[sims] Autumn Census 2016 Dire

[BrownShoes]

8 days on and still trying to fix never-ending learning aims errors - despite, or in spite of, "help" desk assistance.

Useless error messages and solutions, course manager refusing to accept suggested changes, learning aims panel highlighting non-existent errors - and may as well be talking to our support about collecting tea cosies.

Easier to write the entire thing out by hand.

This was rubbish 10 years ago first time around - hopefully when the 1 person they have trying to fix reporting, assessment, exams etc. finishes that, he or she can have a go at census.

Is it just me?

Because that wouldn't surprise me, I'm in an awful mood.

[siuko]

Which errors is this related too?

 

I know yesterday we had some learning aim issue where we had an incorrect september planned end date and even though we changed the details the census didn't pick it up.

 

Once I created a new census the correct dates were picked up

 

PS. Yes it is rubbish

[BrownShoes]

Census is picking up Learning Aim Status & Withdrawal Reason errors - but won't accept changes as the end dates are wrong - it won't save any date amendments.

I think it may be an issue with the planned end date as well - but I can't change one single student to check, as it won't save with any other errors remaining(which aren't highlighted in Course Manager).

Advice from support was inept - although I'm sure they'd like also it if the software actually worked.

[siuko]

If you go into the learning aims panel of the census are the problem students highlighted in yellow for the planned end dates? (this is how mine showed up)

 

If so go into focus > students > courses > find the relevant student and adjust the p end date to something more appropriate (ours had an end date in september when they had finished in july)

 

To get this change to then show in the census - create a new census

[BrownShoes]

Students highlighted in the Learning Aims Panel are not the ones listed in the errors panel - and there's no indication of why they would have an issue.

The students listed with errors are not highlighted & don't appear to have the problem indicated - so I have no idea what to amend.

Up to census number 11 so far...

[siuko]

What are the actual numbers of the errors?

[BrownShoes]

2785 / 2820.

Have various KBs / workarounds but they don't address the issue of what to amend - there's clearly a date issue, but that is the case for many others who aren't showing as errors.

Pretty determined this should be fixable in Course Manager...

[siuko]

Have you got the latest 'Validation Errors and Resolutions' document?

 

It does specify in there for both errors what exactly needs fixing and where to find it

[BrownShoes]

I have - no joy.

Also took advice regarding matching End Dates/P End Dates - which didn't work.

Last rather convoluted solution involved calculating whether actual end date took student beyond their allocated learning hours to obtain suitable end date(?).

At the moment anything that will go in to get rid of the thing will do.

[Data_Geek86]

Apologies to jump on the back of your thread, but it does loosely relate to the Census and I hope I'm not the only one experiencing this!

 

Has anyone had any issues with nationality or country of birth for this census?

 

I need to check/enter all students nationality (not national identity, which is an option in bulk update!) but this is not an option in bulk update. Short of checking all students one by one by year group or registration group, can someone think of a sensible way to do this?

 

Thanks!

[Linfit]

It is an option in Bulk Update - Pupil Nationality, between Proficiency in English and Pupil Premium Indicator in the Data Item drop down.

[Data_Geek86]

Thanks,

 

Don't know how I missed it!!

 

Been a long half term - bring on half term!!

[iansimpson888]

I have - no joy.

Also took advice regarding matching End Dates/P End Dates - which didn't work.

Last rather convoluted solution involved calculating whether actual end date took student beyond their allocated learning hours to obtain suitable end date(?).

At the moment anything that will go in to get rid of the thing will do.

 

Hi, a couple of quick questions, and points to note.......

 

1. when creating a new census - are you creating with the Pervious Census as the starting point or using the Data in Course Manager?

2. the data items highlighted in Yellow on the census panel (e.g. an end date for a student learning aim) is not neccessarily an error - it is highlighting that the data item value is different within course manager/previous census.

3. this return has a direct impact on funding for the sixth form - clearing the errors doesn't mean that the data submitted is accurate and could lead to a loss of funding when the EFA marry up learning aims with exam results.

4. the learning hours submitted in the Programme of Study has no links to the Learning Aims dates - so no need to get calculate exact dates. It's more important that the dates match if the student took exams and completed as normal in July, e.g. end date 31/07/2016 and planned end date 31/07/2016.

if a student 'ends' early (e.g. 30/06/2016) then a Learning Aim Withdrawl reason will be expected to explain why they did not finish and ended early.

5. If you have swaithes of students who "ended" prior to the Planned End Date, then there is a bulk tool within SIMS that can correct this issue.

[BrownShoes]

Thanks Ian - this looks quite useful.

Unlike the helpdesk - they offered exactly the same advice which didn't work last week.

I'm pretty certain that we have an issue with the course end date, and that it's affecting more than the small numbers of students showing as errors - when I corrected in the Learning Aims panel & uploaded the return the number of errors quadrupled(!).

[CAM]

Check you have the latest fileset (can't remember what number it is) as this can fix a swathe of errors.

 

Check the student has no duplicate courses, sometimes Course Manager does it's own thing and adds students to an out of date or totally irrelevant course (which needs fixing anyway).

 

Run Update Course Memberships for the previous year and this year, but make sure any manual edits have had the Protect tick box checked so it doesn't alter them. Courses with lots of manual amendments can have Auto-Update Course Memberships unticked in course manager to make UCM ignore it.

 

All your Planned End Dates should line up. If term finishes on 31/7/17 then you should expect all your planned end dates for this year's courses to end 31/7/17. Sort your course memberships by Planned End Date in course manager and check for any odd membership dates like 14/10/16, they are probably wrong! Same for last year's courses, Planned End Date should read the last day of term. Sidenote: If your leavers depart on a leavers day such as the last day of June, you may want to set the Planned End Dates to that leavers day. General rule of thumb is if a learning aim has a grade but highlighted in yellow you need to investigate it. Talking of which....

 

Use grades as a checking tool! If students from last year have a grade returned next to their learning aim then their data is likely correct, they must not have a reason for withdrawal or any status in Course Manager. If grades don't appear for past students, this is a sign those students may have the wrong QAN and Exam Code for that course. If grades still don't appear, modify the Basedata in Exams with the correct QCA Code as they won't appear if that code is blank (this drove me nuts!).

 

Lastly, remember to recalculate the results in the census after altering learning aims but before pressing Create and Validate. Compare against Course Manager if you are having problems comparing against the previous return. If you don't recalculate, you may end up creating a return with out of date learning aims.

Edited October 17, 2016 by CAM

[BrownShoes]

The course bulk update worked for several errors - after that the rest were then amended in the Learning Aims Panel in the census.

This hadn't been possible on previous runs - oddly there are clearly students with the same issues regarding status/reason who aren't generating errors.

Can't work out why course manager won't accept the default 31/7 date for the P End Date, keeps insisting on the last day of term(19/7) - despite, again, many students not causing issues.

Enormously frustrating to finally work out what needs changing and then not be able to save the changes in the system.