Students have been trying to fathom the new e-mail system

It’s been the single biggest talking point on campus so far this term. The new online timetabling system which has angered frustrated and confused many since its arrival last month.
“Finally accessed my timetable, but don’t know what it means. Why do things clash?”
“Missed my first lecture at UCLan. I swear my timetable changes every hour.”
“Got three modules that overlap I can’t be in two places at the same time!”
These are just a few of the many comments made by students about the new system, but what exactly has gone wrong, and what will be done about it?
For Michael Ahern, Director of Learning and Information Services (LIS) there have been a number of reasons for the problems encountered by students and staff alike.

Confusion

“There are a couple of things that have caused difficulty. Firstly, if something changes, it can affect other parts of the timetable. To counter that we’ve tried to minimise the amount of changes,” he says.
“Secondly the interface that students look at is very confusing and complex. The system that we’ve got is used all over the world and we fed back to them that we were concerned about this and they are bringing out a new interface.
“But it’s really confused students. So we’re going to write our own front for it (the interface) – which is something we don’t normally do – so students get a much better view.”
The first phase of this was rolled out earlier this week; with a timetable that can be viewed day-by-day being made available with attention turning to weekly and monthly versions.

Sorry

He is also clear on another point. “I am sorry about these problems.”
Senior university staff have acknowledged that the new system has not been as easy as was hoped. The original plan was for three releases in June, July and August; each an upgrade on the previous version with fewer problem. However, the complexity of UCLan’s timetable has delayed this process, meaning the timetable was released on the second stage of development.
Rumours of students missing lectures is a cause for concern and Rod Dubrow-Marshall, Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Experience is eager to prevent students from losing out.
“Any missed learning session is a serious problem. They can usually be made up or additional materials will be made available.
“We expected that our software could cope with the complexity of our curriculum.”
The inspiration behind the centralised timetabling is to have a harmonious system all based in one place which can be flexible and changed last minute with notification given to the student. The new system also allows lecturers to look at individual student timetables for the first time; and in one instance has seen a school reschedule some of its assessments so their students’ workloads are more spread out.
However, problems so far this term have seen timetables printed out and given to students, which have gone out of date, sometimes within minutes, with students turning up at the wrong building or two classes thinking they’re in the same room.
“Students missing learning sessions concern us the most,” adds Mr Dubrow-Marshall.
His thoughts are echoed by Ian McMillan, Director of Student and Academic Support Service. He said: “It’s a priority for us that students don’t miss out on teaching time and we will work with any of the schools affected to help if that’s the case.”

Other changes

But what about the other changes that have taken place this summer? The Student Portal and new e-mail systems have also arrived but students have struggled with them too.
“Love the way my UCLan email just refuses to work,” was one sarcastic criticism.
Mr Ahern says that the changes all come as a part of improving the student experience.
“We could’ve chosen not to deploy any one of them [timetable, portal, e-mail] but all three are vital to improving the student experience.
“If all three work perfectly our resources won’t be stretched. If one went wrong our resources are overstretched. We have received over 12,000 calls on the help desk about the new e-mail system. We’ve hired 20 extra staff for predicted peak times but it’s difficult to predic when peak times will be.”
The other change is the student portal which has had a light version launched this year, with a full version coming in 2012.
“What we did with the portal was that we decided in February, upon feedback from the Students’ Union, that we should design a portal for students to make life easier.
“To develop a full portal takes about two years but we didn’t want to do that. We wanted to get something in for this academic year. We decided to put into the portal everything that was already available for the start of the year. Over the next 12 months we can find out what students wanted so we can change it.
“We wanted to get it live so students could benefit from something in 2011/12.”

Forthcoming changes

However for now the timetabling system is the issue which students will want to see fixed in the forthcoming days.
“We appreciate that the interface wasn’t great so we’ve done everything we can to get a new look,” explains Mr Ahern.
“We’re not going to wait until it’s all finished until we release it because that would take until the second semester so we’re doing it in chunks.”
This starts with the new university’s own timetable interface which is replacing the imported one that came in the summer.
A statement will be released soon by UCLan, once again apologising for the disruption and problems caused by the timetabling system and giving further details of the upcoming changes.
“The majority have coped with it. It isn’t how we want it to be but students have great coping ability,” adds Mr Ahern.
“Everything we do is geared towards the student.”