THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Background
ISS provides generic services to enable and support all areas of the university’s mission: research, learning
and teaching, enterprise and innovation and administration – as well as the development of the institution and
its staff and students. Hence, it is difficult to separate out many of our activities and services for specific
academic or business areas but the following lists these where possible.
Services currently provided
Service Area
Elements of the Service Area
Network
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High-speed and reliable network for
internet access
Notes
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Wireless network
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Over 200 access points across campus
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Student residences network
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6,910 rooms
Internet TV this session
Support model including ISS Front Line Staff
and onsite Student Advisors.
1,700 seats (about 60% of university total)
115 Printers
32 Scanners
350 seats 24/7
AV teaching equipment in 15 cluster areas
Online cluster booking facility for most
clusters
All ISS clusters contain accessibility
hardware and software, some have
dedicated enablement areas.
Cluster layout changing to support different
learning styles.
PCs provision in Café areas.
Provide a first point of contact for all UoL
staff, students and visitors.
80.000 “calls” logged last year.
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Computer Clusters
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Help and Advice
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Help Desk
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Induction
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Over 1000 new students attended 2006 ISS
induction program
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Training
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ISS provides a variety of courses from
complete beginner to advanced level in a
number of areas. Overview courses are also
provided for some areas.
Subjects covered include:
1. Unix
2. Windows
3. Microsoft Office products
4. Statistical software
5. Web courses
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‘Essentials’ document
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Campus Web help and paper
documentation
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Information screens
Tells new students what services ISS
provides, where to find them, how to get help
and where they can find out more
It is available via the ISS website or in
printed form
Supply various guides for students to assist
with:
1. Their use of systems
2. Their use of equipment such as printers
and scanners
3. Locations of clusters
4. Where printers are located
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Service Area
Technology and applications
Student portal (with the Library)
Elements of the Service Area
Notes
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Located at various points around the campus
Show details of:
1. Seat availability in PC clusters
2. Events around the University
3. Training sessions that are available to
students
4. ISS Sales
5. How students can access data in
Banner
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Interactive information points
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Central teaching space IT support
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Student ‘desktop’ of applications
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Areas covered include:
1. Bibliographic software
2. Database software
3. Graphics: Animation
4. Graphics: Charting
5. Graphics: Image processing
6. Graphics: Painting, drawing and design
7. Graphics: Scientific visualisation
8. Mapping and Geographic Information
Systems (GIS)
9. Mathematics
10. Numerical analysis
11. Programming languages and application
development tools
12. Statistical analysis
13. Web tools
14. Various other tools
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Email
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Provide email facilities for students.
Provide information on how to use the email
system as well as advice on things such as
avoiding spam and phishing attacks
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Filestore
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UNIX
Available for students to use
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The Student Portal provides access to
information resources and services from
around the University.
Single sign-on results in users having
seamless access to:
1. Their email
2. A personal calendar
3. Their library account
4. Information about their modules,
including online learning materials
(through accessing Bodington), reading
lists and old exam papers (through
accessing the online past exam papers
system)
5. Information from around the campus,
including the latest news and
announcements
6. Community tools, including discussion
areas and groups
The ISS Helpdesk provides first-line support
for the Bodington VLE
ISS is currently responsible for the hardware
that hosts the Bodington VLE whilst VLE
Service staff, based in the Library, provide
support relating to the pedagogical usage
and content of the Bodington system
Seamless access to electronic information
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Virtual Learning Environment
support (with Library and others)
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“Unified digital campus” with the
Library
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THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Service Area
Administrative support
Elements of the Service Area
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Banner student administration system
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Banner Financial Aid System
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SAP
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resources, whether internal,
repository-based (eg MIDESS) or external
(eg JORUM)
Banner is the University’s central student
administration system and is used for the
administration of all of the University’s full
time and part-time undergraduates, taught
and research postgraduates
It is supplied by SunGard Higher Education
of Malvern, Pennsylvania
The main functions of Banner are:
1. Student recruitment
2. Processing of UCAS and direct
admissions applications
3. Recording of student bio-demographic
and academic details
4. Module enrolment (including online
enrolment)
5. Registration (including online
registration)
6. Monitoring student progress through the
recording of examination results
7. Scheduling graduation ceremonies
8. Generation of statistical information such
as the HESA return
9. Provision of student information for
downloading and analysis by users
The Banner Financial Aid System is used for
the administration of various payments made
to the University’s students
It is supplied by SunGard Higher Education
of Malvern, Pennsylvania
The main functions of Banner Financial Aid
are:
1. The administration of numerous
financial aid sources is manageable
from admission through to graduation.
2. Students have their aid payments
automatically transferred to their bank
account via BACS
3. The main areas of payment are
teachers’ salaries, Access to Learning
Fund (ALF) and Scholarships. The total
payments for 2003/2004 were
£12.7million
4. From July 2005, graduation prize
payments were also made via Banner
Financial Aid
The Student Loans Company (SLC) require
daily transfers of data about registered
students. The University was one of the
pioneers in the development of a system
now called BACSfirst. This process replaced
the manufacture and distribution of 15,000
cheques in 2003. The transfer of registration
data from Banner's BACS first to the SLC
automatically triggers a payment to the
student's bank account
SAP is provided with data from Banner and
is used for the following activities:
1. SAP holds debtor account details and
manages the collection and reporting of
student debt and fee income
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Service Area
Elements of the Service Area
Notes
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Online Past Exam Papers
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Syllabus Plus timetabling and space
management system
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Syllabus Plus exam scheduling
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Questionmark Perception (Note: The
italics in the name are correct)
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Accounting for scholarships
Accounting and collection of sponsor
debt
Online payment of tuition,
accommodation and SportLeeds fees
Online statement and debt enquiry
(including parental access via PIN)
Online submission of instalments plans
including direct debit or recurring card
payment
Account statementing
Accommodation deposit collection and
refunding
Direct debit collections and rejection
handling
Credit card collections and rejection
notification
Settlement of financial aid payments
Late payment charging
Refund processing and settlement
Collection and allocation of LEA/SLC
contributions
This function was the only one in the top 25
requested by students, in a survey in 2005,
which did not already exist. ISS, CSA and
the Library worked together to implement
this functionality that went live in late 2005
Students and staff are able to view and print
images of exam papers from the last 3
academic years
The Syllabus Plus timetabling system is
supplied by Scientia Ltd., St John's
Innovation Centre, Cambridge
The Scheduling Engine at the heart of
Syllabus Plus provides a range of powerful
facilities that support the building of
timetables. These facilities include built-in
scheduling constraints, user-definable
constraint profiles, user-settable preferences
and different scheduling modes including
manual and automatic scheduling.
The Syllabus Plus exam scheduling system
is also supplied by Scientia Ltd., St John's
Innovation Centre, Cambridge
The system covers all aspects of the
planning and administration of examinations
and includes the production of individual
timetables for staff and students
Questionmark Perception (commonly known
as QMP) is an online assessment, delivery
and reporting tool available free to staff (and
students) at the University. It can be used to
create individual online questions, which are
brought together to form an assessment
The assessments are published on a
University server for students to answer over
the web. Feedback can be built in to the
questions. Staff can then view reports of
student achievement
QMP is supplied by Questionmark of
Norwalk, Connecticut. Questionmark has
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Service Area
Elements of the Service Area
Notes
over 2,300 customers
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Turnitin plagiarism detection
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SPARCS degree classification system
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Collaboration and liaison
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Process support
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Hardware, Software and
Consumable Sales
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This is a service provided by Northumbria
Learning based at the University of
Northumbria. The system is supplied by
iParadigms, LLC of Oakland, California
Turnitin checks for possible plagiarism by
comparing submitted papers to several
databases using a proprietary algorithm. It
scans its own database, and also has
licensing agreements with large academic
proprietary databases
In July 2006, the University had 221
registered users of Turnitin
Turnitin does not require any software to be
installed at the University either centrally or
on users’ PCs
This PC-based system was developed by
Peter Millican for calculating degree
classifications from exam marks. The
calculation algorithms are based on the
University’s rules and regulations
SPARCS is especially useful in examiner
meetings where borderline students are
identified and any extenuating circumstances
are taken into account. SPARCS can quickly
recalculate the degree classification if any
additional marks are awarded to the student
The ISS SIMS Team will be developing an
equivalent to SPARCS for implementation in
2008
Good links with LUU Exec and Officers
Focus Groups for annual planning and
clusters
Annual student satisfaction survey – highest
return rate of any apart from NSS.
Increasingly, ISS staff are becoming involved
in:
1. Documenting processes
2. Reviewing processes to identify
bottlenecks and areas of high costs
3. Designing new processes to improve
performance and reduce costs
ISS has purchased licences to use IDS
Scheer’s ARIS system for documenting and
simulating the running of processes. ARIS is
recognised as being a world-leader in this
area
Process review and improvement has
already been undertaken in the following
areas of student administration:
1. Confirmation
2. Clearing
3. Accommodation
4. Registration
It is expected that an extensive process
improvement exercise will be required before
Central Student Administration staff move to
the new Student Services building at Easter
2008
ISS Sales sells hardware, software and
consumables to students, staff and
schools/departments/services of the
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Service Area
Elements of the Service Area
Notes
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Information Security
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Regional Support Centre for
Yorkshire and the Humber
(RSC-YH)
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Other areas
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Multilingual Computing
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ISS staff commitment to
supporting Learning & Teaching
Webcasting of degree ceremonies
(with Media Services)
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University
Hardware includes PCs, notebooks, printers,
scanners, hard drives, sound and video
cards, monitors and projectors
Software is available for:
1. Anti-virus checking
2. Geographical information systems
3. Bibliographic systems
4. Computer algebra
5. Statistical analysis
6. Qualitative data analysis
Consumables include toner cartridges, in
cartridges, storage media and speciality
paper
Identity management: simplified sign-on
access to learning resources (with Library)
Policy, advice and policing
The Regional Support Centre for
Yorkshire and the Humber serves the
FE, Sixth Form, HE and Specialist
Colleges and Local Authorities (Adult
and Community Learning) across the
region
They support over sixty Post 16
Colleges in the implementation and
use of e-Learning and provide two
way communications between the
colleges and the JISC and NLN
“Multilingual Computing” can be defined as
any computing activity that includes any text
or characters in:
1. More than one language, or
2. Any language other than English
This includes:
1. Languages in non-Latin scripts eg
Russian and Chinese
2. Ancient or Medieval languages eg
Ancient Greek and Middle High German
3. The International Phonetic Alphabet
4. Other symbolic systems eg those for
Symbolic Logic and Mathematics
Spellcheckers etc, available for various
foreign languages for use by students
Support for the languages taught by the
University. This is usually over 30 languages
per year
Support for languages not taught by the
University but used by students eg Persian,
Hungarian and Bengali
ISS working with Media Services
All degree ceremonies are shown in real time
and the webcasts are available for viewing
after the events as well
Tony Cobb (Learning & Teaching Systems
Consultant)
Alec McAllister (Multilingual Computing
Coordinator)
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Future Services
Service Area
Future of Student Computing
Elements of the Service Area
Notes
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New University Virtual Learning
Environment
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Student administration systems
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Portal expansion
Remote and mobile access to
applications and Filestore (Citrix)
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Student One-Stop Shop: process
and systems
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Student email review
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Student induction review
Student FAQs
International support
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Creation of more flexible technology rich
learning spaces which can support different
learning styles
Increased remote support and support of
mobile devices
Strong link to new Library extension and
learning spaces
Changes in technology (possible demise of
the laptop?)
Changes in suppliers of technology to “mass
market”, eg Tesco
Students able to view recordings of lectures
A decision has been made to replace the
current Bodington system with a new one
from a commercial supplier
The tendering exercise is expected to run
from December 2006 to April 2007
Hardware will be bought to host the new VLE
The implementation project will involve:
1. Developing interfaces to other systems
2. Migrating Bodington content to the new
VLE
3. Education of users (both those familiar
with Bodington and new VLE users) in
the use of the new system
4. Running pilots in all faculties to highlight
the facilities and benefits of the new VLE
Improved management of student discipline
New Student Support Services Building
Central timetabling project
Document management
CRM
Review and improvement of “front desk” and
other processes
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Pilot in 2007
Students using wireless laptops, etc given
access to a cluster-type desktop
Students would be able to access their home
directories and use cluster printers
Will also investigate using the Portal
Central Student Administration (CSA) is due
to move to a new, purpose-built building at
Easter 2008
ISS is working with CSA staff to investigate
the possibility of introducing a customer
relationship management (CRM) system to
improve CSA processes, in particular those
undertaken by front-desk staff in time for the
move
CSA is also interested in introducing a
document management system before the
move to the new building
Review current email services and decide
on whether to continue with the service as it
is or move to another type of service
Implementation of the decision with be in
either academic year 2007/8 or 2008/9
?????
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Make fonts and keyboards available for
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SERVICES
ISS support for L&T – Overview DRAFT
Service Area
Elements of the Service Area
Notes
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fEC for Learning and Teaching
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Student and staff ID cards review
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students to use on own PCs. This will
provide the students with easier ways to
work in multiple languages
Possible introduction of multilingual
webpages for potential students (and their
parents) to read
Local requirements depend on the national
requirements that are currently being
specified. The University is a member of the
pilot group of institutions developing these
national requirements
It is expected that development of software
for local needs will take place in financial
year 2007/8
A group is being formed to look at the use of
student and staff ID cards across the
campus. This group will comprise staff from
schools and services
This could lead to a project to change the
cards used and widen their usage in areas
such as access control, cashless vending
and student attendance monitoring
Acknowledgements
Details contained in the above were obtained from:
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Cathy Harrison (SIMS Team)
Chris Jowett (Central Student Administration)
iParadigms, LLC website (suppliers of Turnitin)
Scientia Ltd website (supplier of Syllabus Plus products)
Simon Broome (SAP Team)
University of Leeds website including the ISS website and various University project websites
Wikipedia
Colin Coghill, ISS Director
Tony Cobb, Learning and Teaching Systems Consultant
October 2006