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Understanding Cohort Process Windows
In this section:
- What Cohort Process Windows do
- How Cohort Process Windows are used:
- reference data and setup
- maintaining cohorts
- cohort categories
- defining cohort process windows
- process types
- cohort process windows
- accessing applications with cohort process windows
- Special Topics
What Cohort Process Windows do
Cohort
process windows are used to support institution control of the accessibility
of Callista Connect applications. These cohort process windows are normally
defined by a start date alias (with optional time component) and end date
alias (with optional time component) within calendars appropriate to the business
application or process. Cohort process windows can also support fine-grained
restrictions on access to applications/processes based on characteristics
of the user's key elements. For example: restricting access to results details
by surname.
How Cohort Process Windows are used
Reference Data and Setup
Maintaining cohorts
Cohorts
are groups of students, courses or units with common characteristics. For
example: all students in the course ABC123 or all students with surname A-K.
These groups are defined through cohort rules. Cohorts are used to create
cohort process windows for Callista Connect applications/processes. See below for further
details on cohort process windows.
Cohorts
are created in GENF1000 (Maintain Cohorts). Using GENF1000, a rule can be created
defining the cohort. Cohort rules are grouped into four types - COHORTPRSN
rules, COHORT-SCA rules, COHORT-SUA rules and COHORT-FEE
rules.
Cohort categories
There
is the potential for cohorts to be used more widely in Callista. They may,
in the future, be used to run reports for a specific group of students more
easily defined through cohort rules than through the available report parameters.
As the cohorts functionality is enhanced, the number of available cohorts
has the potential to become quite large. With this in mind, a facility has
been provided to group cohorts by category. Cohort categories are created
in GENF1010 (Maintain
Cohort Categories). These categories can be used to group cohorts into similar
areas. For example: enrolment cohorts and results release cohorts.
Cohorts
are mapped to categories in GENF1020 (Maintain Cohort Category Mappings). The mapping of
cohorts to categories is optional.
Defining Cohort Process Windows
Process types
A
process type represents a group of system transactions or an application requiring
an access window structure. Examples are ENROLMENT (initial enrolment/re-enrolment),
VARIATION (enrolment changes after the initial enrolment/re-enrolment),
ADD-UNIT (adding a new student unit attempt, within the ENROLMENT
or VARIATION processes) and DROP-UNIT (discontinuing a student
unit attempt, within the ENROLMENT or VARIATION processes).
The process type, when associated with a calendar instance and one or more
cohorts is used to define how Callista Connect applications are used/accessed.
System
process types are mapped to calendar categories within the system. This mapping
determines which calendar instances may be associated with each process type
when creating cohort process windows. The available process types are listed
below. A system administrator can create other process types. Refer to technical
documentation for further information. For a detailed summary of process types
refer to the special topics section.
Cohort process windows
Cohort
process windows are periods of time when applications (associated with the
process type) are available to the group of users defined by the cohort. For
example: for the process type PE-RESULT, students with the surname
A-K have a cohort process window that begins at 6:30pm on Friday July 12.
Students with the surname L-Z have a cohort process window that begins at
8:00pm on Friday 12 July.
Cohort
process windows are created for a process type and calendar instance. A cohort
created in GENF1000, associated with a particular process type and calendar
instance, and optionally assigned a start date and time and an end date and
time defines the process window. These start and end dates define the period
of time the cohort process window is available. Cohort process windows are
defined in GENF1100 (Maintain Cohort Process Windows).
Some
of the features of cohort process windows are:
- For many process types, a window may not need to be established.
By not specifying a cohort process window, the associated applications for
these process types are available to all users with the security access
for the application. The exceptions to this rule are the process types ADD-UNIT,
DROP-UNIT, ENROLMENT and VARIATION and EXAM-TT. For
example: the PE-ADDRUPD (address update) process type may have no
associated cohort process windows, which has the effect of making the address
update application available at all times. It would only be necessary to
associate the process type with cohort process windows if necessary to restrict
the availability of the address update application.
Special Note: normally, the process type PE-RESULT (results inquiry) will have at least one cohort process window for each assessment period. If not, the results application is available at all times. The application has logic that displays results for teaching periods in the latest occurring academic year with finalised outcomes. However, the display of results for individual unit attempts can be protected by setting the unit attempt override outcome due date, which is effectively a publication date. It protects the unit attempt outcome from view if the current date/time is less than the override outcome due date/time. This date is set via the job ENRJ0100 (Set Student Unit Attempt Override Outcome Date). - If a need is seen to prevent access to an application for a period
of time, be aware that the establishment of a cohort process window restricts
access to the application to only those users who meet the cohort rule.
- Access to the applications associated with certain process types
depends on the context in which they are entered. For the GOVT-STATS,
PE-ADDRUPD, PE-PERSON and PERSON-INQ applications:
- If the application is accessed as a stand-alone
application, it's related process type controls access. For example: any
cohort process windows recorded for the GOVT-STATS process type
would control the GOVT-STATS application.
- If the application is entered as part of self-enrolment,
the ENROLMENT or VARIATION cohort process windows control
access to the application.
- Access to the self-enrolment applications is prevented unless cohort
process windows are defined for the ENROLMENT or VARIATION
process types.
- Access to the STUD-EXAM application is prevented unless a
cohort process window is defined for the EXAM-TT process type.
- GOVT-STATS, PE-ADDRINQ,
PE-ADDRUPD, PE-PERSON, PERSON-INQ, SCA-CENR,
SUA-CENR, and SUSA-CENR applications can operate as stand
alone applications.
Accessing Applications with Cohort Process Windows
The
use of cohort process windows when accessing applications is transparent to
the user. When selecting an application from a menu, a process automatically
checks the cohort process windows to determine if the user has access to the
application. If a valid cohort process window is open, the application is
displayed to the user. If they do not satisfy any of the valid cohort process
window rules for the application, access is denied and an information message
is displayed explaining why they have not been provided access. For example:
if a student attempts to access their results and results release is not available
yet - a message is displayed.
A
background process performs cohort process window checking. Each application
in Callista Connect has one or more process types mapped against it. The method
of checking the process types for valid cohort process windows differs depending
on whether the application has a single process type mapped against it or
if it has multiple process types (see below).
If
a person satisfies standard authentication checks and other application-specific
checks, they are granted access to an application if the following cohort
process window checks are satisfied:
- A cohort process window exists for the context process type, if cohort
process windows are required. See details provided above about how some process types do not necessarily
require cohort process windows to enable access.
- The cohort process window start date and time is less than or equal
to the current date and time.
- The cohort process window end date and time are greater than the
current date and time.
- The Prevent Access indicator for the relevant cohort process window
has not been set.
- The rule definition for the relevant cohort process window has been
satisfied; and
- The cohort status is ACTIVE.
If
any of the above are not satisfied, the student is not given access to the
application. However, there are several variations to these conditions that
can affect access. They are:
- When an application is accessed via another application with a different
process type (ie. a sub-application), process window checking is performed
for the context process type and not the process type of the application.
For example: a student has gained access to the self-enrolment application
through the ENROLMENT process type. If they then access the GOVT-STATS
application as an enrolment step within the self-enrolment application,
they have a context process type of ENROLMENT. Any cohort process
window checking for the GOVT-STATS application is performed against
the context process type - ENROLMENT and not against any other process
types mapped to the application such as the GOVT-STATS process type.
- If a person has more than one course attempt and a valid cohort process
window exists for only one of those courses at the time of access, then
only that course will be available through the application. For example:
a student is enrolled in courses X and Y. A valid cohort process window
exists for course X in the PE-RESULT application. The ability to
view results for course Y is not yet available at the time of access because
a valid cohort process window does not exist. When the student accesses
the PE-RESULT application they can therefore only see results for
course X. Course Y results will be displayed as '**'.
For
a detailed summary on process types and the issues with accessing related
applications refer to the Special Topics.
Applications with a single process type
When
a user accesses an application with only one process type mapped against it,
the cohort process window checking is performed only for the process type
mapped to the application. If the person cannot access the process type
mapped to the application because they do not satisfy the cohort process window
rule, the process does not examine any other process types for valid cohort
process windows.
Here
is a list of applications with a single process type mapped:
|
Application |
Description |
Purpose |
Process Type |
|
ADV-STND |
Advanced Standing Inquiry |
Enables users to view details of all GRANTED advanced standing within a specified course attempt |
SCA-CENR |
|
AS-ALTUNIT |
Advanced Standing Alternate Units Inquiry |
Displays the alternative unit/s for a unit from which the students has been precluded |
SCA-CENR |
|
CMPREQ-CRS |
Course Completion Requirements Inquiry |
Enables a user to evaluate their course attempt in relation to course version completion rules |
SCA-CENR |
|
CMPREQ-CST |
Course Stage Completion Requirements Inquiry |
Enables a user to evaluate their course stages in relation to course stage completion rules |
SCA-CENR |
|
CMPREQ-CUS |
Course Unit Sets Completion Requirements Inquiry |
Enables a user to evaluate their unit sets in relation to unit set completion rules. |
SCA-CENR |
|
CRSCMP-DTL |
Course Completion Details Inquiry |
Enables a user to view their course details in relation to credit point requirements and nominated completion year. |
SCA-CENR |
|
FEE-TYPE |
Fee
Type Inquiry |
Displays
explanations for the user's fee types |
FIN-INQ |
|
FEETYP-DTL |
Fee
Type Detail Inquiry |
Display's
all of the users fee information for a fee type |
FIN-INQ |
|
OUTSTND-BAL |
Outstanding
Balance Inquiry |
Displays
debt or amounts still owing |
FIN-INQ |
|
PE-ADDRINQ |
Person Address Inquiry |
Displays the user's current and future addresses |
PE-ADDRINQ |
|
PE-RESULT |
Person Results Inquiry |
Enables a user to view their current and past results |
PE-RESULT |
|
PYMNT-RECV |
Payments
Received Inquiry |
Display's
all payments by the user. |
FIN-INQ |
|
SCA-CENR |
Student Course Attempt Current Enrolment Inquiry |
Enables a user to view details of all of their course attempts |
SCA-CENR |
|
SCA-EX-UPD |
Student
Exam Location Update |
Enables
the user to update their nominated examination location |
SCA-EX-UPD |
|
STUD-EXAM |
Student Exam Timetable Inquiry |
Displays details of the user's examinations |
EXAM-TT |
|
SUA-CENR |
Student Unit Attempt Current Enrolment Inquiry |
Enables users to view details of all of their unit attempts within a specified course |
SCA-CENR |
|
SUSA-CENR |
Student Unit Set Attempt Current Enrolment Inquiry |
Enables users to view details of all their unit set attempts for a specified course |
SCA-CENR |
|
UOO-SELECT |
Unit Offering Option Select |
Enables the user to select unit offering options for inclusion in their course attempt |
UOO-SELECT |
|
ENR-COE |
Confirmation of Enrolment |
Using Callista Connect, a student can now check enrolment details by going to the Confirmation of Enrolment screen. |
ENR-COE |
Note:
The FIN-INQ process type controls access to the Payments Received Inquiry
(PYMNT-RECV) and Outstanding Balance Inquiry (OUTSTND-BAL) applications.
The process type SSF-FEEASS (Fee Assessment process) controls access to the
Fee Assessment process. See Callista Connect documentation for more information.
Applications with multiple process types
For
an application with multiple process types mapped, process window checking
is undertaken in the order defined within the system.
Here
is a list of all applications with multiple process types and the order the
process types are checked for valid cohort process windows
|
Application |
Description |
Purpose |
Process Type |
Process Order |
|
ENR-SCAE |
Enrolment Course Attempt Selection |
Enables a user to view their current course attempt details |
VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 |
|
ENR-STEPS |
Enrolment Course Attempt Steps |
Defines the available steps for self-enrolment |
VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 |
|
GOVT-STATS |
Government Statistics |
Enables a user to update their government statistics details. For example: citizenship |
GOVT-STATS VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 3 |
|
PE-ADDRUPD |
Person Address Update |
Enables a user to update addresses, but only for address types with an existing current or future address |
PE-ADDRUPD VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 3 |
|
PE-PERSON |
Person Details Update |
Enables a user to view their basic person details and update selected details |
PE-PERSON VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 3 |
|
PERSON-INQ |
Person Inquiry |
Displays information to a user such as disclaimer information or a declaration |
PERSON-INQ VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 3 |
|
SCA-UPD |
Student Course Attempt Maintenance |
Enables a user to update selected course attempt details |
SCA-UPD VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 3 |
|
SUA-UPD |
Student Unit Attempt Maintenance |
Enables a user to update their unit attempt details such as confirming a unit or discontinuing a unit |
VARIATION ENROLMENT |
1 2 |
Applications without a process type
Within
Callista Connect there is a facility for recording user-defined applications.
This is to allow institutions to incorporate their own applications in Callista
Connect. However, these user-defined applications do not have a system process
type mapped to them and therefore cohort process windows cannot be applied
to the user-defined application.
If
it is necessary to associate user-defined applications with cohort process
windows, a new process type may be added to the S_PROCESS_TYPE table.
By giving it the same name as the user-defined application cohort process
windows can be created for the application.
Special Topics
A
Special Topics
document is included to provide a detailed summary of process type information.
The
special topics section also includes information on setting up cohort process
windows in such a way as to prevent access to the enrolment variation process
if the initial enrolment process has not been completed and using the ADD-UNIT
or DROP-UNIT process type.