R3 Speak Up!: November 16, 2021. Algonquin College employees learn new Thesis SM terms and rename Speak Up!

Nov 16, 2021

The 5th virtual R3 Project Speak Up! introduced three new terms related to the Thesis (previously Unit4) Student Information System.

Lisa Wellman shared her knowledge with the 141 College employees attending the event that learning the new terms in bite-size pieces will aid them in understanding the Thesis Student Management System, serving as learning building blocks in the project phases ahead.

Lisa introduced “Division,” “Academic Program,” and “Program Curriculum” explaining how these three terms differentiate, and also fit together in day-to-day College activity (see sidebar and presentation).

ThesisSM has exciting capabilities, including milestones

When reviewing an academic program’s program curriculum, “ThesisSM has additional capabilities,” she said. “such as including ‘milestones’, which are portfolios, exams, or work-integrated learning, in addition to academic course requirements.”

“It starts with the Division,” Lisa explained. “Within the Division, we have our academic programs and within each academic program we have our program curriculum, which includes all of the different courses.”

Lisa Wellman is Algonquin College’s Admissions Coordinator in the Registrar’s Office. She has participated in R3 Project initiatives and working groups, providing her expert knowledge regarding admissions, registration, and more.

(Lisa begins her presentation at 20 minutes 45 seconds in the recording.)

Viewing Programs of Study and their Curriculum demonstration

Lisa Wellman introduced the terms Division, Academic Program and Program Curriculum, and Elicia Kirk, R3 Project Communications Officer, presented a live demonstration of viewing various program curriculums in ThesisSM. Elicia’s demonstration shows how to view an academic program’s learner completion requirement in the new Student Information System from Thesis.

Speak Up! gets a new name

Present Algonquin College employees voted on renaming the regular sessions with project leaders and their peers.

R3 Communications cast a wide net, and used a representative process to narrow down and produce the options presented to Algonquin College employees.

After the June 24th, 2021 Speak Up! session, the R3 Project sent out a Survey from SurveyMonkey. The R3 Project sends these surveys out after each Speak Up! session to collect feedback on what was done well, and what could be improved on.

Within the June post-event survey, a question asked for some suggestions on what name would speak to the survey respondent and their colleagues. There were many ideas, and for that, we are grateful for the College community’s creativity!

The options presented and voted on during the November 16th session are those same suggestions from the June survey, narrowed down by a focus group with representatives from the Registrar’s Office, the Student Learning Centre, Experiential Learning, Academic Development, AC Online, and more.

Watch the Showcase:

Watch Each Section:

00:00-8:54 Welcome and Introductions: Laura Stanbra
8:55-11:15 R3 Project Update: Sam Wong
11:16-16:57 R3 Change Management Update: Laura Williams
16:58-20:43 R3 Implementation Committee: Bryan Eburne, Jeff Agate
20:44- 23:06 New Terms Related to Programs of Study: Lisa Wellman
23:07-29:02 ThesisSM Demo: Viewing Programs of Study: Elicia Kirk
29:03-31:27 Have Your Say in Renaming Speak Up! Elicia Kirk
31:28-48:10 Live Q&A

Access the slides of the Showcase here.

Access demo “How to view the program of study within Thesis SM” here.

Access document “Speak Up Q&A” here.