Teaching Units and Sign Up

Teaching Units and Sign Up (TUSU) project

The TUSU project, now closed, delivered two elements:
 
  • The new Teaching Unit Management System, which brings together information about which teaching components are offered within in-scope Programmes of Study in one place, for the first time, for shared use across the University

 

  • A plan for a joined-up approach between the various methods of digital sign up for teaching by students (e.g. sign up for tutorials via TMS, or a Canvas course that has been shared with a specific group of students) - next steps for taking the plan forward outside of this project are to be agreed

 

The existence of this data in a centrally held system creates a foundation that can be further developed when there is a need to share structured teaching related information elsewhere (for example to deliver harmonised sign up to teaching activities). When funding is made available, future projects will build on this foundation.

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The consistently structured data in the TUMS is used by other systems and services, initially the Canvas virtual learning environment (VLE) and the Teaching Management System (TMS). As departments do not need to provide their data separately for each system, this should save time and effort, it is also anticipated that departments may find this shared data useful in many other ways in future.
 
Licence holders can access the system, user manuals and training from the Teaching Unit Management System support page (the support page also include details about how to gain a licence to use the system). 

Following discussions with stakeholders in Michaelmas and Hilary terms 2021, the project completed a plan for a joined-up approach to digital sign up for students. Discussions covered the following:
  • Teaching arrangements in TMS, e.g. tutorials, seminars, laboratories 
  • Canvas courses that departments wish to make available to students in specific scenarios, for example:
    • As optional for students on the related Programme of Study, perhaps with a cap on numbers
    • To students on a Programme of Study with joint teaching, perhaps after the Canvas course has been offered to students on the original Programme of Study
  • Relevant elements of the Teaching Unit Management System, e.g. enabling students to sign up to a Teaching Unit to view related teaching arrangements in TMS, and Canvas courses (Teaching Units and other terminology are covered in the user manual available from the Teaching Unit Management System support page)

The project worked stakeholders to agree a joined-up approach for students to be able to sign up to any of the above items that are offered to them by departments and colleges in the relevant systems. Requirements will need to be met via a separate project and funding but a joint approach will give students a smooth and user friendly experience of sign up. 

Contact

Contact the TUSU project team:

Email: tusu@it.ox.ac.uk