Computing and Maths Programme Area

CAM Computing Committee

CAM requirements for the staff portal

v1.1

Discussions are taking place on what facilities should be available via the staff portal. Here are the consolidated views on what the requirements are of teaching staff in the four CAM departments. These are based on responses by 15 members of staff. It is recognised that not all requirements can be met at once, and we would be happy to discuss which ones were more or less important.

Staff-related issues

Staff are much less interested in having access to their own personnel data than in having access to information that would help them with their teaching and course administration duties. This boils down to staff needing access to "information about my students".

Information about my students

Who are my students?

Ones...

  1. on the course(s) I lead
  2. taking units I am involved with as:
    1. unit co-ordinator
    2. teacher (lecturer)
    3. tutorial giver
    4. assessment marker
    5. moderator/second marker
  3. who are my personal tutees
  4. whose project I am supervising (or moderating/second marking)
  5. those whose department I am head of

All of the above need to include:

Who should have access to that information?

There is a strong body of opinion that ALL staff in CAM should have access to academic information about ALL students in CAM, since the set of students a member of staff could potentially encounter is very wide and probably not worth further definition. Students taught change semester by semester, course teams change periodically, emergencies happen, etc. Additionally, information about non-CAM students who fall into the above categories would be needed for specific members of staff.

There should be a mechanism whereby someone with appropriate authority can grant/deny access to information about a particular student by a particular member of staff (e.g. when a personal relationship exists).

Without access to information about students' academic performance means we cannot accurately or reliably advise them. We believe there is no reason under the data protection act why academic information should not be widely available.  In fact the DPA requires that information that is collected is used appropriately for the purpose it is collected, which suggests that people that students rely on to give them informed advise need access to academic records.

What information about them?

  1. Basic personal data (name, HEMIS number)
  2. Other personal data (address, date of birth, next of kin) *
  3. Email address (University one, plus others?)
  4. Telephone numbers (incl mobile/SMS)
  5. Course enrolled for (and history of course changes) and related information:
    1. Date started and date expected to complete
    2. Full-time/part-time status
    3. ...
  6. Entry qualifications
  7. Units registered for, with results
  8. Special needs info *
  9. Extenuating circumstances info *

* Some staff view this data as sensitive, and therefore perhaps subject to greater control of access.

How should students be filterable?

Reports and mailing lists need to be compilable on sets of students. The following is a list of factors by which we may wish to filter students...

and any sensible combination (AND, OR and NOT) of the above.

It would be useful to be able to "save" particular combinations of settings for reuse.

Finance and personal information

Secondary to information about students is staff's need for information contained in corporate systems about the staff they manage and the financial accounts they are responsible for.


Last updated by Dr Jim Briggs of the School of Computing at the University of Portsmouth.