Glossary

The Academic Course and Subject Entry System (ACSES) specifies an offering’s Subject Coordinator (SC). The SC is populated into the Author role in the SOT. Authors have permissions to create and edit an Outline; and submit the final draft for QA.

The following ACSES roles are also populated into SOT roles:

• Nominal Subject Coordinator - person/s responsible for authoring the Outline on behalf of the Subject Coordinator; or collaborating on the Outline with the SC and any Support Authors
• QA Officer - person/s responsible for assuring the quality of an Outline

Academic Senate mandates there must be one definitive Coordinator for each cohort; however, the Nominal SC and QA Officer roles allow multiple staff to be added. As such, a 'Bulk add' feature has also been added to ACSES. Staff who regularly perform these processes across the School can be added via this feature rather than added for each cohort.

Please note that adding a staff member via the bulk add feature will essentially give them the permissions to create and author an Outline for any subject; or perform QA on all Outlines for the school. Therefore, to avoid clashes of responsibilities within the School, please ensure that staff who are added via the bulk add feature are made well aware of the specific tasks they are required to perform for each subject.

ACSES provides a ‘Manage No-Role Notifications’ function. Staff can set their desired timing for email notifications regarding offerings which have null Subject Coordinator/Instructor or QA Officer roles.

Learn more: Log into ACSES to view ACSES Help - Manage No-Role Notifications

Once a staff member is populated into either the Subject Coordinator (SC) or Nominal Subject Coordinator (NSC) role via ACSES, they become an Author of the Outline. The Outline will appear in their Authoring Dashboard. SCs and NSCs can also add any staff member into the Support Author role via the ‘Manage Roles & Permissions’ function. It can be found in the left hand menu under Tools & Settings in the Edit Outline or Preview Outline screens.

Autotext is content that automatically displays in the section of an Outline. Autotext can be editable or non-editable.

Fixed Autotext has been included according to Charles Sturt or School policy and cannot be edited. From time to time, 'owners' of the Autotext may need to update the content - therefore a Data Refresh will draw in the latest information as approved for inclusion by the Autotext 'owner'. For example, Senate may amend Academic Regulations, support services may need to update their contact details or service information, etc.

Editable Autotext is text which has been deemed as a 'best fit' for most subjects and is therefore provided automatically to assist authoring. However, it is treated by the tool as if the Author inputted the content. Thus the content can be edited by the Author to suit the subject context. Content will be cloned as part of the Outline cloning process. Editable Autotext can be reverted to the default Autotext whenever the Outline is in an editable state using the section’s ‘Autotext Refresh’ function.

For cloning, Editable Autotext is treated as authored content, i.e. the section content is simply copied to the cloned Outline as if the Author has created the content from scratch. However, if the cloned content does not match the effective default Editable Autotext, on creation of the clone the Author is prompted to select whether they wish to keep the cloned content or refresh the section/s with the new effective Editable Autotext. A refresh will overwrite any existing content. Learn more: Clone Autotext Refresh Prompt.

A Compliance Check is a quality control function to assist the Author in checking that information is contained within all mandatory components of the Subject Outline prior to the quality assurance process whereby a QA Officer checks the quality of the information provided. Mandatory sections are marked with a red asterisk* within the Edit and QA screens. Learn more: Templates

A Data Refresh updates the display of:

• Enterprise Data within the Outline once it has been added or modified within its source system; and
• Fixed Autotext displayed within the Outline if it has required an update in the Outline template. Once the Data Refresh process has completed, a pop-up will display the list of sections which encountered an update due to the refresh.

Enterprise data refers to University information that is stored within its authoritative database and used by more than one (>1) other system. Therefore it is of value to the Enterprise as a whole.

The Subject Outline Tool draws enterprise data from its authoritative source for display within an Outline. As a result this information cannot be edited within the Subject Outline Tool - it must be changed within the source via the system's change procedures then a Data Refresh performed on the Outline to draw the latest data in for display. Learn more: Templates

'Help' question mark buttons can be found against each Outline section. Clicking on the Help icon to learn more about the source of the section data (or for editable sections, how to author quality information for the section).

A History Log for the Outline is available from the Dashboard ‘Last action date’ as well as the left hand menu of the Edit, QA and Preview screens. It is automatically generated from actions taken on the Outline.

Editable template sections are either mandatory or optional.

Mandatory sections are intended to hold information that is mandated for inclusion in all Charles Sturt Subject Outlines by the Subject Outline Policy, e.g. Consultation procedures, Schedule; and Rationale for all assessment items. Authors and QA Officers (QAO) can identify mandatory sections by a red asterisk *. displaying against the section header in their respective Edit Outline and QA Outline screens. Further, it can be useful to use the Section Filter to display only editable sections of the Outline.

Mandatory sections cannot be null. If left null, they will fail the system Compliance Check. The Compliance Check is a quality control check built into the Subject Outline Tool to ensure completeness and validity. Learn more: Templates

Editable template sections are either mandatory or optional.

Optional sections are intended for information that must be included in an Outline IF it is relevant to the subject offering. Optional sections will be removed from the final Subject Outline if they are void of information. Preview Outline and Preview PDF options demonstrate the final Subject Outline by removing unused optional sections. Note that in the QA Outline screen, QA Officers will see all available sections so the Outline can be quality assured in the context of the full template. Learn more: Templates

The Subject Outline Tool provides a quality assurance (QA) workflow, a QA Officer role and various other functions useful to QA activities. The tool does not define quality – but provides workflow and functionality to assist/enable/support QA. QA Declarations are included in each Outline to guide content and quality; and ensure compliance with the Moderation Policy. You can consult the Division of Learning & Teaching Quality Assurance page.

Learn more:
QA an Outline
Quality Control v Quality Assurance

An Outline is exempt from QA if it is cloned and meets specific criteria. See Clone QA Exemption. QA exemption can also apply to varied Outlines. If only certain sections have been varied, it does not have to be submitted to the Head of School for QA prior to re-publication to students. See QA Exemption on Varied Outlines.

The quality assurance (QA) workflow of the Subject Outline Tool utilises the ‘QA Officer’ [QAO] role. QAOs are assigned to offerings in ACSES by the Faculty Subjects Team. QAOs are responsible for assuring the quality of the information provided in the Outline and are able to apply a QA outcome.

Learn more:
QA an Outline
Roles & Permissions

The SC Profile allows staff to maintain certain details about themselves for inclusion in Outlines for which they are the Subject Coordinator.

Stem text is a statement that precedes information. It is used in the Subject Learning Outcomes and Graduate Learning Outcomes in the Rationale section of each Assessment Item and Exam Item.

The Subject Availability Listing (SAL) is the authoritative source of offerings of a subject. Offerings with an active status are available for student enrolment and therefore populated into the Subject Outline Tool for development of a Subject Outline. The SAL+ is maintained by Schools and managed by the Division of Students, Student Administration.

1 SAL Active Offering = 1 Outline

Only one (1) Outline can be created for each active subject offering on the SAL.

You will not see an offering in your Dashboard if it is an offering for a:

• multi-session subject (MSS) that does not have a commencing cohort for that session; — OR —
• subject code that has a CASIMS tag of ‘No Subject Outline’.

Learn more: Offering Types Excluded from the SOT

The Subject Coordinator (SC) for an offering is specified by the Faculty Subjects Team in the Academic Course and Subject Entry System (ACSES). This SC is placed into the Outline’s Author role in the Subject Outline Tool. The SC has full permissions on an Outline to create, edit, complete QA Declarations and submit the final draft for quality assurance. Their name and contact details will populate the 'Subject Coordinator' grouping of the Subject Outline; and their consultation procedures must be authored. It is important to note:

• The SC can use the SC Profile to provide various name and contact details for display in their Outlines. Otherwise, details will be will be drawn from HR’s Alesco or the Charles Sturt Communications Directory.
• If a temporary SC is preparing the Outline for an incoming SC, tick the To be advised option in the Outline to remove the name and contact details of the temporary SC.
• Given any SC information has been updated in a source system (e.g. ACSES, Alesco, SC Profile, Communications Directory) or the ‘To be advised’ option is ticked/unticked, a Data Refresh must be run on the Outline to draw in the information.
• Delegates of an SC can be specified via the ACSES Nominal Subject Coordinator role; or the Support Author role via the SOT’s in-built Manage Roles & Permission function.

Learn more:  Roles & Permissions

Subject Coordinators and Nominal Subject Coordinators can add any active staff member as a Support Author using the Manage Roles & Permissions function for an Outline. Added Support Authors will be listed as an ‘S’ type Author in the SOT. They have full edit permissions to collaborate on the Outline.

If an Outline must be changed after it has been QA approved, the Outline variation workflow is triggered. The Head of School must QA a varied Outline; or variations to certain sections are QA exempt. Varied Outlines are published with a new Version number. Students are notified when a variation is underway; and when a new version is published.