Transforming scheduling: Looking at Time Periods in Thesis SM

Posted on Monday, July 25th, 2022

When it comes to increasing employee satisfaction and productivity, we’re going to turn our attention to a feature offered on our new Student Information System (SIS), Thesis Student Management (Thesis SM), that will absolutely bring that R3 Project objective to life.

But first, some backgrounder knowledge: When it comes to setting up our Admission, Billing and Academic schedules in our current SIS, GeneSIS, Algonquin College currently uses the word Terms. In the new SIS, Thesis SM, our Terms will instead be created as Periods.

Thesis SM offers a robust period structure that allows us to embrace opportunities for Business Process transformations in rethinking and redesigning periods to meet our unique needs. See how this goes back to the overall purpose of the Project?

Within each period—which we’ll refer to as the Master Period—we can create and tie one or more unique Admission, Academic, Billing, Financial Aid and Facilities Periods. This is great news because it gives us more flexibility and allows us to better support academic activity with unique start/end dates within each Master Period.

To show you what we mean, we’ll be exploring the Admissions, Billing and Academic Periods and highlighting how using unique periods within our standard Fall, Winter and Spring terms can better support our programming and how we work.

Admissions Period

Currently, we have designated Admissions Periods most often defined by the Ontario College Application Service (OCAS) with standard dates and deadlines to receive applications, send offers of admissions, receive applicants’ confirmation of admissions, and more.

The existing term structure requires manual workarounds for admissions to any programs beginning on dates other than the standard September, January and May start dates which align with our Fall, Winter and Spring terms.

But that can change with Thesis SM’s system.

With the option to create multiple Admissions Periods within each Fall, Winter or Spring term, we can better support our Admissions teams as well as improve communications to applicants who are applying for programs that begin on non-standard dates.

Billing Period

We also have financial deadlines associated with each term in GeneSIS. As a result, there are constraints related to non-standard programming or activities which begin on dates other than the standard September, January and May term start dates.

In Thesis SM, our financial deadlines will be part of what is called the Billing Period, which includes fee payment or deferral deadlines, early withdrawal with refund deadlines, and balance due dates.

This will allow us to better support communications and collections of fees for students enrolled in programs beginning in non-standard dates. Defining a separate Billing Period will allow us to better communicate the unique requirements and deadlines for students based on their program start date.

Academic Period

In GeneSIS, the Master Period and Academic Period are one and the same. However, in Thesis SM, we’re not limited to one Academic Period for each Master Period.

This new opportunity to define Academic Periods within the Master Fall, Winter and Spring terms will allow us to consider separate Academic Periods to support any non-standard program activity offered outside the 15-week standard term dates.

Creating a separate Academic Period means that we can set the start/end dates that accurately reflect the activity specifically assigned to that non-standard program/offering. We can also associate the Academic term to the related Billing Period to support communications and collection of fees.

In addition, creating separate Academic Periods will also support our Business Processes as they relate to course loading and student registration.

What does this mean for you?

While only select users of the SIS will be responsible for directly creating the periods and their associations with one another, the impact for the wider Algonquin College Community is in the functionality that this period structure will support.

When we review the Business Processes tied to Admissions, Billing and Academic Periods, this will be an example of how Thesis SM functionality will improve our employee satisfaction and productivity, as well as enhance the learner experience!

Watch the live demo on Time Periods

Samantha Harris, R3 Project Business Systems Analyst, provided a demo during our May 17 R3 Showcase Event to show how periods are created and utilized.

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If you’re wondering where you can find more information about the Project, then the R3 Project FAQ and Glossary sections are great resources!

Additionally, don’t miss our next R3 Showcase Event to receive important updates and learn more about the R3 Project. We’ll also be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

The next R3 Showcase is set for Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 at 10 a.m.

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