[sims] SIMS Subjects from NovaT6?

[ProjectO]

I am working with a (non-UK) school cleaning up / reconfiguring their installation for a new September start with SIMS. Technical support etc remains with their existing contractor who is developing the timetable in NovaT6. My question is really for the purpose of planning remaining onsite work by predicting the scale of any issues.

 

I will need to set up relevant courses again. Currently we have duplicate subjects available in Course Manager - probably relating to multiple imports of changing timetable configurations in the past. The timetable for the new academic year is clear, uses more intuitive 2 character codes etc but is being worked on completely independently of the school SIMS installation. I am pushing for an imminent import to SIMS of a draft timetable in order to quantify remaining clean-up operations. This will probably result in two scenarios:-

1. New (tidy) subject codes replace existing (messy & multiple) subject codes (significant step forward!!)

or

2. New subject codes are added to existing multiple subject codes (new codes can be used to create courses but subject list remains of low quaity).

 

Does anyone have experience of this? Which scenario is more likely? and if it is scenario 2, how can I delete unwanted subjects?

 

All of this obviously has an impact on remaining work to finalise marksheets & reports by associating with courses, classes etc.

 

Thanks!

[Linfit]

Its 2 I'm afraid.

Unwanted and unloved subjects are tricky to get rid of. You can try deleting, from Tools>Setups>Subjects, but if they have ever been used in anger anywhere they will be lurking in the system and usually SIMS will find an excuse not to delete them.

If you don't care about historical data you you can sometimes "repurpose" them (ie re-use them for a related or even unrelated subject that best fits your new naming schema) but there are issues with this as well.

The only option is to mark them as inactive as at least then you can filter some of the browse lists so that they don't appear.

You also need to be careful with staff codes - if there are mismatches between staff codes held in SIMS and the ones in Nova SIMS will simply ignore the classes for those teachers when the timetable is imported, so you

will end up with an incomplete timetable.

[ProjectO]

In a (belated) follow up to this.....

 

I have created new logically named courses using the new logically named subjects from an early import of the timetable. A colleague is finding it difficult to update marksheets etc with the new courses (old subjects still the only choices available and changing the date or academic year does not appear to help - could we improve on this by "applying" the timetable? Surely she does not need to re-create the templates from scratch?

 

{With apologies for the lack of detail - I have been at some distance from this area for some time}

[CAM]

Where is she changing the date? On the marksheet itself or in the course selection window? Very easy to overlook the date selector in course selection.

[Sivadam]

Has she also made sure that she is working in the correct Academic Year via: Tools, Academic Management, Set Academic Year?

 

This is specific to the user! Many users will not be on the new Academic Year and nor do many of them need to be.

[ProjectO]

Where is she changing the date? On the marksheet itself or in the course selection window? Very easy to overlook the date selector in course selection.

 

Thank you! I think this is the exact point she has overlooked. I am frequently reminded that it takes time for colleagues (relatively new to SIMS) to appreciate the significant number of choices available...