Introduction to OxCORT Academic Roles

2007

Objectives

• To introduce OxCORT and indicate its benefits. • To explain the range of help available.• To demonstrate what Tutors will need to do.• To demonstrate what Organising Tutors will

need to do.• To prompt Colleges to agree their local policy in

relation to approval of reports and release of reports to students.

What is OxCORT in brief?

• OxCORT stands for Oxford Colleges On-line Reports for Tutorials.

• It is a web application that collects, processes and stores indefinitely reports written by Tutors about the students that they have taught.

• It was introduced on a trial basis in Michaelmas 2006 in some Colleges.

• It will be launched fully across Oxford in Trinity 2007.

• It replaces a paper-based system that has been in existence for many years.

Tutorial Office

Tutor

Organising Tutor

Processing system e.g. TuIT

File

Student

1

2

3

4

9

5

6

7

8

Key

Form 1

Form 2/3

Form 4

What happens now

What happens with OxCORT

Tutorial OfficeTutor

Organising Tutor

TuIT

Student

Release to Student

Approve Payment

Process Payment (export)Submit

What OxCORT does not do

• Cover graduate courses other than M Jur and BCL – other system for graduates due to pilot in Computing and History.

• Calculate payment due for teaching – TuIT etc.• Monitor stint fulfilment – TuIT etc.• Collect claims for SETTING collections (though it

does handle MARKING).• Room booking.• Tutorial booking (like Medical Sciences FHS

system)

*Where to find OxCORT

• Website – http://www.oxcort.ox.ac.uk – has “buttons” linking to both demo and live systems, as well as much supporting documentation

• Demo – https://www.oxcort.ox.ac.uk/demo

• Live – https://www.oxcort.ox.ac.uk/oxcort

*Help for OxCORT

• OxCORT manual for every role - working drafts on the OxCORT website.

• By Trinity, manuals will also be interlinked into OxCORT so that users can click “Help” and be taken to the right part of the manual.

• Quick guides for Tutors and Organising Tutors.• FAQ on website.• Tutorial Offices - expert users in each College. • Worth practising on the demo version – training

exercises to appear shortly on website.

OxCORT roles

• Govern what you can do/see.• Role names are standard across Oxford.• Possible to hold more than one role.• Academic staff will typically have two roles at

most– Organising/Personal Tutor (typically Tutorial Fellow)– Tutor (anyone who teaches an undergraduate)

• Quick guides show the menus of actions associated with these two roles.

*Accessing OxCORT

• Anyone with an Oxford user name can log using their web auth password.

• Same log in for WebLearn, WebMail etc.• Safe to log in from anywhere in the world using

an internet connection with encryption.• Way forward found for Tutors who presently lack

University Cards to get log in – virtual access.• Help function already established via OUCS.

• http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/username/

Email and OxCORT

• OxCORT stores an email address for everyone with a role.

• Embedded links enhance communication so that, for example, a Tutorial Office can easily email the Tutors and Organising Tutors of a student who has gone home sick.

• Tutors and Organising Tutors can change the address to which OxCORT-generated emails are sent from the Oxford address default to their address of choice

Authorising Tutors

• All Tutors must first be authorised on OxCORT by an appropriate authority.

• Tutors would know they were not yet authorised if no role displayed in OxCORT after logging in.

• They would then need to ask a Tutorial Office or Organising Tutor to authorise them.

• Colleges will be doing their best to authorise in advance all known Tutors before implementation.

*Creating reports

• As soon as they know which students they will be teaching, Tutors can create reports, rather than waiting for them to be posted later in term.

• Indeed, it is helpful if Tutors create reports straightaway since this allows other interested parties to see that teaching arrangements are in place.

• Reports are created by connecting an undergraduate’s Oxford user name with the appropriate Programme of Study (from a drop down box).

• User names can be found with “Search for People” or may be e-mailed by Organising Tutor.

• Created reports will show in the status bar.

*Payment details (i)

• Before first submitting reports, a Tutor needs to enter payment details using the “Change payment details” action.

• These details will be available to any College to which the Tutor makes a claim.

• If personal details change, Tutors update OxCORT’s record.

Payment details (ii)

• Four payment method options– Pay my College (stint) – will generally be used by

Tutorial Fellows and Stipendiary Lecturers.– Pay me directly – will generally be used for Non-

Stipendiary Lecturers and ad hoc Tutors. Bank and NI information required.

– Pay by ULNTF (then flag for old regulations if applicable).

– I do not require payment (unlikely to be used often).

• No longer necessary to indicate that teaching is being done under an exchange arrangement.

*Writing reports (i)

• Tutors have to open the reports which they have created to add content.

• They can click the status bar or select “Edit or view existing reports”.

• Content is confidential to the Tutor till it is submitted.

• Working notes can be finalised into a report near the end of term.

*Writing reports (ii)

• Report format conflates two previous paper forms.

• Top box is all that others can see pre-submission. Note embedded e-mail links.

• Student performance section has free text box (with spell check and generous word limit), plus drop down boxes.

• Default payment method can be over-ridden.

*Writing reports (iii)

• Need to save changes before navigating away from the page to avoid losing material.

• When report is complete, Tutors check the box to indicate it is ready for submission.

• Thereafter the report can no longer be edited by them, unless it is returned by the College.

• The only exception is the box for collection marks.• Tutors can see whether reports have been approved and

processed in the status bar.• OxCORT stores all the reports a Tutor has ever written.• Reports can be printed using the “Display pdf” action

button in “Edit or view existing tutorial reports”

*Organising Tutors

• In OxCORT an Organising Tutor (Director of Studies) is responsible for arranging teaching, a Personal Tutor (Moral Tutor) has a primarily welfare role.

• Both roles can view submitted reports on their students.

• Both are set up by Tutorial Offices which associate particular students with them.

• These students can be seen in a list by clicking “View Tutorial Arrangements”.

• A student can have multiple Organising Tutors.

*Arranging Teaching

• In many subjects, the Organising Tutor arranges teaching.

• It may be necessary to authorise a Tutor.• “Email tutorial arrangements” allows the user

names of students to be sent to the appropriate Tutor to facilitate report creation.

• In subjects where students sign on with Tutors directly, Organising Tutors can check teaching arrangements are in place by looking at “View tutorial arrangements” – Tutors’ names appear here when they have created reports

*Organising Tutors and reports

• Can read all submitted reports on their students by clicking status bar or going into “View or process tutorial reports”.

• Can add comments for students to the reports.• Can elect to have automatic email notifications

that reports on their students have been submitted by going to “Set personal preferences”.

• Can access the archive of reports on any of their students since all reports are stored indefinitely on OxCORT.

*College preferences (i)

• Colleges need to decide whether all reports are approved and processed by Tutorial Office or whether Organising Tutors have a role in approving reports and their hours.

• In the latter case, Organising Tutors are able to return reports to the Tutors if there are any aspects they wish to query and they can check that the teaching delivered is in line with expectations.

• Tutorial Offices would still be able to approve and process reports i.e. they would not get blocked if Organising Tutors were behind.

*College preferences (ii)

• Colleges need to decide whether they wish students to be able to access reports on line as soon as Tutors have submitted them OR after release by any one of Organising Tutor, Personal Tutor, Senior Tutor or Tutorial Office.

• All those who hold these roles refrain from releasing reports if Colleges do not wish to enable student access.

• Students do not view payment information but can see all other elements of the report.