Preparation Class

[Former Member]

Hi All;

I need suggestion regarding to preparation year process which means that some students have to pass a year of language study because their language level is not enough to study related program.

To clarify the process with an example:

Student is accepted to the program --> registered to the related program

After that language exam is conducted to determine the language competency of the student;

-->If the student has enough points out of the exam directly S/he starts 1st period modules and continue on.

-->If the student doesnt have enough points S/he has to go through preparation year for 1 year and pass the language exam at the end of this year. (This period takes 2 semesters /1 year of study)

The challenges are -->

- Preparation year's curriculum is not a part of the program's curriculum and It's not counted as "study" for this program.

- But It s a condition to fulfill in order to start taking courses from the program.

I have summed up 3 solutions for the issue,

1-) Creating a module group for the Prep year and relate it to the first semester;

2.) Creating a special period (apart from fall/spring etc.) and assign to the program;

3-) Creating a program for the prep year.

All solutions has pros&cons. Can you suggest on these solutions or share any experinces, ideas regarding to the issue ??

Thanks in advance.

[RobJonkers · Accepted solution]

Hi Iltern,

I would suggest the following:

- Use a module group for the prep year that you can share among other programs which have the same requirement.

- Use this module group as part of your mentioned programs (you could decide to flag it as specialization. Hence students that fail to achieve the language course should be registered for this specialization).

- Do not use this module in the degree audit part as it not an actual (degree related) part of the curriculum

- Use this module group and lower level modules in the Extended booking check rules to create rules and check on if students fullfilled the language test requirement to book other courses in the actual curriculum.

Option 3 is also possible. Then I suggest you make creative use of change of program and directly switch them from the original curriculum to the language curriculum after they did not achieve the language course.

Please make extensive use of the BRF engine to automate steps in this process.

Option 3 is the most straight forward one. Option 2 I do not understand and option 1 is the nicest one if you can integrate it with automatic BRF steps after the grading (getting the points you mention) of the language course and then do the necessary post processing actions to fullfill the process requirements.

Prabhat, Silke any suggestions here?

br

Rob

[Former Member]

Hi Rob,

Thanks a lot for the answer.

To clarify option2;

The scenario would be as the following;

We ll define a stage for the preparion class and contionue on from this stage

f.e. --> prep1; prep2;stage1;stage2 ...

but this would also cost us differentiate students and automate the steps. Also to control max. year of study for the student. Because the prep year is not counted as "actual study year" and there s no limit for failing prep class.

Any other ideas for the issue?

[Former Member]

Hi,

I have same porblem, which scenario is the correct?

Thanks.

[former_member182585]

Hi, we have faced similar situation in my current project. Let me explain a bit. We have students from science and non-science background. If student failed to clear all modules as per rules he has to undergo extended training similar to your preparation class.

To cater this requirement we have created different program of studies. Different requirement catalogues and different audits.

I would suggest the following for you:

1. Create a program of study for the prep year assessment. English language assessment result will determine which student will go through this program of study (prep) and which one can proceed directly to regular courses.

2. Use this program of study as part of your audit process. Create dummy module and an assessment for it. The degree audit after this program of study will enable you to decide next course of action.

3. As suggested by Rob "Use the Extended booking check rules to create rules and check on if students fulfilled the language test requirement to book other modules in the actual curriculum."

4. Create another program of study for prep course and map students who failed to score the minimum requiremnts.

Regards

Vinod Kumar

[Former Member]

Hi Vinod

Thanks a lot for the answer. Solving the problem with creating a new program seems a good solution to us but we have 2 difficulty points with the process.

First one is registering the student to the program before deciding whether student ll go to the prep class. Therefore the student is registered to program X and after that decision is made regarding to registering prep class. During the prep study of the student how can we freeze students progess at Program X ?

Since the student is registered to the program X, how can we hold the financial transactions during prep class period?

(**Students pay tuition fees yearly. The program fee is different from the prep class fee.)

[former_member182585]

Hi,

May i suggest to change the process itself.

First decide about his language compatibility and decide whether student will go to the prep class or regular course. Once you done with your decision making process (admission audit requirements) register the students to required program.

This change will streamline all your finance related issues.

Regards

Vinod Kumar

[Former Member]

Hi,

Unfortunately we have to design the process this way. Students have to be registered before preparation class decision.

Is there any way registering student to the program without specifying the academic period?

[Former Member]

Iltern,

I would handle this as follows.

1) At the time of admission approval assign a custom status "Prep class" to students. If S/he is deficient in language.

2) Create a new level call prep-class and assigned to these module

3) In Module booking rules check for the status and if student have the status active don't allow them to book any other level classes.

4) After completing these classes you can remove/inactivate the status using BRF or via mass program.

5) In degree audit exclude these classes.

Best Regards,

Prabhat Singh

[former_member182585]

Hi Prabhat, its really an excellant answer.

Request you to create a BRF configuration cookbook and release it for others to use.

Regards

Vinod Kumar

[RobJonkers]

Hi Vinod,

Both a BRF cookbook and an Extended Booking check cookbook is available on the BPX (http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/bpx/highered?rid=/webcontent/uuid/d036a468-4e55-2a10-b3a0-8eb0cfe0342a) to be used in configure the proposed config. These documents are very valuable to be used in configuring the SLcM system.

Best regards

Rob

[former_member182585]

Hi Rob,

I have checked those cookbooks but didnt find BRF cookbook as usefull. It should have been better it includes step by step configuration of BRF using a simple example.

Regards

Vinod Kumar