INSTITUTION SYSTEMS SURVEY

Thank you for completing this questionnaire. The questionnaire is organised in three parts: Part 1 is about communicating with, and providing information to students; Part 2 is about the systems that you use throughout the student lifecycle; Part 3 gives you the chance to make any further comments. The purpose of the survey is to provide JISC with a comprehensive picture of the systems that are being used across HE and FE institutions in the UK to manage interactions and relationships with students throughout the full student lifecycle from pre-application to post-graduation. The survey is written with users and business process owners in mind and does not require technical expertise to complete. We therefore hope that its completion will not be too onerous.

Institutions manage their student interactions in many different ways, so we apologise if the function descriptions that we have used do not match your institution's practice. In Part 2, most of the sections have been kept general, but we have subdivided the sections where we are aware that some institutions might operate different systems within the same functional area, for example post-graduation activities.

Please complete the survey as described below, and return it by pressing the ‘submit’ button by June 9th 2008. If you need to involve other staff to complete it, you may want to forward them a copy. We have provided a PDF version for you to do that. Anyone can look at the survey on-line, but please submit one survey for your institution. The exception would be if your institution comprises several organisations which use significantly different systems.

How to fill in the questionnaire

In Part 2, each column heading has some help, which you can access by 'hovering' your mouse pointer over the text.

Under each heading there are spaces for you to enter relevant information. Many of the questions relate to computer systems that may cover several areas; to indicate this, copy and paste the text from one box to the next. If your computer systems do not have facilities in a specified area, please enter 'none' or 'n' under 'Name of system currently in use'.

The questions on 'usability' and 'satisfaction' ask for a rating to be provided on how easy the software is to use, and how satisfied the institution is that it is meeting business need, as follows:

When you have finished a session with the survey, please click on the Submit button to send your response to us. We have provided a link to permit you to clear all your responses in the current session and start again.
You don't have to complete the survey in one sitting. To save your partially completed survey data, make sure that you have supplied your email address and click on the Submit button. Then when you come to the survey again, you can enter your email address at the top of the page and get your previous answers by pressing the 'Retrieve' button. When you have finished the survey, it would helpful if you would indicate this in the Comments box.

Please provide us with any further comments about whether the systems in use meet the overall requirements of your institution. For example, some systems might work very well for a particular business process, but not exchange data with the subsequent process, thereby requiring additional data entry and so compromising efficiency and data quality.