Program Beacon was established in 2018 as a group of interdisciplinary projects under the DVC-Academic, to engage teams across the University to support the implementation of Macquarie’s Curriculum Transformation.

The unique structure of Program Beacon – with project teams across business and technology – created a model that was agile and responsive to change, and a team that could explore new technology opportunities and support the organisation to make changes rapidly.

With Beacon approaching the impressive milestone of having delivered all of its planned initiatives, we look at two recent ‘go-live’s that has everyone abuzz.

Curriculum Management System (CMS) and new Coursefinder

In 2018, Macquarie embarked on a journey to procure and implement a new curriculum management system to support our Curriculum Transformation. Last month, this goal was realised, with our new Coursefinder (courses.mq.edu.au) – the final deliverable in the work stream – going live. Powered by CourseLoop (our curriculum source of truth) and Squiz (Macquarie’s enterprise web platform), the site provides future students with a much-improved course discovery and comparison experience, including personalised and media-rich content.

The go-live marked the official completion of Program Beacon’s CMS and Coursefinder project stream – a stream which has produced a remarkable number of major deliverables:

• Procurement of the MQCMS
• Implementation of Course lifecycle and governance, comprising course and unit workflows and templates, and improved approval processes.
• New Handbook
• Double Degree Advisor for staff, and future and current students
• PG Doubles with shortest duration
• Integrations with iTeach, Tracker and RPL
• New Coursefinder

The MQCMS now supports the end-to-end lifecycle management of courses and units from ideation to market. Program Beacon thanks all project teams and stakeholders across the University for their support in achieving this outcome.

New Applicant Portal and enhanced admissions

Also launched last month was a new Applicant Portal for domestic postgraduate students – part of Beacon’s enhanced admissions project, which significantly reduces the administrative load on staff and provides a more seamless application and admission experience for students.

With the transition of AMIS (our Academic Management Information System) to the cloud in 2019, the Beacon team have been able to replace clunky processes (including mail merging offer letters from manually created spreadsheets) with automated workflows, enabling quicker turnaround of offers.

The enhanced Applicant Portal interface provides clearer guidance through the application steps, and adds the ability to track progress and respond to requests within a single system.

Two further milestones in the project stream will soon also be reached:

• Repatriation of HDR eApps, removing another instance of AMIS (due late November)
• Integration of StudyLink offers into Enhanced Admissions (due early December)

The new Applicant Portal and Enhanced Admissions sets a wonderful foundation for the work of the Student First area of focus of the Operating Plan, includiing the planned transition from the current eStudent to an Enhanced Enrolment Portal.

By the end of this year, Program Beacon will reach the end of its journey, having delivered not only all its milestones, but also accommodating unplanned COVID-19 requirements.

It has been a transformative three-year undertaking that has fostered the development of new organisational capabilities and a confidence that Macquarie can be adaptive and proactive in a dynamic Higher Education landscape.

For information on Program Beacon, contact Roz Howard, Program Beacon Director.

They’re not.

“The Team have a focused and ambitious program of works for delivery in 2020, which is well underway,” says Professor Kevin Jameson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic).

“We’ve also expanded their scope to include projects that support HDR and Macquarie International.”

With a history of successfully delivering a wide range of challenging projects, the team were well placed to provide support to other teams across the University as they responded to the COVID-19 challenge.

“We all needed to respond quickly to the COVID-19 situation,” explains Ms Gail White, Executive Director Student Engagement and Academic Registrar.

“With their depth and range of experience, the Program Beacon team were well placed to jump in at the deep end and help other teams across the University provide the support and resources our students and staff needed.”

Here’s the team’s 2020 schedule of work:

Curriculum Management System (CMS) and CourseFinder Replacement

At the top of the list is the development of tools that assist prospective and current students find the degree they want to study. They need to be easy to use, highlight the key selling points of each course and provide the information students need to make an informed choice.

• Double Degree Advisor – Phase 1 deployed in March 2020
• Double Degree Advisor – Phase 2 to be deployed in September 2020
• CourseFinder Replacement, to be implemented by December 2020

Student Migration

After migrating all current students from old to new course structures in time for session 1 2020, the team are now concentrating on:

• Remediation of error
• Support for people, process, policy and technology solutions for the maintenance of the corporate records and BAU amendments to the student record and study plan
• Support for a hybrid completions solution for post 2020 courses
• Knowledge transfer
• Post implementation review

Work is currently being undertaken on behalf of various portfolios and offices across the University to review and analyse the impact of the new Curriculum and Student Management System configuration changes.

Student Management System (AMIS)

Rapid Enhancements:

• AMIS 8.1
  • HDR eApps Staff OneID
  • AMIS Staff OneID
  • Roll over for Scholarships to reduce manual effort
  • Transitioning the management of some non-award courses to AMIS Cloud (22 June 2020)
• AMIS 8.2, scheduled to be deployed in June 2020
  • Online leave of absence reporting for students- a new initiative
  • eStudent OneID (eStudent Password Integration) to provide students with single-sign-on to eStudent
  • 2019B upgrade for both Finance and AMIS
• AMIS 8.3 scheduled to be deployed in October 2020
  • StudyLink Data integration to remove manual application data entry in AMIS
  • eforms and workflows for HDR Candidature management
  • Transition of HDR Rewards and Scholarships

Business Transformation, implementing new features in AMIS:

• Applicant Portal (including repatriation of the HDR eApplication instance)
• Enhanced Admissions
• Enhance Enrolments
• Student Portal

TCSI- transforming the collection of student information project

After being delayed by the government due to COVID-19 the TCSI project is scheduled to be completed in December 2020. Implementation of the project will see consistent government student data reporting across all Australian universities.

The team are also assisting with the Faculty of Human Sciences transition.

So while the team had a busy 2019, 2020 continues that momentum and is full steam ahead on improving our systems and resources.

In addition to other projects linked to the Student Strategic Success Framework, the Program Beacon team was tasked with the implementation of this new curriculum. And it was no small undertaking.

Achieved in 2019

Rolled out the new curriculum

We prepared our students, staff, processes and systems for the implementation of:

• WAM (Weighted Average Mark)
• a change to our credit point values – now in multiples of 10
• a change to unit naming conventions – now four numbers and four letters.

Moved 20,000+ students to the new curriculum

This involved determining what to move them to, moving their student record in our student system, telling them what we’d done and encouraging them to enrol in 2020. Sounds simple right?

“Student migration has been an enormous undertaking achieved largely due to the dogged determination of the people involved. It has been an excellent example of cross-unit collaboration with so many people from across the institution working together to make it happen,”
– Professor Kevin Jameson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) explaining how “simple” the process has been.

But there’s more to come on this story. There are still thousands of students to be migrated. The migration team will be working throughout December and January to ensure all students can begin their 2020 studies in the new curriculum.

Implemented the MQCMS

The MQCMS system manages the new curriculum from course and unit proposal, all the way through approvals, to publishing in the handbook. It’s a one-stop-shop resource for our new curriculum now, and into the future. It goes without saying that one system managing workflow, record keeping and published information is a great improvement for Macquarie. The MQCMS also makes it easier for us to be TEQSA compliant in the management of our courses and units.

Delivered a new-look, fully integrated handbook

Released in October, the new handbook is fully integrated with the MQCMS. This means that not only are we being consistent in the degree information we publish for students, but the integration has replaced a previously time-consuming manual and error-prone handbook production process.

Moved to the cloud

Our Academic Management Information System, or AMIS as it’s affectionately known, was moved to the cloud – AMIS 8.

Cloud technology delivers more stability and security for our systems. It also allows us to take advantage of system upgrades and provide enhanced digital services to our students.

“The cloud upgrade is an exciting way forward for Macquarie. Aligning perfectly with the Student Success Strategic Framework, it is a clear investment in our student experience,” says Gail White, Executive Director, Student Engagement and Registrar.

A new approach to student communications

In a world where we’re constantly exposed to different messaging it can be challenging to cut through the noise and convey important information to our students. In line with the Student Success Strategic Framework, Program Beacon took a student-centred approach to student communications, by implementing a peer-to-peer communication strategy.

As the name suggests, peer-to-peer communications at Macquarie is all about students talking to students. Approximately 30 students were employed as Rovers and strategically situated around campus. The Rovers’ job was to chat to current students about changes to the curriculum and what that might look like for them. They were also tasked with gathering intel and feedback.

Launched in October the Rover initiative has been a success. Students are engaging with the Rovers and we are gathering feedback from the current student body.

As at week 4 of this initiative (end November) the stats look like this:

1. What did the enquiry relate to? (could be more than one per enquiry):

2. How do you feel about MQ2020 overall?

You can find a copy of the complete week 4 Rover Report on the student communication page of the Program Beacon wiki.

Program Beacon will continue to utilise the peer-to-peer style Rover communication initiative throughout the start of 2020 with a view to expanding Rover content and engagement to other channels such as social media.

Collaborated to promote the marketable outcomes of the new curriculum

The new curriculum provides some unique points of difference for Macquarie University, which in today’s highly competitive global education market presents an opportunity. Our degrees were redesigned to ensure our students are offered the best academic experience, courses and units to prepare for a successful future. That’s highly marketable!

• Flexible degree structures – choose units that lead you to the career that you design
• Postgrad and undergrad double degree combinations – why choose one? Double your knowledge, fast track your learning and multiply your career prospects
• One-year master degrees – Save time and money and get to where you want to be in your career quicker.

In conjunction with Future students, two animations have been designed to promote our UG and double degrees. In collaboration with the PG and Mature Age Future Students and Macquarie International teams, design of an animation to promote the new PG entry pathways and double master degrees is currently underway.

Working towards in 2020

• Completing student migration
• A double degree advisor to help students choose the double degree for them
• A Replacement Course Finder – a fully integrated digital solution making it easier for new and future students to review, compare and choose MQ courses
• More system integrations and optimisation of new AMIS 8 functionalities to enhance service delivery and replace manual processes
• Single sign-on for staff and students for AMIS 8
• Handbook user experience improvements
• An institution-wide CRM
• The TCSI project (Transforming the Collection of Student Information) – an initiative of the Department of Education and the Department of Human Services, aimed at standardising the collection and reporting of information about current students.

Summary

2019 has been a big year for Beacon, with 2020 shaping up to be even bigger as we continue building on the Student Strategic Success Framework. Everyone involved in Program Beacon activities this year is to be commended for their achievements, hard work and dedication.

FROM THE PROGRAM BEACON TEAM – THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR WORK THIS YEAR. ENJOY THE HOLIDAY SEASON AND WE’LL SEE YOU IN 2020.

It’s certainly been a busy year so far, and as we look ahead to the second half of 2019, things don’t appear to be slowing down.

In fact, with the recent release of our Curriculum Management System (MQCMS) – and two more releases to follow – and student migration now well and truly in sight, the momentum is set to continue. Let’s take a look at the various streams of work under the Program Beacon umbrella to find out what’s been happening and what’s up next.

Curriculum Management System ­– MQCMS

Who hasn’t heard that our new Curriculum Management System MQCMS went live on 17 July? For those who have, the project team is happy to report that it’s being adopted well by Faculties, with over 230 proposals (course and unit) entered into the workflow of the new system. Two more MQCMS releases are planned for between now and April 2020, which will deliver a Handbook and Double Degree Advisor,  as well as a new CourseFinder for students.

The MQCMS replaces Web Forms, Handbook Admin, Web Handbook and our current CourseFinder, and was designed to support ongoing curriculum management. It will deliver greater consistency in the way we manage our curriculum and course information, drive improved efficiencies for staff, provide a single source of truth, and greater transparency, for anyone using the system.

Student Curriculum Implementation Project (SCIP)

SCIP has two streams of activities: firstly, there’s a technical component to configure AMIS with the new curriculum structures as well as an impact assessment of other student systems; and Student Migration.

The first half of 2019 was spent planning and preparing for the migration of approximately 47,000 current students across to our new curriculum in 2020. Now with the migration only a matter of weeks away, the preparation is paying off with Faculties having submitted most of their student transition plans and preparing their Faculty Student Centres for any enquires or support students might require through migration. As the final few student transitions plans are submitted, the project team continue to work closely with Faculties around student cohort planning and navigating the complexities associated with the various student scenarios that they will be managing.

With 1 October earmarked for the official commencement of student migration, it’s certainly time to start talking to students about what they can expect. With this in mind, a comprehensive student communications plan has been developed, with the clear aim of ensuring students understand the changes associated with the new curriculum – pre, during and post-migration, during migration and post-migration – and what they need to do.

Student Migration Communications

Part of the SCIP project, the student communications activity has a dedicated focus and plan to ensure students receive simple, clear communication about their new 2020 study plans, and feel supported and informed about any changes to their course. The planned communications are a mix of general awareness messages, direct messages to all students as well as specifically tailored messages to student cohorts. The comprehensive plan also focusses on providing ‘on the ground’ support and advice, and prepares student facing teams (in and out of faculties) to support students through this transition.

We are now in phase two of the communication and engagement plan which introduces general details about some of the changes and drives large-scale awareness with students about the migration in October. Phase three communications, commencing in October, will centre around the roll out of 2020 study plans and will ensure students have all support and information they need to enrol for 2020. Communications have also re-iterated Macquarie’s focus on investing in our students’ success. Student communications and information for staff can be found on the Program Beacon Hub wiki page.

Student Management System (SMS) Cloud Upgrade

In short, this project aims to significantly improve the way our students interact with us (via our systems) and the way we interact with them. It encompasses the modernisation and standardisation of AMIS functionality as well as the upgrade to a cloud-hosted version of the system and will actively support student migration in October. The SMS project will also deliver a OneID sign-on for staff. Watch this space for progress updates coming soon.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

This project is about to really ramp up. The CRM project under Beacon will enable staff to provide a more personalised and informed service for our students. It will also deliver improved workflow efficiencies and reporting capabilities for staff through effective integration of systems. The body of work around CRM commences next month (September 2019) so keep your eye out for more information in the coming months.

E-student Login Portal

The ‘E-student Login Portal’ project will deliver a single sign-on and more streamlined enrolment process for students. If you think about how many times you’ve wished for single sign-ons – at work or elsewhere – it goes without saying that the overall experience for students who interact with us via our systems will greatly improve as a result of this work. Work on our  ‘E-student Login Portal’ will commence in September 2019.

Program Beacon is making good progress and hitting all of its major milestones, but as you can see there’s still plenty more to do. The project team is committed to keeping the University community updated along the journey so will post updates via This Week. If staff have any questions or would like to subscribe to Beacon Bytes – the Program Beacon newsletter – they can email beacon@mq.edu.au or visit the Program Beacon wiki page for more detailed information.

DEMONSTRATIONS

We’ve had lots of requests for CMS demonstrations, so we’ve scheduled a “show and tell” for all interested staff:

Date: Tuesday 2 July 2019
Venue: T2 Theatre in 14 SCO (same building as 12 WW)
Time: 12noon to 1pm

Register to book your place.

TRAINING

We know that academics are busy, so we don’t expect them to jump online as soon as the CMS is live to review all their courses and units. Rather, during the second half of this year, training on CMS will be conducted within faculties and aligned to your specific requirements. The initial focus will be on reviewing and updating units offered in Session 1 2020.

To support this approach, we will have a range of flexible training options:

• Online resources including quick reference guides (QRGs) accessible via Program Beacon Hub (also accessible from iLearn)
• ‘Just-in-time’ face-to-face training tailored to each faculty
• Regular drop-in sessions
• One-on-one mentoring
• Workshops for faculties and departments

Register your training requirements  (MS Form) by 21 June 2019.

Stay in touch with all that’s happening with Program Beacon by following our Program Beacon wiki or signing up for the Beacon Bytes newsletter.

For many weeks, our faculty teams have been working through the logistics of how to migrate current students from existing curriculum to the new. The majority of students transitioning in 2020 will experience minimal or no change to their study paths, and the course mapping activities faculties are now undertaking will give clarity to what kind of changes students will experience with the transition across to the new curriculum.

In particular, faculties are committed to ensuring that for students transitioning across to the new curriculum, the experience is as streamlined and stress-free as possible and each individual student is empowered with information to understand the reason for the changes and the impact (if any) on their study plans.

 Student-facing digital communications now released

Student-facing digital communication has commenced and over the next few days, you will start to see our MQ2020 imagery in digital displays around lecture theatres, screens and online portals.

The communication builds on the Vice-Chancellor’s 2018 end-of-year message and has been developed to raise awareness with current students of the curriculum change, and to let them know we’ll be in touch later in the year with their personalised study plans.

To supplement this message information has been posted online and the hashtag (#MQ2020) has been introduced to help students easily find the curriculum transformation MQ2020 information, if they need it (or want it) now. Student Connect, the faculties and Program Beacon have also put together student FAQs and pulled together resources for staff within the new Program Beacon Hub.

Direct communication with students regarding their 2020 study plan will commence in July as faculty transition plans are finalised. The goal is to distribute targeted curriculum change information to students prior to commencement of Session 2 2019. This communication will provide information to assist with unit selection, ease transition into new 2020 courses and sets the groundwork for student’s successful transition in 2020.  Student-facing teams both in and out of faculties will be prepared with information to support and direct student queries throughout this stage.

As we continue to prepare for 2020, teams are also juggling the all-important ‘business as usual’ activity – it’s a fine balance, and everyone involved in the work should be applauded for their commitment to our students and their needs over this critical time of transition to MQ2020.

This Week will be sharing information about some of the new courses coming in 2020, student communications through migration and some of the support activity planned for the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled.

If you have any questions in the meantime, send them to beacon@mq.edu.au.

With the recent go-live of our upgraded RPL Tracker and CTR systems – a significant milestone in our Program Beacon journey – we thought it was time to peel back another layer around this project and share some information that you might not know!

We’re building a tool for faculties to record mapping information between the current and new curriculum

The information recorded will be used for a variety of purposes such as preparation of students’ data and communications for students’ migration, helping us define transition structures, with fees setting, load planning and responding to students’ enquiries in the future.

We’re making changes to AMIS to support the implementation of our new 2020 curriculum

If you are the owner of an application consuming AMIS data, you may want to check whether you have rules based on AMIS configuration data (e.g. category type) and if so, update those rules according to the new configuration. You can also request access to Databank test environments if you want to check your import of AMIS data by raising a OneHelp ticket. For more information email Program Beacon: beacon@mq.edu.au

We have a whole new range of double degrees on offer from 2020

‘Double degree’ is a term we will use when 2020 students are studying two Bachelor or two Master degrees at the same time e.g Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Information Technology concurrently. A key benefit for students enrolled in double degrees is that many can complete their course of study in less time. Information about double degrees can be found on our website.

We also have new range of combined degrees on offer

A combined degree is a term we use when 2020 students are studying a Bachelor and Master degree at the same time. Some might have known these previously as ‘vertical double degrees’. Many students enrolled in combined degrees can compete their course of study in less time.

Our new CMS will provide one go-to-system to replace our existing webforms

Not only that, it will also replace ten other separate systems we currently use to manage our curriculum. That’s quite a transformation!

We have to check and analyse the impact of the new curriculum and AMIS changes on 800 different AMIS reports

For owners of applications using AMIS data, please note that not all AMIS reports will need to be updated. If you have not been in touch with us already and need your AMIS reports updating or have a question about this, please send an email to Program Beacon beacon@mq.edu.au

We have just upgraded the Tracker RPL form and Credit Transfer Register as part of implementing our new 2020 curriculum

The systems now conform to our new 2020 curriculum, with a number of new features on offer including multi-unit functionality and ability to push approved precedents from Tracker to CTR, together with improvements for users such as better search functionality and 2-way communication between Tracker and CTR.

Anything else you want to know? Email beacon@mq.edu.au

Kerri Mackenzie, Senior Education Program Officer in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, joined the Curriculum Management System upgrade project late last year to give a ‘coalface’ user perspective and ensure the system is developed with the user-experience in mind. Here she answers some common staff questions about the project.

Can you briefly describe the Curriculum Management System project?
The Curriculum Management System project will provide a new system to give staff one ‘single source of truth’ for all activity relating to the Macquarie curriculum. It brings together aspects of the multiple systems we currently use (such as webforms and spreadsheets), streamlining the curriculum management process and providing a better user experience for staff.

How does it fit with the bigger curriculum transformation work happening at the moment?
The Curriculum Management System activity is just one component in creating a better learning environment for our students. It has been informed by – and integrates ­with – our new Curriculum Architecture Principles.

What are some of the key features/functions staff will notice about the new system? What will change?
Although the new system is replacing several others, we haven’t just taken everything existing and squeezed them into one new place. It’s a new, efficient and intuitive system, where course development tools are connected, captured in the same place and visible to everyone.

It will have better reporting and notification functions, enabling consultation and decision-making. When you submit a change or new proposal, the system will also be able to assign virtual meeting dates to it, so that the proposer can see when to expect an outcome on their new curriculum idea. By moving all aspects to one platform, we are supporting good governance whilst also eliminating the double-handling that happens now.

How will the Curriculum Management System implementation improve things for staff so that they can focus on student success?
The new system will provide clarity for everyone involved in curriculum management, explaining what staff members need to do and how they do it. By having the system in place, accountability will be much clearer. It will be a fantastic time-saver in the long run, creating more time and space to focus on the things that really matter.

What timelines are we working to? What stage are we at now, and when will it go live?
We’re in the second phase of design and build and the system will be launching across the University in June this year.

Other questions about the new Curriculum Management System? Email beacon@mq.edu.au

The first stage of our curriculum transformation was the development of our new curriculum architecture and a refresh of our course offering for students. Colleagues from across the University worked tirelessly to ensure that all 2020 courses were submitted and approved by Senate last year, ready for the next stage – curriculum implementation. This was a significant achievement and we are now in the market with a selection of our double degrees, as well as the new course structures for our 2020 students.

View 2020 course offerings by visiting courses.mq.edu.au and selecting ‘Starting 2020’ on the top right of the page. >>

In parallel to the curriculum work last year, we also commenced an upgrade of two major student systems ­– the Curriculum Management System (CMS) and Student Management System (SMS). This year, both streams of work have been bundled together, along with the detailed work of transitioning courses and students, under Program Beacon to make sure we are working in the most efficient and aligned way to deliver our 2020 vision.

While we’ve come a long way on our journey, there’s still a great deal of work to be done to implement our new courses and support the transfer of our current students to the new offerings.

“Foremost in our thoughts must be the migration and transition of our students to their new courses of study. In this endeavour, it is important to [remember] … the Vice-Chancellor’s message to our current students at the end of last year, where he provided reassurance that that no current student will be disadvantaged by the curriculum changes. This remains our touchstone as we embark on the implementation phase.”
– Gail White, Executive Director Student Engagement and Registrar

While many staff may be familiar with the benefits of our new 2020 curriculum will deliver for students, fewer may know about the systems transformation work going on, and how it supports the successful implementation of our curriculum.

Gail adds:
“The new systems will make governance oversight of our curriculum more streamlined and make it easier for our students to interact with us – easier to enrol, easier to navigate courses, easier to access information etc. Most importantly, both new systems will reduce the inefficiencies and complexities currently experienced by academic and professional staff. This will allow them to focus on work that really matters, rather than on manual processes and administration.”

In coming weeks, Program Beacon will continue to support and engage with faculties and operational teams, build tools for implementation and provide a regular update on activities through This Week, Teche and other Macquarie communication channels.

If you want to know more about Program Beacon, email beacon@mq.edu.au or log a OneHelp ticket (via curriculum architecture and implementation). If students have questions before we commence our direct communication with them mid-year, you can direct them to AskMQ.

Team, implementation awaits!