FAQ
You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers! Below, we define some key terms you’ll want to know to understand the R3 Project and we’ve organized an interactive table to help you find answers.
The R3 Project is a transformation project introducing a next-generation student information system solution to Algonquin College in support of the College vision to be a ‘global leader in personalized, digitally connected, experiential learning.’
The new solution and other supporting project initiatives will allow the College to Rethink, Redesign, and Reimagine. Find out more about the three key purposes of the R3 Project.
GeneSIS is the College’s primary student information system for all curriculum and student functions. GeneSIS has been active for more than 25 years and will continue to be the College’s student information system until the R3 Project implements the new system called Thesis SM.
Thesis Student Management is the name of the customized software replacing GeneSIS. It is being implemented as the College’s new student information system. The College is leading the way by being the first college in Ontario to implement a cutting-edge, cloud-based, software-as-a-service SIS solution.
Thesis Student Portal is where learners will interact with information contained in Thesis SM. Learners will access information from a centralized location and have a more user-friendly experience accessing their grades, schedules, awards, and more.
How to use this Table
You can use a combination of filters and/or the keyword search to show the most relevant questions for your needs. Additional questions that meet your criteria can be found by clicking page number or next page buttons below the table. Simply click the + sign beside the desired question to see the answer and find further resources.
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| Question | Answer | Topic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Where can I find pre-requisites, co-requisites, and/or exemption equivalencies? | Requisites and equivalencies are displayed against both the Course Master and Course Offering levels. You can also reference the requirement section of a Program Curriculum page. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 53 | How does the elimination of curriculum rollover affect updates and naming conventions for new versions of a program? | Programs will no longer be archived annually (ex. 2022 POS) and will only update curricula when major changes are made to the program (ex. 2.0 POS). Any new or current students will attach to the active version of a program until it is replaced with an updated version, irrespective of the academic year. If a student returns after a break in their studies and their program version was updated during that break, the returning student will attach to the updated and active program version. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 57 | Who will deliver training for Thesis SM? | All Thesis SM training will be led or facilitated by Algonquin College. The R3 Project team is currently working with Thesis to develop training materials specifically for the College. In addition to workshops and business process walkthroughs, general user training materials, including task guides, video tutorials, practice simulations, and how-to guides, will be readily available for ongoing learning, and to reference when completing specific tasks. | Training & Testing | |
| 178 | How will we transition from GeneSIS to using Thesis SM? | The Go-Live phase will take place over the course of three months. GeneSIS will be used for the majority of the Go-Live phase until approximately one week before the Go-Live date. During this week, all data will be migrated to Thesis SM and neither Thesis SM or GeneSIS will be available. Thesis SM will be used exclusively once the data migration is complete. | Go-Live | |
| 199 | Are evaluation strategies different for courses shared by campuses? | No. All evaluation strategies for courses shared by campuses are consistent for all campuses, irrespective of registration numbers or modality. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 201 | Can students be designated to specific lab sections? | It is possible to manually designate students to specific lab sections if the self-registration option is disabled for the entire level. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 219 | If theory and lab sections have the same number of students registered, does the course need to be split? | No. If theory and lab sections have the same number of students registered, they remain as one course. If program numbers increase, there may be a need to separate the theory and lab sections into separate courses. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 220 | Will splitting theory and lab sections affect a student’s GPA if the sections’ grade weights and hours are different? | These more specific questions and concerns will be addressed when Academic Development has specific discussions with Coordinators about course splitting. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 222 | How will Thesis SM accommodate new program standards? | Thesis SM will have the most up-to-date version of a program when the new system goes live. New program standards can be entered into Thesis SM after the system’s implementation, but new program standards will require a new program version. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 234 | How will the R3 Team communicate with learners? | A learner specific communications campaign will be developed and delivered. In addition, we will be providing resources to both learners and those who directly support them. | Key Messages | |
| 1000 | What is the R3 Project? | The R3 Project is a transformation project introducing a next-generation student information system solution to Algonquin College in support of the College vision to be a ‘global leader in personalized, digitally connected, experiential learning.’ The new solution and other supporting project initiatives will allow the College to Rethink, Redesign, and Reimagine.
• Rethink the way we work, so that we can provide a better experience to employees and give learners the personalized, data-driven, self-service experience they want.
• Redesign processes, so we can discover and capitalize on opportunities for innovation.
• Reimagine how we deliver education so we can secure a vibrant future for Algonquin College.
| Key Messages | |
| 1001 | What is our Student Information System? | Our Student Information System (SIS) is the heart of Algonquin’s administrative systems, providing foundational functionality to manage key information such as: student prospects, applicants and current students, graduates, program and course offerings, student course registration, grades, and transcripts throughout the student life cycle. | Key Messages | |
| 1003 | What software is being implemented as the new Student Information System? | Thesis SM is the name of the new software being implemented as the new Algonquin College Student Information System (SIS). The College is leading the way by being the first college in Ontario to implement a cutting-edge, cloud-based, software-as-a-service SIS solution. | Key Messages | |
| 1012 | How do I know if I will be involved in the project? | Algonquin College Leadership Team (ACLT) members will facilitate and prioritize the participation of their employees in project activities, requirement-gathering, process reviews, workshops, working groups, and information sessions, as required. | Key Messages | |
| 1016 | Will GeneSIS be available after Thesis SM goes live? | No. The College will exclusively use Thesis SM once the system goes live and GeneSIS will no longer be available. | Go-Live | |
| 1031 | Can a course have more than one set of pre-requisites? | Yes. A course can have more than one set of pre-requisites, even if it is offered in more than one program. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 17 | 1 | Where can I find Training courses and materials? | Training courses will be hosted on the Employee Learning site and will link to materials in SharePoint and Mediasite.
To learn more about the R3 Project today, check out the R3 Project Training webpage.
| Training & Testing |
| 85 | 1 | Who is the owner of a program curriculum? | The curriculum owner will be the academic department owner. Determining the owner is a process that will be established Fall 2023 as we rethink and map curricula and owners to Thesis SM.
To learn more about curricula, check out this R3 Project Showcase. | Academics - Curriculum |
| 86 | 1 | Will curriculum change(s) affect current students? | Curriculum change(s) will not affect current students. The current curriculum version will be in the background of the SIS so current students’ programs are delivered without impacting the student journey. | Academics - Curriculum |
| 87 | Will changes to academic programs automatically update connected program curriculums? | No, changes to academic programs will not automatically update connected program curricula. Connected program curricula will need to be adjusted during the update process. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 89 | Will programs delivered at more than one campus be identical programs of study with the same courses and course codes? | Yes, programs delivered at more than one campus will have the same courses and course codes. Different programs can also use the same courses. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 109 | How will aggregate and disaggregate sections of courses function in Thesis SM? | Thesis SM does not have functionality comparable to how GeneSIS manages aggregate and disaggregate sections of courses.
The Working Groups are presenting options for consideration that could involve splitting courses and/or mimicking GeneSIS through manual work. With support from Academic Development, each department will review courses and choose the best option. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 128 | Will access to parts of Thesis SM be conditional on completing training? | Making access to select sections of the SIS conditional on the completion of training is a possibility, but no conditional access has been implemented yet. The current priority is making it easy for users to track the training they have already completed. The R3 Project team is currently determining how training will be tracked.
For more information on training and testing check out the December 2022 R3 Showcase. | Training & Testing | |
| 159 | 1 | What is the R3 Project timeline and when will Thesis SM Go-Live? | To learn all about the R3 Project timeline and when to expect Thesis SM to Go-Live, check out the May 2023 R3 Showcase and don't forget to keep up with the R3 Project News and Events. | Go-Live |
| 177 | 1 | Will I contribute to developing and testing new business processes? | Project Groups and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will develop and redesign business processes. All College Employees are invited to Business Process Walkthrough events to view changes to business processes and ask questions.
Testing of the new business processes will be performed by a dedicated team. | Training & Testing |
| 179 | Does changing a course title or description create or require a new course code? | Minor changes can be made to course titles or descriptions, but any significant changes will require creating new course codes. College policies and Thesis SM functionality will determine what changes will require a new code. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 200 | How do I make program changes and how do changes affect programs offered at more than one campus? | Curriculum changes will be subject to the Annual Curriculum Review process. Individuals from all relevant campuses will help determine changes but one "lead" will be responsible for entering the program changes. Training opportunities related to program training in Thesis SM will begin Fall 2024. | Academics - Curriculum | |
| 1008 | How will the R3 Project change the way employees serve students? | The R3 Project will change the way employees serve students in a number of positive ways.
Thesis SM provides greater flexibility in processes and automations, and better integration with other systems. This will reduce data entry for employees and offer students near real-time updates.
Students will access information from a centralized location, Thesis SM, and have a more user-friendly experience accessing their grades, schedules, awards, and more. | Key Messages | |
| 1010 | 1 | How can I stay up to date on new business processes? | Project Groups and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are developing and redesigning business processes. All College Employees are invited to attend future or review past Business Process Walkthrough events to view changes to and ask questions. | Key Messages |
| 1024 | Can Thesis SM be accessed through handheld or mobile devices? | Yes, Thesis SM is accessible on desktop or laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones. | Key Messages | |
| 4 | How will admissions manage students with more than one record or student number? | An effort to clean-up and consolidate duplicate student records in GeneSIS is underway to streamline data migration to Thesis SM.
In the future, Thesis SM will automatically match possible duplicate records. While reviewing and merging these records, employees will have the option to manually choose what information from each duplicate record will be saved to the new unique record. | Admissions | |
| 14 | 1 | Will course loading be standardized or streamlined? | Yes, course loading will be streamlined by using Course Offering Templates. The templates will be used to facilitate the loading of course offerings which can be rolled over. | Academics - Course Loading and Scheduling |
| 26 | How will portfolios be managed in Thesis SM? | Portfolios can be uploaded to Thesis SM in the Admissions module through a manual process that mimics GeneSIS. This will affect students' ability to self-register and will require additional work when course loading, but it will maintain a single course code and grade on students' transcripts. Revising user roles and permissions will help improve this process. | Admissions | |
| 32 | Can the dates and number of weeks for individual courses be adjusted? | Yes, adjusting the dates and numbers of weeks for a course within a program will be a core function. | Academics - Course Loading and Scheduling | |
| 36 | Is IT intervention needed to fix errors when periods are created? | Designated teams and roles will be able to change and edit periods. Those with authoring permission will be able to fix errors without IT intervention. | Academics - Course Loading and Scheduling | |
| 41 | 1 | How will students submit required documents to the Registrar's Office? | Thesis SM has no generic functionality for managing supporting documentation for applications. Options are currently being explored, and students' submission of documents to the Registrar's Office will be managed in Thesis SM. | Admissions |
| 42 | How will the elimination of annual curriculum rollover affect program changes and program quality reviews? | Most programs will be created as a version (ex. 1.0). Major changes will result in a new whole number (ex. 2.0) and minor revisions will result in a new decimal point increase (ex. 1.1).
Eliminating annual curriculum rollover will reduce additional work when changes are not being made, but programs that do make changes will be subject to annual curriculum reviews.
The process for program quality reviews will not change and will follow the same guidelines as out current state. For more information check out these upcoming changes. | Academics - Course Loading and Scheduling | |
| 62 | Will a student's status as an international student be visible? | Yes, Thesis SM will show a student's status as domestic or international without requiring Status in Canada or Applicant Tracking codes. | Admissions, Thesis Student Portal | |
| 65 | Can a no-charge work-term course be loaded with zero hours to avoid the need for the RO to refund charges to students? | Thesis SM offers several options for loading work-term courses. These options are currently being explored. Courses loading will be a different process in Thesis SM and we anticipate that an option will be available to avoid having to process student refunds. | Financial Aid | |
| 75 | Will everyone have permission to view notes or comments that are added to a student file? | Notes and comments can be added to a student file but granting permissions for access to these notes and comments is a process that is still being determined. | Financial Aid | |
| 1 | Will Thesis SM integrate with Brightspace? | Yes, Thesis SM will integrate with Brightspace. The R3 Project is working with the Learning Management System support group to understand requirements and opportunities for enhancement and to develop the most efficient Brightspace integration with Thesis SM. | Integrations | |
| 37 | Will Adaptive Insights be used? | The use of Adaptive Insights is currently being explored with the intention of using current practices to inform future processes. Manual reporting is available, but it is being determined if data from Adaptive Insights can integrate with Thesis SM's automated reporting functionality. | Integrations | |
| 48 | Will terminology for current systems (ex. Adaptive, Workday) or delivery modes be consistent with new terminology used in Thesis SM? | Terms from various systems are being cross-referenced with terms in the new SIS in an effort to maintain the most consistency possible across all platforms. Some terms in Thesis SM can not be changed so some new terms will be unavoidable. Delivery modes are a category where changes are possible, so some updates may be made to their terminology but these delivery mode terms will be familiar to the College community and use longstanding AC terminology. | Integrations | |
| 114 | Will faculty Brightspace accounts be initiated through Thesis SM? | Faculty accounts are not driven through Thesis SM, but through Workday. This is one of the Integrations we have planned for a quicker and more seamless turnaround time. | Integrations | |
| 123 | Will Adaptive Planning be integrated? | Yes, Adaptive Planning will be integrated. There is a dedicated plan in place for testing that will involve individuals from across the College. | Integrations | |
| 152 | Do subject-specific admission requirements need to be finalized before portfolio submissions? | No, a portfolio can be submitted before a student is in final admissions status. If a portfolio is needed, a student will see this in their admission requirements within the Thesis Student Portal. | Admissions | |
| 154 | Will applicant checklists apply to International students? | The Salesforce (SAM) integration is still being explored, but the integration should allow applicant checklists for international applicants. | Integrations | |
| 157 | How will the Test Centre Online Booking System (TCOBS) be integrated? | The intention is for TCOBS to automate testing requirements to update complete/unmet statuses. TCOBS may have to manually move students to testing status if students cancel booked tests. | Integrations | |
| 223 | When can programs make changes for the 2024/2025 academic curriculum review cycle? | CAL 999s will be available as early as April 2023 to review POSs, to consider changes required in Thesis SM, and to align multi-campus deliverables. All programs will be able to make changes for ACR this year. | Academics - Course Loading and Scheduling | |
| Will program acceptance confirmations and cancellations be visible to admissions officers? | Query lists will be used to support most real-time reporting and to make program-specific statistics visible to Admissions Officers. Furthermore, program intake lists and seats offered will update based on acceptances and cancellations, and waitlisted students will be accepted automatically. | Admissions | ||
| 109 | How will aggregate and disaggregate sections of courses function in Thesis SM? | Thesis SM does not have functionality comparable to how GeneSIS manages aggregate and disaggregate sections of courses.
The Working Groups are presenting options for consideration that could involve splitting courses and/or mimicking GeneSIS through manual work. With support from Academic Development, each department will review courses and choose the best option. | Academics - Course Loading and Scheduling, Academics - Curriculum | |
| 23 | 1 | Will the Thesis SM login be part of the Single-Sign-On (SSO) system? | Yes, once Thesis SM is implemented, the login will be part of the SSO system. | Security |
| 47 | How will the SIS handle students' confidential information and the authorization to release information? | The terms and conditions for the handling of confidential information will be available in the Student Portal. All forms authorizing the release of information will be voluntarily signed by students and attached to the Student Academic Record. | Thesis Student Portal | |
| 49 | How will student and employee accessibility needs be taken into consideration? | AODA requirements will be followed for both student and employee portals. | Accessibility | |
| 58 | Is Thesis SM compatible with MAC OS? | Yes, Thesis SM is compatible with MAC OS. | SIS | |
| 58 | Is Thesis SM compatible with MAC OS? | Yes, Thesis SM is compatible with MAC OS. | SIS | |
| How does the search function work? | Thesis SM uses a keyword search that requires three or more characters and produces all search results that include the letter string in the keyword. For example, if you search "Andy" then the search results will include all person records with the name Mandy. | SIS | ||
| 112 | How much historical data from GeneSIS will be migrated to Thesis SM? | The overarching goal is to migrate all necessary data allowing the College to operate effectively and efficiently. The intention is to keep approximately ten years of enrolment data. We will assess the different levels of data we need to maintain (e.g. registration data, admissions data. All GeneSIS data will be archived and will be readily accessible for those who need it. | SIS | |
| 113 | How much information and what information is accessible to me? | Thesis SM stores information in modules and access to those modules is determined by a user's role. Thesis SM will use many roles to ensure that users can access the right information. | Accessibility | |
| 115 | Will Thesis SM show the difference between a student's grade and a student's progress? | Yes, Thesis SM will show this difference in the back-end and on the Student Portal. | SIS | |
| 116 | Are preferred pronouns visible in student records? | Yes, the current plan is to make students' preferred pronouns visible in student records. | SIS | |
| 118 | Will Thesis SM work similar to GeneSIS and share data with Workday? | Thesis SM will share the same data with Workday, but the process for sharing data may change. | Integrations | |
| 136 | Can students customize widgets in the Student Portal? | No, students are not able to customize the widgets in the Student Portal. | Thesis Student Portal | |
| 162 | Will Thesis SM guide students through program requirements? | Yes, the Credential Audit tool will be visible to students and will list the ideal path through the levels of a program. | Thesis Student Portal | |
| 176 | Does using a US based software affect privacy and security? | Thesis SM is a company based in the US, but they are a global company with a team of employees in Canada. All of the College's information will be hosted in Canada and will follow Algonquin's Governance and Compliance for Proprietary and Confidential information. | Security | |
| 182 | What is the login process for the Student Portal? | Prospective students (unpaid or unconfirmed attendance) will be given a temporary user ID and password, but confirmed students will use SSO to access the Student Portal. | Thesis Student Portal | |
| 184 | When and how will system integrations be tested? | The R3 Project has a team currently dedicated to technical testing. Additional testing will be performed in IST and in UAT as the project progresses. | Integrations | |
| 225 | Can Thesis SM track students' GPAs and if they meet the requirements for co-op eligibility? | Functionality for tracking students' eligibility for co-op is still being explored in Thesis SM. More information will be released as it becomes available. | Academics - Progression | |
| 1015 | GeneSIS shares data with other platforms used by College staff. Will Thesis SM share data with these platforms? | A list of integrations has been identified where GeneSIS sends and/or receives data to other platforms, and these platforms will be integrated with Thesis SM. The integration of these platforms with Thesis SM will continue sharing the same data but the processes for sharing data may change. | Integrations |