL000 automatically takes you to screen PL001

Figure 3

Version type / Select 'Not a version' from the dropdown menu.

Enter PL002 into the screen id box to see the 'Module basic data' screen.

Figure 4

Long title / This should be the title that the quals online website will be generally known as. To see a list of current qualification online sites,as a guide,go to the Intranet home page > Teaching & Curriculum > VLE Qualification websites.
Short title / This is entered automatically and is the same as the long title, unless the long title exceeds 43 characters, when it must be input separately.
Short description / Insert a hyphen or dash (-) if no description is required.
Replacement module type / Select 'Not a replacement' from the dropdown menu.
Open Learn resources included / This display defaults to 'Yes' but should be amended to 'No'.
Details / Insert a hyphen or dash (-)
Stand alone study allowed / Select 'No' from the dropdown menu.

Figure 5

Start presentation / On PL000 you were made to enter a start point for this dummy module in the future. Here you can use this field to amend the start of the life of the dummy module to a point in the past if required.
End presentation / Enter an end presentation far enough into the future to encompass the whole likely life of this dummy module. We recommend 2049X.

This is the minimum basic module information required. Note that quals online dummy modules should never be progressed beyond edition status A0, you will therefore not be required to complete screens PL005 Module edition and PL006 Module edition approval markers.

The next section deals with the creation of an asset (item) on Planet.

Creating an item to represent a quals online asset

PPAs will create items on Planet to manage quals online assets. Administrators in other units,for example Student Services Careers Advisory Service, will also create items on Planet to represent service unit assets.

Items can be created by a faculty PPA (or service unit user with the appropriate permissions) using screens

  • CS067,
  • CS082,
  • CS087

To create the very first faculty item for a quals online dummy module, goto CS067 Item screen and enter the dummy course code as below, then click Retrieve (figure 6). Note that if the course code carries forward from a previous screen then you will be taken directly to figure 7.

Figure 6

Figure 7

Click on and complete using the screen shot below as a guide

Type / Select ‘On-line item’ from the dropdown menu.
Presentation specific Y/N / Enter N
Item short title / The maximum number of characters is 24. Creation of an item allows creation of an item edition, and it is the title of the Item Edition which will appear in the inventory (also 24 characters)

No other fields need to be completed or modified.

Click Save then select Item Edition either by clicking on the button in the bottom right hand group or by typing CS082 in the Go to box .

Edition Long title / The short title from the Item (CS067) page is automatically copied into boththe ‘Edition Long Title’ and ‘Edition Short Title’ fields. If it’s useful to put something different in the long title filed, then complete as required. E.g. if the short title isn’t always so intuitively meaningful. However, it’s always the short title that will appear on the inventory.
Edition Short Title / Leave unchanged

No other fields need to be completed. PPA group users may intuitively want to complete the Origin (set to OU-produced) and LTS-produced (Y/N) (set to N) fields, but this isn’t necessary. Click on then on which will retrieve the PLANET page Maintain item edition use data (CS087)

First use by this course / Complete as appropriate to best reflect the introduction of the new asset to the website e.g.2012J
Last use by this course / Enter an end presentation far enough into the future to encompass the whole likely life of this item. We recommend 2049X (see also PL019 described earlier). If the item is not to be used in the future, this can be adjusted by the PPA group by request.

No other fields need to be completed or altered. Click . PPA group users should note that during the creation of the item edition, a Public Code was deliberately not added as it’s not required.

This completes the creation of the item edition.

Originators of the Planet item should supplythe PPA group in the faculty with necessary information to be able to insert it into the correct mailing as follows:

  • The link to the most recent version of the document. This must be supplied by the following process for the link to work correctly:
  1. Locate the item in the Documentum folder
  2. Right click on the item to bring up a menu of options
  3. Select the option (near the top) Email as link (see the following figure)

This will create an email ready to be sent with the link to the item, containing information similar to the following:

Name: Science_Q64_task107.rtf
Document number: 00-6661630
Version Labels: 2.0, On-Site, CURRENT
Link:

Append to the information in the email:

  • the name of the asset as it should appear on the inventory e.g. Effective Study Techniques
  • The Section in which it belongs e.g. Section 4 Skills and Advice
  • The planet item number in the format ITM9999999

The faculty PPA will then add the item to the appropriate mailing.

Populating the mailings (sections)

Quals online websites are arranged in 8 sections:

  1. Highlights,
  2. Noticeboard,
  3. Common room,
  4. Skills and advice,
  5. Subject and faculty,
  6. Study journey,
  7. Library services and
  8. Careers.

Eight mailings will be set up to mirror the eight sections of the websites. On Planet, items will be associated with these mailings to reflect the assets offered via each section. Use CS110 to create the mailings.

CS110 Mailings

Because the quals online websites have been created with a module type of OU pack, you will need to establish an initial mailing period similar to the one shown below.

Now create mailings:

Mailing type
Mailing number / Select V: Virtual-student and tutor from the drop down
Mailings should be numbered 1 through 8 to reflect the website sections. We recommend you follow the numbering used above.
Mailing description / This should reflect the website section name as above
Despatch point / Select 'None' from the drop down menu.

CS111 Mailing inventory contents

All items in theHighlights sectionof the qualification website should be placed in mailing 1V, all items in theNoticeboard section of the qualification website should be placed in mailing 2V etc.

Populate the mailings with your items as follows:

On CS111 select mailing 1V via the Select a mailing tab (near top left of screen):

and .

Add all of the items appropriate for mailing 1V by checking the box on the far left of each appropriate mailing line and then clicking , This will accept the items into the mailing, complete the screen as below.

Comments / For each item, complete the comments field with the originating service unit and the Documentum link from the email to make it easy to find the asset. This link can then be copied out of Planet and pasted into a browser. If a newer version of the asset has been stored in Documentum since the Planet record was last amended, Documentum will alert the user to this and offer the newer version. Always follow the system's trail to the newest version. (Note that one of the features of Documentum, is the ability to right-click an asset and select View > Version to see a full version history.)

Viewing the assets for a qualification website using CS114

This screen will list all of the mailings (sections) for your selected Quals online.

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