[sims] Setting the new academic year

[sparkeh]

I've been asked a question by our office manager as our LA sims end of year instructions state that we need to visit each workstation to set the new academic year to being 2016/17 (via tools -> academic management -> set academic year)

 

Now, I had it in my head that the current academic year updated on the first day of the new year automatically. Is this not right?

 

Do we really need to visit each of our 60 sims workstations to update this!? I have never had to do this before (which possibly means there are lots of machines set to an old academic year!?)

[Linfit]

I have never done this.

It rolls over automatically on the first day of the new year.

The ability to change the year you are working in is a user setting for the benefit of timetablers/academic managers who find it more convenient than changing the date, but as it is a user setting, to change it you would have to log in as each individual SIMS user. I think that's a wonky piece of advice.

[sparkeh]

Ah so there are two things going on.

 

1) The current pastoral structure which *does* update on the first day of the new year

2) The current academic year which *does not* update

 

Think I might leave it for most users as they won't be affected.

[CAM]

If someone uses the Academic Management modules then they will need to set the year via the route you mentioned. Not sure if it is machine-specific or user-specific (I think the latter). So anyone involved in timetabling, changing student sets, census, etc. I've had a few edge cases where someone else had to have their academic year changed but very rare given their year was set to mid-2000s!

 

It basically tells SIMS which year to use for current year and previous year when looking at current/past sets, course memberships and other malarkey deep within the software that's best not described too heavily or I'd write a small novel.

Edited August 30, 2016 by CAM

[vikpaw]

I concur with the above. Just to clarify - the academic year does change automatically. You're just changing the working year for co-ordinators who are doing configuration which could for example allow them to manipulate future settings early.

I suspect the instructions should have said, visit each workstation of users working with academic management, in practise it's a user setting so you could do it all from your machine if you could log in as them.

 

Viewing the Academic Year

SIMS .net can store data relating to multiple Academic Years. You can switchbetween Academic Years by selecting Tools | Academic Management | SetAcademic Year. This choice is remembered by the system on a per-user basis, soother users can work in different Academic Years if required.

The Academic Year field displays the Academic Year in which you are currentlyworking. This is particularly useful if you regularly switch between Academic Years asit serves as a reminder of the current setting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When working in Academic Management, it is imperativethat you work in the correct Academic Year.