Edition 4 2021

Word from the VC

BG Word

At last week’s VC Webinar, I mentioned the criticality of ensuring that our new Student Management System (SMS) is implemented and embraced across the University.

The new SMS underpins all our functions across the student lifecycle and its success is dependent upon each of us doing our bit to make this a smooth transition on Day 1.

Start preparing now for go live on Wednesday 6 October 2021 – mark the date in your diary.

As part of the readiness plan, the SMS Project Team will be running a series of training sessions catering to the needs of different areas over the next two months. There is also a mandatory training module that I would like all staff to complete as soon as possible. I have requested this overview module for all staff because, even if you don’t currently use Callista, the changes brought in by the new SMS will be visible across many other Western systems, webpages and the public facing Handbook. It will help ensure we all have the same understanding as we move forward to implementation.

Mandatory Training

As the new SMS is not a like-for-like swap for the current Callista SMS but a transformational project that will change the whole student journey, the first step in the rollout is ensuring that all university staff are across the differences between the old and the new systems. The mandatory training module provides an overview of where components of the new system are replacing current systems and which existing components will continue into the future. Although Banner is the overarching system replacing Callista, there are a number of other software solutions replacing current systems.

Along with the change in systems there is new terminology that you will need to embrace, such as ‘Subjects’ instead of ‘Units’. The mandatory training module is focussed on ensuring that everyone is comfortable with the new terms and will be prepared for the next stage of training which will focus on specific components of the new SMS, such as ‘Admissions’, ‘Enrolment’ or ‘Results’. Students will also be seeing these same terminology changes in their system views, including in the Handbook, vUWS and MySR (My Student Record). Therefore, this initial mandatory training module will be vital to ensure students and staff are using the same terms.

What’s in the training

The training module takes only 10–15 minutes to complete. There are two parts:
  • Part 1 – Overview of what is changing
  • Part 2 – Guided scenario that highlights the new words through an advanced look at the new Handbook and DegreeWorks.
You will be able to retake the training multiple times until you achieve the minimum 80% pass requirement. Once you have completed the new SMS mandatory training module, the result and certificate will be available in your vUWS.

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