Course and examination management in the campo portal

The project focuses on IT-supported administrative processes relating to student life, ranging from applications by prospective students, to allocating study places and managing students to organizing and managing courses and examinations. The project for introducing the new system is being implemented in close collaboration with FAU and Hochschul-Informations-System eG (HIS) in Hannover. The system is expected to be fully implemented by mid 2022, after which time it will be integrated into normal operations.

The work on the project affects the whole of the University, and is an important and necessary investment in making FAU fit for the future.

• Participants: Project group from Academic Affairs and Student Services
• Project duration: 2012 until 2016

Within the context of the project launched in 2012 and aimed at introducing HISinOne at FAU, the project group has successfully introduced application and admissions management (APP) and student management (STU) into everyday operations at the University one step at a time, starting in 2013, via the “campo” portal. The input on how best to customize the standard HISinOne software to meet FAU’s requirements was provided by the teams responsible for the stated administrative tasks within Academic Affairs and Student Services. APP was used for the first time in the application phase for winter semester 2013/14, and has since been successively expanded for further groups of applicants (applicants for Master’s degree programs, international applicants, applicants via the dialog-oriented service procedure (Dialogorientiertes Serviceverfahren (DoSV)) When STU went live in November 2015, the entire student management system migrated from the previous system to campo. The one portal solution has been running stably and reliably ever since, handling approximately 45,000 applications, 15,000 enrollments and approximately 75,000 re-registrations, including the administration of semester fees, every year.

• Participants: Project group in L2 together with Q coordinators from the faculties and the Deans of Study, as well as faculty-specific working groups who communicate their requirements to the project group via the Q coordinators, members of staff at the Examinations Office, members of staff at ILI involved in the integration of campo/StudOn and members of staff at RRZE
• Project duration: 2016 until mid 2022

Once the APP and STU project phases were successfully completed and the application and admission processes had run smoothly over the new system for several semesters, there was a move to seek input on the next phases in the project from the various subjects and the different subject areas instead of relying entirely on the specialist teams in Academic Affairs and Student Services, in particular the Examinations Office. In April 2018, the third and final project phase for introducing HISinOne at FAU was launched, namely the EXA module section. The decision-making structures had been created and the necessary preliminary steps implemented in the two previous years.

EXA stands for “examination” and covers all procedures relating to examination and course management. Examples are publishing details of courses or recording achievements. At FAU, managing modules also falls under EXA, and covers both managing module descriptions and creating module handbooks.

The plan is for EXA to go live in June 2022. From this point on, course and examination management will run via the campo portal, and the old mein campus and UnivIS systems will be discontinued. Integration into FAU’s IT system environment is particularly challenging. campo is to be connected via various interfaces to a number of FAU IT systems such as IdM, StudOn, FAU.ORG and FAMOS.

Contrary to the original plans to move registering for courses to EXA, the Deans of Studies agreed in summer 2020 to move registration for courses to StudOn, as it offers greater flexibility for registration, and FAU has more scope to adjust and extend registration processes as it sees fit. In order to make it possible for all faculties to use StudOn for registering, existing functionalities for registering for courses had to be completely revised in StudOn, and an extra step added making it possible for requirements to be checked. Extending StudOn functions in this area is a further step towards achieving a uniform registration system for courses at FAU. As this was not allowed for in the original plans for the project, the decision entailed considerable additional effort before it was possible to implement the planned interface to the learning management system. The additional work fell to the project team in L2, RRZE and the StudOn team.

After registering, applicants can prepare their applications for the degree programs that they would like to study at FAU.

All prospective students intending to complete a degree program at FAU should apply via campo, irrespective of whether they obtained their university entrance qualification in Germany or abroad. All applicants complete the same application process. At FAU, this includes Bachelor’s, Master’s and teaching degree programs, State Examinations and doctoral degree programs. The only exception are degree programs for which students have to apply via hochschulstart.de (e.g. medicine). This also includes degree programs participating in the dialog-oriented service procedure (Dialogorientiertes Serviceverfahren (DoSV)).

Responsible: Teams from L4, L2

Notes for supervisors of Master’s degree programs

• Schedule for applications and admissions (PDF)
• Information on placing specific information relating to the degree program

The functions for staff in the Student Records Office (L5) went live in November 2015. This area covers not only the management of student data, but also enrollment, de-registration, change of subject and leaves of absence, as well as semester fees.

Since summer semester 2020, features have been available to students in this area allowing them to print off certificates of enrollment and submit applications online (e.g. changing personal data, de-registration).

Responsible: Teams from L5, L2

Until now, different systems have been used to manage courses. Details of courses were published in UnivIS, and some courses were also assigned to modules on this platform. Students registered for courses via the systems mein campus and StudOn.

Once EXA is implemented, details of courses will be published on campo. campo administrators and lecturers will be able to enter and edit their courses there. campo is also used to assign courses to modules.

In future, students will register for courses via StudOn. The close links between the campo and StudOn systems mean that courses entered in campo are automatically synchronized with StudOn. In StudOn, students can register for and lecturers can manage courses (define when and how courses should be taken, manage lists of participants and waiting lists). The courses taken by students, including details of the modules to which they are assigned, are transferred to campo. Here, they can be used for the purpose of drawing up the students’ schedules, or as evidence of courses taken for the purpose of issuing a complete transcript of records when drawing up students’ graduation documents.

Responsible: Team at L2, StudOn team

Previously, students and lecturers accessed functions relating to examination management via mein campus. After migration, the following functions will be offered in campo:

• For students
  • Study planner including registering and de-registering for examinations
  • Overview of examinations registered for
  • Accessing lists of achievements in various different versions (e.g. German/English)
• For examiners
  • Managing examinations (entering and editing examinations incl. setting the date, time and location of examinations)
  • Accessing lists of participants for examinations
  • Recording grades

Responsible: Teams at L6, L2

Note for examiners

Information on managing examinations via mein campus

Module management focuses on module descriptions and creating module handbooks.

Module managers draft the texts describing the modules. Degree program coordinators validate the entries that are made, p. mublish them and create the module handbook for the degree program.

You must contact the room coordinator if you require rooms for holding courses or examinations. Requests are submitted to the room coordinators, and are then accepted or rejected by those responsible for the rooms, depending on whether the rooms are available or not. campo provides lecturers and administrative staff the functions they require in this respect.

• Content of course: Creating/editing courses and allocating courses to modules
• Target group: Lecturers and campo administrators
• Details on dates of training course and registration: https://www.studon.fau.de/studon/goto.php?target=book_4582639

• Content of course: Entering and editing examination data, creating examination dates, entering grades, creating lists of participants, e-mail communication with examinees
• Target group: Examiners, examination administrators and campo administrators
• Details on course dates and registration: https://www.studon.fau.de/studon/goto.php?target=book_4567347

• Content of course: Creating and editing module descriptions, creating module handbooks
• Target group: Module managers and degree program coordinators
• Details on course dates and registration: https://www.studon.fau.de/studon/goto.php?target=book_4582647

• Content of training course: Processing room inquiries, editing properties of rooms
• Target group: Room managers, building managers
• Details on course dates and registration: https://www.studon.fau.de/studon/goto.php?target=book_4589441