Key Information Set (KIS)

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Key Information Set (KIS)
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Aims

• Give an overview of the KIS data requirements and
  common issues
• Explain the validation and data submission
  process
• Cover how KIS will be used
• Provide opportunity for questions and answers
  around the KIS requirements

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Welcome slide
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Key Information Sets
HESA training seminar Leeds Metropolitan
University Thursday 1 March 2012
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Public information

• Objective information to inform decision making
• NSS
• DLHE
• Unistats

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Understanding Information Needs

• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with the standard of
  teaching
• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with their course
• Proportion of students in employment in the first
  year after completing this course
• Professional bodies which recognise the course
• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with the support and
  guidance they received

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Understanding Information Needs

• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with their feedback
  on assessment
• Proportion of students employed in a full-time
  professional or managerial job one year after
  completing this course
• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with the library
  facilities
• Average annual cost of accommodation
• Percentage of course spent in scheduled learning
  and teaching
• Proportion of the assessment by written or
  practical exam or coursework

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Understanding Information Needs

• Average salary in the first year after leaving
• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with the Students
  Union
• Financial support available
• Proportion of students at the university
  satisfied or very satisfied with the IT
  facilities
• Fees

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DRAFT
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Developing the new web-site

• Introducing the new KIS Widget!
• Rolling widget (9 items)

DRAFT
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DRAFT
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DRAFT
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It has the most important information there
straight away
User Research
I think the ideas brilliant, theres nothing
out there like it, everyone will use it, anyone
whos in line for university which is like
thousands and thousands of students, every single
one will use this
It kind of feels like the website really wants
to help you in your decision
Report to HEFCE by Fluent Interaction
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Key dates for KIS 2012
KIS widgets should be available on all HEIs
web-sites (31 Oct)
Site preview for institutions (17 Sept)
Data should be uploaded to HEFCE extranet (29
Mar22 Aug)
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
June
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
NSS and DLHE data added to HEFCE extranet
Final technical guidance published (29 March)
New website goes live (week commencing 24
Sept) including KIS widgets on course sites
KIS and Unistats early evaluation (Sept 2012
Jan 2013)
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Evaluating Unistats and the KIS

• Early evaluation (2012-13)
• Light touch review is it working?
• User experiences of the website and widget
• HE providers experience of the website and
  widget
• Data audit
• Full evaluation (2013-14)
• As part of a wider evaluation of the provision of
  information landscape
• Looking in depth at purpose, usage, effects,
  outcomes, costs

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Data requirements
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Defining the institution
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Institution bed number

• INSTBEDS records the number of institution
  owned/sponsored beds available to undergraduate
  students
• ....it does not record the number occupied as in
  the EMS record
• It is expected that where institution owned bed
  spaces exist there will be no more than 15000 for
  any single institution

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Which bed spaces?

• Sponsored bed spaces might include.
• Bed spaces in known premises consisting of over
  10 bedrooms exclusively, primarily or likely used
  solely for the institutions students
• or shared with students from other institutions
• Premises leased to the institution
• Bed spaces in formal nomination agreements

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Accommodation costs

• INSTLOWER and INSTUPPER record the upper and
  lower quartile annual cost of institution owned
  beds
• PRIVATELOWER and PRIVATEUPPER record the same
  information but for private sector accommodation
• Institutions should include full details within
  the Institution.ACCOMURL field
• Where the institution has multiple campuses in
  different cities, the quartiles returned should
  include all campuses

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Defining KIS courses

• Coverage

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Who and what?

• Mandatory for all UK institutions
• covering (FT PT) undergraduate courses
  starting within the reporting period i.e. 1
  August 2013 and 31 July 2014
• that can be applied to by Home/EU students

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What is a course?

• For KIS purposes a course is defined as a
  programme of study that a student can apply to
  either through UCAS or directly to the
  institution
• Thus, if students can apply separately to courses
  in Physics, Chemistry and Biology each would
  require a separate KIS, whereas if students could
  only apply to a course in Science and later
  choose to specialise, then only a single KIS
  needs to be produced.
• If a student can apply for either MEng and BEng
  then two separate KIS are needed. If all apply
  for MEng with a possibility of leaving with a
  BEng then only one KIS is needed
• Separate KIS must be produced for two
  presentations of a course if the fees differ

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Franchised courses

• KIS records for franchise courses must be
  provided by the franchising institution that is
  responsible for registering students and
  returning them to HESA/ILR
• The institution who registers the student should
  report the KIS and the institution which the
  student applies to should display the widget
• thus the KISCourse.UKPRNAPPLY field should be
  completed accordingly
• UKPRNAPPLY must not equal UKPRN

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New courses

• For all new courses there will be a number of
  additional fields to be completed due to a HESA
  or ILR course not existing
• JACS or LDCS, LEVEL, TTCID, PTONLY, and DISTANCE
  will need to be returned so that where the
  institution already runs courses in the same JACS
  subject areas then NSS and DLHE data for the
  subject will be included in the KIS until data
  for the course become available
• The learning, teaching and assessments for the
  course stage will be based off estimates in the
  first year, and then actual and estimated data in
  subsequent years

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Sandwich courses

• Where a course includes a sandwich placement as
  part of the programme specification a KIS will be
  produced detailing 4 course stages
• Where a course includes an optional sandwich
  placement (that a student may or may not take up)
  two KIS courses should be returned one
  detailing the 3 course stages, with the other
  detailing 4 course stages. The widget of both
  should then be recorded on both KIS courses

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Part-time courses

• Where FT exists no need for PT even if fees
  differ
• For wholly part-time courses, and where a HESA or
  ILR course does not exist, PTONLY should equal 1
• If the course content differs between modes i.e.
  particular modules for the PT course are only
  available to PT students then the course should
  be returned as a separate KIS with PTONLY 1

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Courses not included

• Courses where the total FTE of the course is one
  year or less when studied full-time (i.e.120
  credits or less for its entirety)
• Closed courses (as defined in Course.CLSDCRS) -
  courses that are not open to any suitably
  qualified candidate and will typically be courses
  offered only to employees of particular
  organisations
• Courses offered mainly overseas with a location
  of study mainly overseas, which the funding body
  has not specifically sanctioned as eligible for
  funding. A course is considered to be offered
  mainly overseas if, for all students, the
  majority (over 50) of their study is overseas.
• Intercalated degrees
• Part-time courses that are also offered on a
  full-time basis and a KIS is produced for the
  full-time course

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Defining KIS courses

• Data requirements

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Determining KIS types

• There are three types of KIS records that can be
  returned
• and depending on the course and its attributes
  will depend on which type is used
• The three types are
• KISTYPE 1 - Full course level KIS
• KISTYPE 2 - Multiple subject course placeholder
  KIS
• KISTYPE 3 - Subject level KIS

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KISTYPE 1

• KISTYPE 1s are full KIS records required for
  specific courses
• All single subject courses (those with only one
  JACS code) regardless of intake size
• All multiple subject courses (those with more
  than one JACS code) where the intake size is
  greater than 20 students
• All teacher training courses (KISCourse.TTCID 1
  or 2) regardless of the number of JACS codes or
  intake size

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KISTYPE 1

• In addition to those courses that require a full
  KIS, institutions may choose to produce a full
  KIS for multiple subject courses with intakes of
  fewer than 15 students
• however only where the course is marketed and
  managed as a single indivisible entity (and thus
  have a single programme specification)
• For example BA in Finance and Accounting
• A course cannot be returned as KISTYPE 1 where it
  is marketed as a single entity but a single
  programme specification does not exist

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KISTYPE 2

• KISTYPE 2s are 'placeholders' for multiple
  subject courses for which a KISTYPE 1 record is
  not required i.e. the intake size is less than 20
  students and/or the multiple subject course is
  not treated as one course
• Each KISTYPE 2 KIS record can be linked to up to
  three KISTYPE 1 or three KISTYPE 3 KIS records
  but not a mixture of both types
• this is to avoid misleading students with data
  from different levels

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KISTYPE 3

• KISTYPE 3 records provide information about a
  subject that forms part of a multiple subject
  course for which no KISTYPE 1 can be produced
• Subject level KIS should be produced for every
  JACS level 2 subject that is included within a
  multiple subject course except where a KISTYPE 1
  KIS exists for each of the subjects that make up
  the multiple subject course

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Example

• Poppleton University offer a joint honours French
  and Music course with an intake of only 10
  students and therefore completes a KISTYPE 2 KIS
  record. Poppleton offers a single honours French
  course (KISTYPE 1 KIS record) but does not offer
  a single honours Music course. The institution
  will therefore have to link the KISTYPE 2 course
  to KISTYPE 3 records as there are not the
  corresponding KISTYPE 1 records

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KISCOURSEID

• Records a unique identifier for the KIS course
• The field will be used by the KIS widget to
  identify the course to which the widget relates
• and also links KISTYPE 2s to KISTYPE 3s
• Institutions are advised not to update this field
  annually as this would require an annual update
  to all widget links
• Care should be taken around KISCOURSEID and other
  course Ids within systems

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URLs

• It is the institutions responsibility to ensure
  that urls provided within KIS remain active and
  relevant through the reporting year
• Only the structure will be checked by validation
• A Welsh url is available for each where the
  institution is in Wales
• Can we add multiple course URLs for a type 2 KIS?
  
• Institutions should provide a link to a generic
  page. Maximum occurrences for this field,
  including KISTYPE 2, is set at 1

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Defining KIS courses

• Accreditation

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Recording accreditation

• Any one KIS can have up to 10 accreditations
• For each accreditation a type, accrediting body,
  whether it is an option a student elects, and
  urls providing further information

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ACCTYPE

• The field is required for accreditations where
  the student gains something and where they do not
• Should provide a short textual description of the
  type of accreditation (as used by the bodys
  website)
• Chartered, Membership, Fellowship
• Where provided, the 30 character word will be
  inserted into a sentence

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Accreditation sentence

• This course is recognised by YYYY for the
  purposes of XXXX
• Where XXXX equals accreditation type and YYYY
  equals accreditation body
• What do institutions think of this rewording?
• Can institutions support an increase in character
  length for ACCTYPE?

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ACCBODYID

• This field must exist for all accreditations
• Records the body providing accreditation to the
  course
• Where accreditation is at the institution level
  as opposed to the course level, all KIS courses
  will need the accreditation recorded
• Coding frame to be expanded in March release

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ACCDEPEND

• Records whether accreditation is dependent on
  student choice
• for example does a very particular pattern of
  modules have to be followed in order to gain
  accreditation
• The ACCDEPENDURL field will record further
  details about the dependency of choice (i.e. what
  modules must be selected to gain accreditation)
  where ACCDEPEND1
• Important information so that students are aware
  where a course is heavily constrained

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Defining KIS courses

• Employability and student satisfaction data

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DLHE and NSS data

• Some of the most significant data items
  (information on employability and student
  satisfaction) on the KIS are generated through
  linking with the HESA Student record and ILR
• Where a corresponding course record exists on the
  HESA record or ILR the KIS should be linked to
  this using the HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID fields
• Only KISTYPE 1s can be linked to a HESA or ILR
  course KIS courses can be linked to up to 500
  courses on the HESA Student or 25 on the ILR
• to take into account where there are multiple
  occurrences of the same course

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However

• Institutions should not link a single KIS course
  to multiple different HESA or ILR courses
• For example, Poppleton University offers a BA
  History as well as a BA History with French. A
  KIS record is therefore produced for both
• The KIS course for BA History should only be
  linked to the BA History and not to BA History
  with French as well
• This is to avoid customised aggregation
• A KIS course could however be linked to a
  part-time and full-time occurrence of the BA
  History

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HESACourse fields

• HESACourse.HESACOURSEID
• Field must exist once but only once within the
  entity and must contain a valid Course.COURSEID
  from the HESA Student Record
• Validation will check that the HESACourse.HESACOUR
  SEID recorded in this field exists in the C09051
  and C10051 Student record
• HESACourse.HESAYEAR
• Field must exist once but only once within the
  entity and records the year the HESACOURSEID
  relates to
• HESAYEAR can be completed with 'BOTH', or '2010',
  but not '2009' alone

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ILRAims fields

• ILRAims.ILRAIMID
• Field must exist once but only once within the
  entity and must contain the qualification aim
  reference code used in the year
• ILRAims.ILRYEAR
• Field must exist once but only once within the
  entity and indicates which year the ILR
  qualification reference code relates to
• The ILRAims entity for a ILRAim can contain
  ILRYEARs with 'BOTH', or '2010', but not '2009'
  alone
• If ILRAims.ILRYEAR Both then the same ILRAIMID
  must exist in both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 ILR

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Linking issues

• Exception validation will ensure that the
  HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID exists on the HESA
  record or ILR
• Where no link can be made, institutions will fail
  validation meaning the ID will need to be
  revised or additional fields completed
• What if we have recently changed our course
  identifiers on HESA or ILR?
• Where a link to course information on HESA or ILR
  can be made (i.e. the course existed) then
  HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID on KIS should contain
  the values returned on HESA or ILR in 2009 and/or
  2010

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Linking issues 2

• Cases where a course (meeting the KIS coverage)
  is returned on HESA or ILR but is not linked to
  through KIS should be investigated

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Course ID changes example

• Poppleton University run a course that has been
  returned on HESA Student record for the last 3
  years
• However, the institution in 2010 changed the
  COURSEID from BAHIS1 to BAH
•  
• (Providing the COURSEID does not change again),
  in the future BOTH can be returned in HESAYEAR

HESACourse HESACOURSEID HESAYEAR
HESACourse BAH 2009
HESACourse BAHIS1 2010
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What is a professional or managerial job for KIS?

• Professional or managerial jobs within KIS are
  defined through the DLHE record as
• An employed destination i.e. (full-time,
  part-time, self-employed/freelance)
• where the activity has been coded within SOC
  major groups 1-3
• A preview of this data (as wall as salary
  information) is available within DLHE check
  documentation

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Thresholds for DLHE/NSS

• The publication thresholds for the NSS are that
  50 of the eligible students must have responded
  and that these must represent at least 23
  students
• The publication thresholds for the DLHE differ in
  that the number of students covered by the
  indicator must be at least 23 (a 50 threshold is
  not applied)
• However, for salary information, at least 50 of
  the students who are employed full-time. Thus,
  for salary data to be published at least 23
  students who are employed full-time must have
  given a salary and these must represent at least
  50 of the students employed full-time

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Aggregating DLHE/NSS data

• Where NSS and DLHE data for a particular course
  fail to meet the publication thresholds then data
  will be aggregated in the following order until
  data that meet the thresholds are achieved
• Course level most recent two years
• JACS subject level 3 most recent year
• JACS subject level 3 most recent two years
• JACS subject level 2 most recent year
• JACS subject level 2 most recent two years
• JACS subject level 1 most recent year
• JACS subject level 1 most recent two years

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Example

• Poppleton University offer a BA (Hons) Medieval
  History
• 24 out of 50 students from the course responded
  to the NSS in 2009/10 and 2010/11
• 25 out of 60 leavers from the course completed a
  DLHE survey and were in FT employment (of which
  10 gave salary information)

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DLHE/NSS for new courses

• Where a course is new or a link to a HESA or ILR
  course cannot be made, institutions must complete
  the following fields
• JACS
• LEVEL
• PTONLY
• TTCID
• allowing a link to be made to existing DLHE/NSS
  data meeting the criteria

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Defining KIS courses

• Fee information and UCAS

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UCAS information

• Where the KIS course recruits through UCAS the
  following fields will need to be completed
• UCASPROGID (the programme code)
• UCASCOURSEID (the code for the specific course
  within the programme - only need to be given
  where different courses within the same UCAS
  programme will have a separate KIS produced)

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Fees for UCAS courses

• Where a UCASPROGID has been returned, the fee
  information for the course will automatically be
  populated in the KIS
• Institutions should ensure that the UCASPROGIDs
  are consistent with those held at UCAS
• Institutions are required to provide course-level
  fee information to UCAS
• Submitted via manual process using UCAS
  Net.update from May until July

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Fee information

• The following fields will be populated
  automatically where UCASPROGID exists
• ENGFEE/NIFEE/SCOTFEE/WAFEE records the average
  maximum annual fee for the course
• MEASSUP records whether means tested support
  available
• OTHSUP records whether non-means tested support
  available
• WAIVER records whether fee waivers are
  available
• VARFEE records whether the fee varies by year
• FEETBC records whether fees are yet to be
  confirmed

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Non-UCAS courses

• For courses that do not recruit through UCAS the
  fee information should be provided directly on
  the KIS record
• populating all of the relevant fee fields
• Institutions should record only record FEETBC as
  1 Fees confirmed where fees for all domiciles
  are confirmed
• Validation will ensure fee information for each
  devolved administration does not exist where
  FEETBC0

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Fees

• All fees displayed on KIS will be for standard
  full-time study (except where a course is offered
  part-time only)
• thus if the fees differ only on variations to
  mode of study there is no requirement to return
  separate KIS
• This is even the case where a course is offered
  predominantly through a part-time mode e.g. 200
  part-time enrolments, 3 full-time. In such cases
  it will still be the full-time fee returned

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Fees 2

• Where the course contains optional components
  that reduce the fee, for example a sandwich
  placement, then it should be assumed that the
  student does not take these components when
  determining the fee level
• It is anticipated that 0 can be returned in
  SCOTFEE for Scottish HEIs

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Part-time fees

• Where a course is offered through a part-time
  mode only, and thus a separate KIS is produced,
  the fee should be based on 120 credits (i.e. the
  full-time equivalent)
• The fees should not be determined using a norm
  of number of modules selected

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Defining KIS courses

• Course stages

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Course Stage entity

• This entity records details of the learning and
  teaching and assessment methods for the course
  stage
• and is required for KISTYPE 1 and 3
• The entity can be returned up to 7 times for each
  KIS course
• thus covering each of the potential course
  stages
• For example a 3 year degree will have 3 course
  stages

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CourseStage.STAGE

• Records the course stage that the learning and
  teaching methods and assessment methods relate
  to
• and can contain a value between 1 and 7
• Must exist once but only once
• For full-time courses this will usually be
  equivalent to a course year (Student.YEARPRG in
  the student record)
• For part-time students this should relate to the
  full-time pattern of study, therefore a part-time
  degree would normally have stages 1 to 3

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CourseStage.LTACT

• Indicates whether the learning and teaching
  methods are based on actual student choices or
  the institution's estimates of the modules that
  students will choose
• A Based on actual student choices
• E Based on institutional estimates
• Whilst using E estimates is permissible in the
  first year of KIS reporting, it is expected that
  actual student choices will be used in subsequent
  years

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Learning and teaching methods

• CourseStage.INDEPENDENT, CourseStage.SCHEDULED,
  CourseStage.PLACEMENT - record the percentage of
  the students time for the stage that is spent in
  guided independent study/scheduled learning and
  teaching activities/on placements or in work
  experience
• Time spent in summative assessments not included
• Each field can contain a value in the range 0
  100
• Should refer to 2011/12 (if actual data) or
  2013/14 (if institutional estimates)
• The sum of these fields must equal 100

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Categorising teaching and learning methods
Activity type KIS category
Lecture Scheduled
Seminar Scheduled
Tutorial Scheduled
Project supervision Scheduled
Demonstration Scheduled
Practical classes and workshops Scheduled
Supervised time in studio/workshop Scheduled
Fieldwork Scheduled
External visits Scheduled
Work based learning Scheduled
Guided independent study Independent
Placement Placement
Year abroad Placement
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CourseStage.ASSACT

• Indicates whether the assessment methods are
  based on actual student choices or the
  institution's expectations of the modules that
  students will choose
• A Based on actual student choices
• E Based on institutional estimates
• Whilst using E estimates is permissible in the
  first year of KIS reporting, it is expected that
  actual student choices will be used in subsequent
  years

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Assessment methods

• CourseStage.COURSEWORK, CourseStage.WRITTEN,
  CourseStage.PRACTICAL - record the percentage of
  the assessment for the stage that is through
  coursework/written exams/practical exams
• Each field can contain a value in the range 0
  100
• Should refer to 2011/12 (if actual data) or
  2013/14 (if institutional estimates)
• Each field must exist once but only once
• The sum of these fields must equal 100 or 0
  (where there is no summative assessment as part
  of the course stage)

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Categorising assessment methods
Activity type KIS category
Written exam Written
Written assignment, including essay Coursework
Report Coursework
Dissertation Coursework
Portfolio Coursework
Project output (other than dissertation) Coursework
Oral assessment and presentation Practical
Practical skills assessment Practical
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Calculating assessment, teaching and learning
methods

• The proportions in each of the assessment methods
  and learning and teaching methods should be
  calculated based on the module choices of (all
  international included) students in the 2011/12
  academic year
• The number of students taking each module should
  be determined and modules with the highest number
  of students registered selected until one FTE
  (120 credits) worth of modules have been
  selected. The proportions reported in each method
  category will then reflect the proportions in the
  combination of the selected modules
• Where the process above leads to the inclusion of
  modules on which less than 10 of students are
  registered, institutions should make a reasonable
  judgement as to whether the selection of modules
  is representative

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Method

1. Determine the modules that are available to a
   KISCourse
2. Rank in order of number of students taking the
   module in the relevant year
3. Determine the modules that contribute to 1
   FTE/120 credits
4. Calculate an average value from these modules
5. therefore overall proportion in scheduled
   teaching and learning (Sum of (Credit value of
   module Proportion in scheduled teaching and
   learning of module )) / 120

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Example
Module Credit value Number of students Proportion in scheduled teaching and learning Proportion in independent study Placement
Physics 1 30 100 60 40 0
Maths 1 30 100 50 50 0
Computing 1 20 100 30 70 0
Computing 2 10 40 30 70 0
Maths 2 30 30 40 60 0

Physics 2 20 20 Disregard
Project 10 10 Disregard
For scheduled teaching and learning ((3060)(30
50)(2030)(1030)(3040))/120 45
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Calculation issues

• Where using this method leads to the module
  selection not being representative, the
  institution should include an estimate of the
  typical pattern for students on the course
• Where a typical student calculation is going to
  lead to two placement modules being included then
  they should be treated as a single module
• this might form the approach to other modules
  where two or more fall into the typical
  calculation. For example where only one would be
  taken as part of that course the most popular
  should be used

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Calculation issues 2

• Where possible outgoing ERASMUS modules should be
  included in the calculations
• International students should be included in the
  count when determining module popularity

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File format

• Understanding XML

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Record format

• KIS must be submitted in an XML format
• XML stands for eXtensible Mark-up Language
• and is the international data standard for data
  transfer
• Hierarchical data structures in a single file
• All KIS files submitted must be encoded with
  UTF-8

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XML file

• Contains fields (sometimes referred to as an
  element)
• with tags to define the start and end of a field
• ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt
• fields can exist more than once
• ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt
• ltLDCSgtCC.1lt/LDCSgt
• or not at all where the field is not required
  e.g. the ILRAims entity exists for the KIS course

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XML file 2

• Fields are nested
• as are entities

ltKISCoursegt ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt lt/KISCoursegt
ltKISCoursegt ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt ltCourseStagegt ltSTA
GEgt1lt/STAGEgt lt/CourseStagegt lt/KISCoursegt
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Data collection using XML

• We define the element names
• .and types
• and nesting structure
• and some of the rules of completion
• ..in an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file

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XSD

• Controls the anarchy
• ensuring that all fields and entities are
  ordered correctly in the XML file
• XSD is available from HESA website

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Help with XML

• Institutional Liaison
• Schema trees
• Editing files - Ultra Edit is your friend!
• Student contacts
• FAQs

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Producing an XML file

• Many institutions will have software systems
  capable of producing an XML file
• there will however be some institutions for
  which the KIS requirements are significant enough
  to purchase or develop an additional software
  module
• As an alternative Microsoft Excel can be used to
  generate a KIS file

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Demonstration
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Validation

• Validation process and using the kit

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Insert-stage

• XML splits validation rules into 2 types of
  check
• Schema well formedness
• Conformity to the .XSD
• Missing fields
• Tagging
• Invalid codes
• Business logic of the submission
• Coverage
• Consistency between fields
• Consistency between entities

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Remember!

• Validation will always check the schema rules
  first
• Until schema errors are resolved you will not
  know how many business rules errors your
  submission has
• Schema errors can be more difficult to interpret

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Exception

• Exception validation will take place at the point
  of data submission
• Any UCASPROGID or UCASCOURSEID returned on KIS
  must exist in the data provided to HEFCE by UCAS
• Any HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID returned on KIS must
  exist in the data provided to HEFCE by HESA and
  Data Service
• Prevent PRIVATELOWER/UPPER and accommodation urls
  from existing where all courses are entirely
  distance learning

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Validation kit

• User friendly interface
• One kit for all HESA XML data collections
• Framework connects to web to download latest rule
  versions
• We recommend that the kit is downloaded onto
  each PC rather than onto a local network

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Validation kit

• Business rule switches can be applied to focus
  data checking
• Details of errors/warnings triggered can be
  downloaded to Excel printed
• Configuration tab can set to local preferences
• www.hesa.ac.uk/validation_help

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Configuring the validation kit

• Recommended minimum specification of a Dual core
  processor and 2 GB RAM
• Kit validates in batches
• Can change size of batch to alter processing
  times
• Reduce size less memory but greater processing
  times
• Increase size less processing times but
  greater memory

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Demonstration
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Data submission
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Data quality checking

• HEFCE will not conduct credibility checks on the
  data
• It is up to institutions to ensure the data are
  credible and the links between the KIS and
  NSS/DLHE data are correct
• Institutions will be given a preview of the
  linked NSS/DLHE data in July
• HEFCE intends to provide a number of tools and
  reports to aid institutions in checking their
  data
• The precise checks have not been finalised but
  are likely to include reports showing the
  HESA/ILR courses linked for each KIS, NSS/DLHE
  target populations, HESA/ILR courses not linked
  to any KIS, etc.

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Updating KIS

• For example to confirm fee information or to make
  amendments to mistakes
• Updates will be routinely published via the KIS
  widgets and official web-site
• To update KIS institutions have to submit a
  complete file containing all KIS records even
  where only one update has been made no AMAL
  process

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Updating KIS example
Submission 1
Submission 2
Submission 3
86 records
100 records
186 records
Data collection system
86 records
100 records
186 records
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Updating KIS issues

• Systems will need to be able to store different
  course data for different academic years
• for example a new course for c13061 should not
  be included in updates made to c12061

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To the extranet
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KIS data

• Information for submissions
• The data will be collected via the HEFCE extranet
  (https//extranet.hedata.ac.uk), a secure data
  transfer site.
• A group key will be provided, which will allow
  access to the KIS submission link within the
  site.
• The data will be submitted as an XML file, as is
  the case with data collections carried out by
  HESA and the data service.
• The facility will be open for submissions in
  April, allowing institutions to upload data and
  check results.
• NSS and DLHE 2012 data will be added in July
  2012.
• Final deadline for submission of KIS data and
  sign off by head of institution is August 2012.
  Institutions will be able to preview their full
  KIS data at this point.

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Key dates for KIS 2012
KIS widgets should be available on all HEIs
web-sites (31 Oct)
Site preview for institutions (17 Sept)
Data should be uploaded to HEFCE extranet (29
Mar22 Aug)
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
June
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Technical guidance published (29 March)
New website goes live (week commencing 24
Sept) including KIS widgets on course sites
KIS and Unistats early evaluation (Sept 2012
Jan 2013)
NSS and DLHE data added to HEFCE extranet
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Thank you for listening
kis_at_hefce.ac.uk
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Further help and support

• 01242 211472
• training_at_hesa.ac.uk
• 01242 211144
• liaison_at_hesa.ac.uk