The Course Administration System performs all of the day to day administration tasks associated with constructing and administering a professional Training course from recruitment through to production of training record summaries.
The system was developed in close liaison with all the Colleges of Nursing and Midwifery in Scotland and it has subsequently been installed in a number of other sites in the UK. The vast improvements which the product has brought to course administration, whilst also reducing direct and indirect costs, means that the system is highly regarded within the nursing colleges of both Scotland and England.
The secret of the product's success is that it was designed, prototyped and has continually been further developed in close liaison with user groups throughout the UK.
Business Issues
One of the greatest challenges on nursing courses is the administration of student placements and the existing University software systems were not designed to handle the complexity of this key process. In addition recruitment and selection for nursing applicants is markedly different to standard University enrolment. A great deal more information is needed, such as an individual's previous professional experience, criminal record checks etc, before any offers of a place can be made. Course content must meet the needs of the relevant National Boards and student performance must be monitored and reports produced.
CAS solution
The Course Administration System offers:
- Easy tracking of each applicant's recruitment status
- High quality communication with potential students and staff involved in the selection process
- Improved resource utilisation (course, lecturers, locations)
- Information is easily collated for effective assessment of students' performance during all aspects of the course (college and placement)
- Flexible course planning allows part-time modular courses as well as full-time continuous courses to be designed
- Helps ensure optimum utilisation of placement locations
- Flexibility to handle re-allocation and revision of placements
- Warns of over-allocations and can be examined for under utilisation
- Clinical Learning Outcome reports summarise out-placement experience gained
- Maintains diary of audit dates and reports when inspections due
- Helps ensure that key course elements are not missed through absence
- A range of standard and ad-hoc management reports aid decision making
- Runs on standard PC hardware and uses industry standard Microsoft software.