JISC

Start date: 1 May 2007

End date: 30 November 2008

Funding programme: e-Learning Capital programme

Project website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/ADoM

JISC theme(s): e-Learning, e-Administration

Committees: JISC Learning and Teaching committee

Overview

As an increasing number of HEIs are moving towards fully centralised and electronic admissions processes, this project will provide a blueprint enabling them to streamline their emerging practice and offer a basis for potential shared practice across the sector. UCAS Apply now handles 98.5% of applications to UK HEIs electronically, yet business processes for admissions, across the sector as a whole, are to some extent still predicated on (and in some cases reliant on) print-outs of data. Many HEIs are developing e-Admissions systems in isolation, or at best in consultation with UCAS: this project will offer a basis for developing consensus-based practice and shared vision for future development work in this area. This, in turn, will help to identify the potential benefits of a service-oriented approach to support the associated administrative functions.

Aims and objectives

To produce a domain map of e-Admissions covering issues around student diversity and the diversity of admissions types (e.g. recruiting and selecting), covering the electronic version of existing practice and suggesting pathways to future practice. This will provide a blueprint enabling HEIs moving towards centralising their admissions processes to streamline their emerging practice and offer a basis for potential shared practice across the sector.

• To produce a set of structured centralised processes that can be personalised for specific routes, drawing on the experience of two contrasting HEIs and refined by input from other members of the community. We will produce a variety of models describing the domain that can be used to focus and prioritise developments and practice in this area
• To provide a basis for effective and responsive systems and structures at national level via contribution to the national UCAS system, dissemination to the community of admissions professionals and consultation with subject-based practitioners
• To build on previous JISC work, including that of the Reference Model projects, revisiting and refining their work to scope and define what we mean by a domain map. We will comment on how well the domain map idea works in this area and how it contributes to the community and the e-Framework, thereby contributing to the growing understanding of e-Framework development processes that began with the Reference Model projects
• To explore the extent to which existing web services can be refactored and reused in the context of this work, and to contribute new SUM and associated service definitions to the e-Framework
• To feed into the parallel demonstrator projects DELIA and PortisHEad by offering a central generalised view of processes and service patterns
• To raise awareness of the benefits of a service-oriented approach within the two partner HEIs and the wider e-Admissions community as well as building capacity in UCAS in this area.
• To offer exposure to major vendors in both FE and HE via a focus on the UCAS process, and build on existing partnerships with vendors, both in the UK and overseas, with a view to building demonstrators and prototypes

Project methodology

We aim to maintain an iterative approach within, and possibly across, each phase of work. Using as guidance the broad overall strategy used by the COVARM and FREMA Reference Model Projects (domain definition – common patterns – use cases – gap analysis – service profiles/expressions) we will begin by examining actual practice at two contrasting HEIs and UCAS to develop an initial model expressed both as narrative and formally using UML. Attention to administration of applications from non-standard entrants will be important, as will access to forward-looking admissions processes based on engaged reassessment of current provision by committed staff. This will be offered to the community for consultation, both face to face and via the web and a project wiki, and refined in the light of feedback received. The resulting model will be used to inform recommendations for future priorities and to specify and prototype key areas. We will seek to establish areas of commonality, for which we will specify reusable services using SOA in order to submit a Service Usage Model to the JISC e-Framework. By implementing selected services as prototypes we will facilitate clearer understanding between institutions and software vendors about the kind of support that the emerging process will require.

Anticipated impact

This work is set in the context of the UK HE admissions reform led by the Delivery Partnership, which is in turn putting into practice the recommendations of the Schwartz and Wilson reviews. The SPA (Supporting Professionalism in Admissions) programme is reviewing current admissions practices in HE and will take account of the completed mapping process and findings of this project. Our work with UCAS will ensure that their processes are accurately represented in the final model, thereby making it potentially useful to any institution using or contemplating use of electronic admissions processes. We expect the domain map to offer a vehicle for disseminating and sharing good practice in this area with HEIs both in the UK and overseas.

Lead institution

• Centre for International ePortfolio Development, University of Nottingham

Project partners

• Manchester Metropolitan University
• UCAS
• APS Ltd