ECPS Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I add myself or another person as a Course Coordinator in section 1.3 Course Staff in a course profile?

A: Course coordinators are fed to the ECPS from SI-net, in Curriculum Management > Schedule of Classes > Maintain Schedule of Classes, on the Meetings tab. The administrative office of each School and Faculty will have SI-net users with the authority to add course coordinators to a class in SI-net.

Admin staff please note: Course coordinators must have an Aurion ID set up against their staff SI-net record (SI-net sometimes refers to this Aurion ID as a "WAMI key").

• Further information on adding course co-ordinators in SI-net is available on the SI-net Systems Training Hub pages.
• Instructions and tips on conducting an effective Search/Match in SI-net is available on the SI-net Support webpage.

Once a course coordinator has been added in SI-net, it will be transferred to ECPS in the overnight transfer of data.

Q: I'm a UQ academic or administrative staff member and I need to start work on my course profiles. Why can't I access the system?

A: If you're a recent appointment or your contract is being extended, it may still be being processed. The ECPS requires you to have not just a UQ username & password but also an active staff record in Aurion, and any delay in Personnel administration may prevent this record from being activated. Contact your School office to ask for assistance from one of your Unit Administrators as soon as possible. They will bring the issue to the attention of the System Adminstrator who will attempt to hasten the process where possible.

Q: Why can't I access any/some of my course profiles?

A: Most likely because you haven't been granted access to those profiles yet. The Unit Administrator/s within your School is/are responsible for providing you with that access.

Contact your School office manager for information on who the ECPS Unit Administrators are within your School.

For information on roles, see:

• Roles & Privileges

For details on how to grant access to profiles, see:

• Granting staff access to profiles

Missing people

Q: I'm a Unit Administrator and I want to give a colleague access to one or more profiles so that they can start work on it. Why can't I locate their record to give them access?

A: Check your search criteria. Remember that the more information that is entered, the more limiting the search is. Try entering only the person's last name, or the first four or five letters of the last name.

Q: I've done that, but I still can't find them.

A: It's possible that your colleague does not have an active staff record in Aurion. This is particularly common with contracted staff.

Detail: To access the ECPS, it is necessary to have both an active Aurion staff record and a UQ sign-in username and password.

No username or password: The staff member should contact the ITS Service Desk.

No password (or forgotten): The staff member should contact the ITS Service Desk to have their password reset.

No active Aurion record: It should be possible to have a temporary record created for the staff member. Unit Administrators should contact the System Administrator in this instance.

Q: I'm a Unit Administrator and I have a course that needs an course profile but I can't find it in the ECPS. Why can't I find some profiles?

A: If you've double-checked your search criteria and the profile still isn't found, try accessing the Search tab and running a general search on the course code alone.

If the profile now appears:

Check the profile's allocated Unit as listed in the search results - it may not be yours. This happens occasionally where the responsibility for a course is shared between two Units. It's possible that SI-net data has the course allocated to the other Unit.

This can be remedied by contacting the other Unit and requesting they change the "Academic Organisation" in SI-net's Schedule of Classes to your own. The ECPS will receive the updated data overnight, and it will then be able to be managed by the new Unit.

If the profile still doesn't appear, or if the above does not apply:

There may be a problem with the course or class data in SI-net.

• Has the course been scheduled in SI-net for the expected term?
• Has the course been correctly configured?

Contact staff in your School's office who can re-check the SI-net data. For a course profile to exist:

• The course must be active and in the Undergraduate, Post-Graduate Coursework, Shorter Form Credential or UQ College academic careers (Course Catalog)
• It must be scheduled as a class in an active term/semester (Schedule of Classes)
• The class must not have a status of Cancelled

Note that the ECPS has no control over course data in SI-net, so inaccurate information in SI-net must be corrected by those with the necessary access to that system.

If no issues with SI-net data can be found, contact ITS who will investigate further.

Q: What is the deadline for publication of course profiles?

A: Section 2.5 of the Course Design Policy (3.20.07) states that "the course profile is to be made available to students in electronic form no later than one (1) week prior to the first scheduled learning activity for each offering of the course". Schools have the option of setting a specific date for the release of course profiles to facilitate student learning.

Q: Do I need to provide printed copies of my course profiles to students?

A: No. Section 2.5 of the Course Design Policy (3.20.07) requires only that course profiles must be made available to students in electronic form.

Q: How do enrolled students access my published course profiles?

A: To view a full course profile, students must first sign-in to mySI-net [https://www.sinet.uq.edu.au/], view their list of enrolled courses and click the relevant Profile link. However, unauthenticated access to restricted course profiles are also available from the Programs & Courses website [https://my.uq.edu.au/programs-courses/]. It is also possible to insert links to profiles into Blackboard to enable easy unauthenticated access.

Q: How can staff see what a student sees in a published course profile?

A: Staff who wish to view full profiles must sign in to the ECPS at www.courses.uq.edu.au, access the profile and click the Student View button that appears at the top of every sectional page. This will display the profile exactly as an authenticated, enrolled student will see it. If a staff member does not have access to the profile, they will only be able to access the course profile as an unauthenticated user (via Programs & Courses). Staff with access to mySI-net [https://www.sinet.uq.edu.au/] who are able to view student records will be able to see a student's links to their course profiles from the student's list of enrolled courses.

Q: How can other users access my published course profile?

A: All other users (such as non-enrolled students, the general public) have only unauthenticated access to course profiles, and so will not be able to view restricted sections.

Q: What is hidden from unauthenticated users?

A: Unauthenticated users see almost exactly the same data as authenticated users, with just two exceptions:

• Section 1.3 "Course Contributors": The system displays only the names of the course contributors and the e-mail address of any staff listed as "Course Co-ordinator". All other details are hidden.
   
• Section 5.5 "Assessment Detail" (entered at section 5.1): The system hides any information entered as Criteria & Marking, or any Course Files linked to this section not set to Show to Public (see Course Files - Technical Help for details on controlling the visibility of course files to the public). All other assessment details are displayed.

Special Note:

Once published, course profiles are immediately available to enrolled students via mySI-net. However the Programs & Courses database is updated overnight, so the relevant links to newly-published profiles will not appear until the following morning.

Q: Most of the content of section 1.1 is not editable. What do I do if I find errors in Section 1.1 Course Information?

A: Most of Section 1.1 is not editable as it is sourced directly from SI-net. If the data in SI-net is updated, it will be automatically updated in the ECPS overnight. 

Q: Do I have to enter all of the resources I use in my course individually in sections 3.1 ("Required resources") and 3.2 ("Recommended resources")?

A: Not necessarily. There is a single bulk field in section 3.5 ("Other Learning Resources & Information") where you can enter as many items as desired in a single field.

However, items entered here may be disadvantaged. For example, items entered at section 3.5 will not be able to be linked to learning activities in section 4.1. Additionally, items entered at section 3.5 will not appear in any aggregated reports conducted by University students or staff.

A middle-ground approach may be considered where the most important or relevant items (especially those requiring student purchase) are entered in sections 3.1 or 3.2 while the remainder are entered in section 3.5.

Please note:

It should also be considered that ordering of resources for first semester courses via the UQ Bookshop will be handled via the ECPS—specifically the items entered at section 3.1 and 3.2. Items in section 3.5 will not be ordered by the Bookshop.

Q: Why do we enter dates and not weeks and days? (eg. Week 4, Tuesday)

A: Because many programs to which courses contribute do not follow the standard Academic Calendar. For instance, in some programs, classes start as many as six weeks earlier than the standard Academic Calendar. Using dates provides flexibility for all courses and programs. 

Q: I have a year-long course. How do I enter the learning activities and assessment items?

A: The Electronic Course Profile System incorporates a date range from 1 January to 31 December.  Therefore, in the case of a year-long course, learning activities and assessment items for the entire year can and should be entered.

Please note that exams, regardless of when they occur during the semester or year, will appear at the end of the list of assessment items in Section 5.1 Assessment Summary. However you can identify mid-semester and end-of-semester exams by placing some identifying text in the Title field (eg. "Mid-Semester 1 exam", "End of Semester 2 exam").

Q: Do I have to insert my course timetable into the Learning Activities section?

A: Not necessarily. There is a link to the University Timetable via mySI-net in section 1.4.

Background:

Section 4.1 Learning Activities is designed to provide students with a summary of the learning activities in the course.  These activities may include lectures, tutorials, practicals, self directed learning, reading and other student-centred activities. These activities should be mapped to the learning objectives that are being developed through the activity; and it is easier to map against activity types, such as a lecture series, rather than an individual lecture.

In cases where specific course timetable information is required in addition to the University timetable, the following options are available:

• Details can be provided in section 1.4, under Additional Timetable Information (optional).  You might choose to paste a table in to this section or make a reference to a resource (such as a handbook or workbook) where specific course timetable information may be found.
• As an example, your course includes 'practical rotations' and you wish to provide the students with the 'timetable of rotations'.  You can achieve this by including in Section 4.1, Learning Activities, an entry: "Practical Rotations.  See Section 4.2 for rotation details."

In Section 4.2, Teaching and Learning Modes, you can then paste the 'timetable of rotations' or details of your practical groups. 

Q: Do I really need to provide students with criteria prior to the end of week 1?

A: Yes.

Background:

When entering assessment items in section 5.1, users are prompted for Criteria and Marking documentation (either entered into the available text field or as a linked file uploaded via the Course Files section). This field is mandatory for every assessment and must be present as text or a linked file prior to the end of the first week of semester.

In this case the Electronic Course Profile System is reflecting University policy as specified in the PPL (3.10.02 Assessment). These policies state that “Assessment criteria and standards for each assessment task must be made available to students at the same time as the description and timing of the assessment task”, that it must “include or specify the location of all required information about assessment for that course” and that the “Course coordinators must not alter the structure of course level assessment after the assessment lockdown date”.

In the process of finalising the specifications for the ECP system, the Teaching and Learning Committee in May 2005 affirmed this policy, agreeing that the following assessment details should not be changed after the end of week 1 of semester:

• Assessment type, title and weighting
• Grading details
• Late submission provisions
• Assessment criteria & marking details

So while there's no issue at all with not having criteria and standards in place at the time of drafting your course profile, it is expected they will available to students by the end of the first week of semester.

A single statement of criteria and standards may apply to a series of assessment items. 

Please note: Non-enrolled users who view the published profile will not be able to see any content in the Criteria and Marking field unless specifically permitted to do so by the profile Designer. For Help on suppressing or displaying criteria and marking files, see:

• Course Files - Technical Help

If you require assistance, please contact the ECPS Unit Administrator in your area.