Guide for administrators and the registry

Who this guide is for

You run the institution or one of its campuses, or you work in the registry.

• Institution administrators see every part of the console: students, the academic structure, registration, results, hostels, the library, finance, staff, the website and the settings.

• Campus administrators see most of it, including admissions, but not matriculation, payroll or the institution's settings, and they read the academic structure rather than build it.

• Registrars see students, admissions and matriculation, course registration, the barring list, the lecture timetable, and the Results section: semester results, CGPA, classification and transcripts.

The menu shows only the pages your role can use, so if a section below is missing from your menu, it belongs to another role. On a computer the menu is down the left of the screen. On a phone the menu is under More in the bar along the bottom (see Use it on your phone).

Getting started after registration

If your institution registered on the Akadesk website and the registration was approved, you are its owner. Nothing has to be set up by hand before you sign in: your first sign-in creates your institution.

1. Open the email that says your registration was approved, and choose your password with the link in it.

2. Open your institution's web address, the one in the approval email, and go to the sign-in page. Select Sign in with Akadesk, then sign in with the email address you registered with and the password you chose.

3. The first time, your institution is created from your registration. You arrive on the Dashboard as its institution administrator.

If the page says We're setting up your institution. Please try again in a minute., wait a minute and sign in again. Nothing is lost and nothing is created twice.

What is set up for you

• Your institution, with the name and web address from your registration.

• Your own account, as institution administrator.

• A main campus in the country and city you registered with. Fees are charged in that country's currency.

• The current academic session, from October to August, with its two semesters. The semester in progress is the current one and is open for course registration.

• Every role the portal has, ready to give to your staff.

Next steps

1. Faculties and departments. Create them under Academic, as described in Look after the academic structure below. Every faculty belongs to your main campus.

2. Staff. Add the people who will run the institution with you, as described in Add a member of staff. Heads of department and deans have to be staff before you can name them.

3. Heads and deans. Name a head for each department and a dean for each faculty. Until you do, the Dashboard lists who is missing.

4. Programmes and courses. Add them under Academic, then give lecturers their courses for the current semester.

5. Semesters. Check the dates of the current session and its semesters. If they do not match your calendar, contact the Akadesk team through the website to change them.

6. Fees. Give someone the Bursar role. They set fee structures and invoice students, as described in the Guide for the bursar.

Before you start

A new institution is registered on the registration page, and the platform team reviews and approves it before the institution is set up. The person who registered is then emailed a link to choose a password; anybody else is added by an administrator and emailed a link of their own. Once you have a password:

1. Open your institution's portal and sign in with the email address and password your institution gave you. Select Sign In.

2. You arrive on the Dashboard. On a phone it is the Today tab.

If your institution sent you a link to set your password, open it, enter a New Password and Confirm Password, then select Set Password.

To sign out on a computer, open the menu with your initials at the top right and select Sign out. The same menu shows the email address and role you are signed in with. On a phone, open More and select Sign out at the bottom.

Use it on your phone

The portal works in your phone's browser, with the same account and the same pages as on a computer.

1. Open your institution's portal address in your phone's browser and sign in.

2. The first time, the portal may offer to install itself: Install app puts it on your home screen, where it opens like any other app. Not now closes the offer. On an iPhone the offer says to tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.

3. The bar along the bottom has four tabs: Today (the Dashboard), Students, Courses and Results (Semester Results), then More.

4. More opens the whole menu, grouped as on a computer, with Appearance (System, Light or Dark), Language (English or Français) and Sign out below it.

5. The top bar shows your institution's name, the search button and your initials.

Lists that are tables on a computer, such as Students or Fees, are shown on a phone as one card per row, with every column on the card. Select a card to open it, as you would a row.

When a new version of the portal is ready, a note says A new version is available. Select Reload when you are ready; nothing is reloaded under you.

Change your own name, phone or photo

1. On a computer, open the menu with your initials (or your photo) at the top right and select My profile. On a phone, open More and select your name at the top.

2. Change your First name, Last name or Phone number, and select Save changes. The name and phone number on your staff account change with it, so colleagues and the staff list see the same name.

3. To add a photo, select Add a photo (or Change photo) and choose a JPEG, PNG or WebP image of up to 3 MB. Remove photo takes it off. If there is no photo button, photo uploads are not set up for your institution.

Your new name and photo show at the top of the page and in More straight away.

Your email address and password are how you sign in, so they are not changed on this page; Email and password says where to change them. If you sign in through the suite, Change password opens the suite's sign-in page, where you set a new one. If you sign in to this portal directly, ask your institution's administrator for a new sign-in link. To change the email address you sign in with, ask your institution's administrator.

Find anything with search

The search looks through students, staff, courses and invoices, as far as your role may open them.

1. On a computer, select Search at the top of the page, or press Ctrl K. On a phone, tap the magnifying glass in the top bar: the search opens full screen.

2. Type at least two letters of a name, a matric or staff number, a course code or an invoice reference.

3. Results are grouped under Students, Staff, Courses and Invoices. Select one to open it. A course opens the course catalogue at that course.

Read the dashboard

The Dashboard gives the institution's figures at a glance:

• Active Students, Academic Staff, Registration Rate and Outstanding Fees.

• Hostel Occupancy and the number of At-Risk Students.

• Two charts: Enrolment by Level and CGPA Distribution.

• The At-Risk Students (CGPA below 1.5) table, lowest CGPA first.

At an institution that grades on LMD there is no CGPA: the CGPA chart and the at-risk table give way to a note pointing to LMD results (see Grade on GPA or LMD).

On a phone the figures are stacked two to a row, and the CGPA chart names each class in its legend.

Departments without a head, faculties without a dean

When a department has no head or a faculty has no dean, a notice at the top of the Dashboard and of Semester Results lists them by name. A head whose account has been switched off counts as missing too.

• An institution administrator sees Assign heads of department and Assign deans in the notice. They open Departments and Faculties, where each is named.

• A campus administrator or registrar sees the same list, and a line saying an institution administrator names them.

The notice goes as soon as every department has a head and every faculty a dean.

Find a student

1. Open Students under Admin, or the Students tab on a phone. The count at the top is every student the list matches. Each row shows the student's photo (or their initials when there is none), name, matric number, programme, department, level, intake year and status.

2. Type in the search box to find a student by name (either order), matric number, entrance exam registration number, email or phone, or by the phone or email of a parent or guardian on their record.

3. Narrow the list with the filters: Faculty, Department, Programme, Level, Status, Gender, Mode of entry, Study mode and Intake year. On a phone, tap Filters; the button shows how many are on, and Show … students closes the sheet. Clear filters turns them all off. Sort by orders the list by name, matric number, level, intake year or date admitted, and the arrow button next to it reverses the order. Status includes No matric number yet, for the students still to be matriculated.

4. The list shows 25 students at a time; use Previous and Next. The search, filters, sort and page are part of the page's address, so you can bookmark a list or send it to a colleague, and Back from a student's record returns to the same list.

5. Select a row (on a phone, a card) to open that student's record.

6. The record opens with the student's photo, name, matric number, level, programme, department, faculty and status. The Profile tab shows their identity (names, gender, date of birth, nationality, state of origin), contact details, where they study (including study mode and courses to retake) and their admission and enrolment (mode of entry, intake year, entrance exam details, and the dates they were admitted, matriculated and graduated). Depending on your role, Results and Academic show their GPA and CGPA by semester, Fees and invoices and Fees their invoices, Attendance opens the barring list, and Library shows their loans. Select Back to Students to return to the list.

A lecturer's list holds only the students on their own courses this semester.

A student's photo

Institution and campus administrators and registrars can add a photo to a student's record.

1. Open the student's record and select Upload photo (or Replace photo).

2. Choose a JPEG, PNG or WebP image of 3 MB or less. Any other kind of file, SVG included, is refused.

3. To take a photo off, select Remove photo, then Remove.

The photo is private. It is shown only to staff who may read the student's record, through a link that expires after a few minutes, and never on the public website.

Record a student's parents and guardians

Anyone who can read the student list sees a student's Guardians tab. Institution and campus administrators and registrars can change it.

1. Open the student's record and select Guardians.

2. Select Add a guardian. Choose A new person and enter their Full name, Email and Phone, or choose Someone already on file and find them by name, email or phone — use this for a brother or sister, so one parent is one person with one login.

3. Choose the Relationship to the student. Tick Primary contact for the first person to call. Untick May see results, courses and attendance or May see and pay fees to hold that part back — for a sponsor who pays but does not read results, for example. Select Add.

4. To give them a parent login, select Create a parent login, check the Sign-in email, and select Create login. They are emailed a link to set their password. If it does not arrive, give them the link shown on the page: it works once and is not shown again. A guardian who already has a parent login for another student is linked to it instead, and nothing new is sent.

Each guardian shows whether they have a login: No login, Invitation sent (they have not set their password yet) or Can sign in. Edit changes their details and what they may see; a change to their name, email or phone shows on every student they are guardian of. Remove takes them off this student's record, and their parent login stops showing this student at once.

An email address that already signs in a member of staff or a student cannot be used for a parent login. What a parent sees is described in the Guide for parents.

Admit a student

Institution and campus administrators and registrars admit students.

1. Open Admissions under Admin and select Admit a student.

2. Enter the student's First name, Last name and Email, choose their Programme, and enter the Admission year and Mode of entry. Select Admit.

3. The student is emailed a link to set their password. If it does not arrive, give them the link shown on the page: it works once. Select Done.

The student's department and faculty are their programme's. Give them a matric number under Matriculation.

Admissions lists every student with their admission year, mode of entry and status. Type in Search applicants… to filter the list by matric number or name.

Matriculate new students

Institution administrators and registrars can matriculate.

1. Open Matriculation under Admin. It lists the students who have been admitted and not yet given a matric number.

2. Select Matriculate on a student's row.

3. Enter their Matric Number and select Assign. A number already given to another student is refused, and the form says so.

Approve students' profile changes

Students can ask to change the name, phone number and photo on their own profile. Nothing changes until somebody who manages student records approves it: by default an institution administrator, a campus administrator or the registrar. When a student sends a request, everyone who can approve it is sent a notification and an email; selecting the notification opens the list.

1. Open Profile changes under Admin (under More on a phone).

2. Each request shows the student's name, when they asked, and what they have Now beside what they Asked for: their name, phone number or photo. A request that changes the name or photo says Also updates the student's record.

3. Select Approve to change their profile straight away. Or select Reject, type a Reason (optional, shown to the student), and select Reject request. A rejected request leaves their profile and their record as they were, and a photo they sent is deleted.

Approving changes the student's record as well: the name on the student list and on their record is the one they asked for, and a new photo replaces their register photo (a removed photo takes it off). The phone number changes on their profile only; their guardians' numbers are not touched. You cannot approve your own request.

A student can have only one request waiting: if they send changes again, the new ones replace it. They can also withdraw it before you decide. Approvals and rejections are recorded in the audit log.

Look after the academic structure

Institution and campus administrators see the Academic section. Registrars see its Departments and Courses, to read them:

• Faculties: a card for each faculty, with its code and whether a dean is assigned. View opens the faculty's page on your public website.

• Departments: every department with its code, faculty and head. Filter by faculty.

• Programmes: each programme's code, name, department, degree, duration and the credits needed to graduate. Filter by department.

• Courses: the course catalogue with credit units, level, semester, type and prerequisites. Search by code or title, and filter by department, level, semester and type.

Institution administrators build the structure, in this order:

1. Faculties: select New faculty, enter its Name and a short Code, and select Save. It belongs to your main campus.

2. Departments: select New department, choose the Faculty, enter the Name and Code, choose the Head of department from the staff list, and select Save. Select Edit on a row to rename a department or change its head.

3. Programmes: select New programme, choose the Department, enter the Name and Code, choose the Degree, and enter the Duration (years), Credits to graduate, Credit scale and Minimum CGPA to graduate. Select Save.

4. Courses: select New course, choose the Department, enter the Code, Title and Credit units, choose the Level and Semester, and tick Core for a course every student at that level takes. Select Save.

Codes are unique across the institution: a code already in use is refused, and the form says so. Heads of department can also add courses.

Name each faculty's dean with the list on its card. A head of department approves and publishes the results of the department they head, and a dean those of their faculty's departments, so both need naming before they can sign results off. Only an institution administrator can name them. Until they are named, the Dashboard and Semester Results carry a notice listing who is missing.

Add a member of staff

1. Open Staff List under Staff and select Add staff.

2. Enter their First name, Last name, Email and Staff number, and choose their Role: it decides what they can do in the portal. Choose a Department for academic staff; leave it on None for office staff. Choose their Academic rank, then select Add.

3. They are emailed a link to set their password. If it does not arrive, give them the link shown on the page: it works once. Select Done.

An institution administrator can give any role at once. A campus administrator can give the campus administrator, librarian and hostel officer roles at once, and adds staff only to departments on their own campus. Any other role is listed with (needs approval): the person is added straight away, but with no role, and cannot sign in until somebody who can give that role approves it. Say why they need it under Why they need this role. Nobody can create an account more powerful than their own.

Approve the roles human resources asks for

Human resources adds every member of staff, but the only role it can give itself is Human resources. When it adds a lecturer, a head of department, a bursar or anyone else, the role waits for an administrator who can give it.

1. You are emailed when a role is waiting for you, and a count shows next to Staff List in the menu (under More on a phone).

2. Open Staff List under Staff and select Role requests. Each request shows the person, the Role asked for, who asked and when, and the reason they gave.

3. To give the role, select Approve, add a note if you like, and select Approve again. The role works at once, and the person is emailed a link to set their password. If it does not arrive, give them the link shown on the page: it works once.

4. To refuse it, select Reject, add a note if you like, and select Reject again. The person keeps their staff record, but has no role and cannot sign in. Their profile says the role was not approved, and human resources can select Ask for a role there to ask again.

You can decide a request only for a role you could give yourself, never one you asked for yourself, and, as a campus administrator, only for staff on your own campus. Decided recently shows the last requests, who decided them and when.

Give lecturers their courses

A lecturer can author content, set and mark exams, take attendance and enter marks only for the courses they are assigned for the current semester. Heads of department reach every course of their department, and deans every course of their faculty, so name them on Departments and Faculties as well.

1. Open Staff List under Staff and select the lecturer.

2. In Teaching, choose the semester. The current semester is chosen for you.

3. Choose the course, and whether they are the Lead lecturer or an Assistant, then select Assign. A course can have more than one lecturer.

Select the bin next to a course to take the lecturer off it. Institution administrators can assign any course; a head of department can assign the courses of their own department. Assign each semester's courses before it starts: last semester's assignments do not carry over.

Build the lecture timetable

Institution and campus administrators, registrars and heads of department place lectures.

1. Open Lecture Timetable under Registration.

2. Choose the Semester, and a Level if you want to see one level only.

3. Select Add a lecture. Choose the Course, and optionally the Lecturer (optional) and Hall (optional). Set the Day, Starts and Ends, and optionally a Stream (optional) and Note (optional).

4. Select Add to the timetable. A lecture that would double-book a hall, a lecturer or a level is refused when you save it.

To add the halls lectures take place in, select Halls on the same page (it says Manage), enter the Hall name and, if you want, Seats (optional), and select Add hall. Use Edit on a lecture to change it, and the bin to remove it.

Exam Timetable lists every exam set under Exams that has an opening time, day by day, with the times it opens and closes, its length and whether it is a draft, published or closed. Upcoming shows what is still ahead and All shows past exams too. Exams with no opening time yet are listed apart under No date set. Exams carry no hall or invigilator, so the timetable shows none.

Register courses for a student

Institution and campus administrators and registrars can register a student's courses, including after registration has closed for students.

1. Open Course Registration under Registration.

2. Find the student: type part of their matric number or name, and choose them from the list.

3. Choose the Semester. The current semester is chosen for you.

4. The form lists the courses offered to the student's programme and level that semester. Core courses are always included, and courses the student failed and has not yet passed are listed under Courses to retake and included too. Tick the Elective courses to add.

5. The credit total must be within the minimum and maximum shown. Select Register courses, then Register courses again to confirm.

Courses the student already holds are marked Registered. If a registration is refused, the reason is shown, such as a total below the minimum or a prerequisite not yet passed.

To drop a course for the student, select Drop beside it under Registered this semester and confirm with Drop course. You can drop any course, core courses included and after registration has closed, unless its results have been published.

Review the barring list

A student whose attendance on a course is below the institution's minimum can be barred from that course's exam. Institution and campus administrators and registrars see the list, and fill it by evaluating each course.

1. Open Barring List under Registration and choose the Semester.

2. To evaluate a course, choose it under Evaluate barring, select Evaluate barring, and confirm. Each student registered on the course is checked against the minimum using the class register. The page then says how many students were checked and how many are barred. It also says how many online students were exempt, and how many barred students have no mark entered yet (the bar applies when their mark is entered). Evaluate the course again after more lectures are marked to bring the list up to date. A bar you have lifted stays lifted.

3. Each row shows the student, the course, their attendance and whether they are Cleared, Barred or have had the Bar lifted.

4. To let a barred student sit the exam, select Override, say why in Reason, and select Apply override. The change is recorded with your name and the reason.

If the page says barring has not been evaluated for the semester yet, no course has been evaluated. Online students are not barred by the attendance rule.

Compute, approve and publish results

A department's results for a semester go through three steps. Institution and campus administrators and registrars compute them. They, heads of department and deans approve and publish them: a head of department only the department they head, and a dean only their faculty's departments.

Marks come from the Mark Sheet under Results, where lecturers enter each student's mark for every part of the course's assessment scheme, and from computer-based exams once their papers are released.

1. Open Semester Results under Results (the Results tab on a phone) and choose the semester. Each department shows its status — Draft, Computed, Approved or Published — with how many marks have been entered and how many results are computed and published. Filter by Status if the list is long.

2. Select Compute to work out grades, GPAs and CGPAs from the marks entered. Select Recompute after marks change; approved results then go back to Computed.

3. Select Approve to sign the results off.

4. Select Publish. Students and their parents see results only once they are published, and the marks behind them are locked.

Each step asks you to confirm first. To take published results back, select Withdraw: students no longer see them, the marks are unlocked, and the results stay approved.

Look up a student's CGPA

Open CGPA under Results and find the student by matric number or name. You see their GPA and CGPA for each computed semester, published or not.

Classify degrees

1. Open Classification under Results.

2. Choose the final-year Level.

3. Each student with a computed CGPA is listed with their programme, CGPA, the grading scale it was computed on, and their classification. The class comes from your institution's ladder for that scale and uses your institution's name for it (see Set the degree classes).

A student with no computed CGPA yet does not appear in the list.

Set the degree classes

A student's degree class comes from their CGPA and their programme's scale. Each scale has its own ladder: the CGPA each class starts at, and the class's name. Until you change them, the ladders are the standard ones:

Institution administrators and registrars can change them. The Degree classes panel is below the list on the Classification page, and on the Institution page under Settings. Everyone else sees the panel without the buttons.

1. Select Edit beside the scale you want to change.

2. For each class, set the CGPA it starts at and its name in English and in French. Untick a class your institution does not award. Each class must start lower than the one above it, at two decimal places at most. Fail is everything below the lowest class, and you can rename it too. Start from the defaults fills in the standard ladder.

3. Select Save degree classes. If any student's class would change, a message says how many students move and from which class to which, and nothing is saved yet. Select Save and reclassify to go ahead, or Cancel.

To go back to the standard ladder, select Reset to defaults beside the scale. The same message tells you whose class changes first.

A class is worked out from the student's CGPA each time it is shown. A saved change therefore reaches transcripts, the Classification list, the Dashboard chart and certificate checks straight away, including for results already published. Certificates already issued keep the class printed on them. Every change is recorded in the audit log, with the ladder before and after and how many students it moved.

Grade on GPA or LMD

Your institution grades in one of two ways, and you choose which:

• GPA / CGPA, the default: grades and grade points on each programme's scale, a semester GPA, a cumulative CGPA and degree classes. Everything above works this way.

• LMD (Licence–Master–Doctorat): every course is marked out of 20, courses are grouped into teaching units that carry credits, a year is passed on the credits earned, and results carry a mention.

Institution administrators and registrars choose the mode. Open Grading under Settings; the Grading mode line on the Institution page shows the mode in use and links there.

Switch to LMD

1. Under Grading mode, choose LMD (Licence–Master–Doctorat).

2. If results are already on file, choose the Academic session LMD starts from. Only a session after the last one with results can be chosen. Results before it stay on GPA with their grades, GPA and CGPA, and students can still see them; nothing already given is read again as LMD.

3. Select Save grading. A message says how many results stay on GPA. Select Save and apply to go ahead.

Once LMD results exist, the institution cannot go back to GPA, because that would read LMD marks as GPA grades. Until then you can switch back.

Set the LMD rules

The rules can be prepared before you switch. Under LMD rules and Mentions:

• Compensation within a teaching unit: a course below 10 is made up by the others when the unit's average is 10 or more.

• Compensation between teaching units: when a semester's average is 10 or more, every unit of the semester is validated.

• Eliminatory mark: a course below this mark (for example 5) blocks both kinds of compensation for its unit.

• What a resit replaces: the examination (continuous assessment is kept) or the whole mark; and whether the resit mark replaces the first one or the better of the two counts.

• Credits to validate a year (60 by default, 30 a semester), and Conditional progression with its minimum (45 by default): a student with fewer credits than a full year but at least the minimum moves up and takes the missing units again.

• Mentions: the average each mention starts at and its name in English and French. The defaults are Passable from 10, Assez bien from 12, Bien from 14, Très bien from 16 and Excellent from 18. Untick one you do not award.

Select Save grading. If the change would give any student a different decision, unit result or mention, a message says how many, and nothing is saved until you select Save and apply. Every change is recorded in the audit log.

Build the teaching units

Open Teaching units under Academic. Choose the Programme and, if you like, the Year of study.

1. Select New teaching unit. Enter its Code, Title, Year of study, Semester of the year (1 or 2), Credits and Order, then select Save unit.

2. Select Elements on the unit and tick the courses it is made of. Enter a Coef. for a course to weight it in the unit's average; leave it empty and the course's credit units weight it. Select Save elements.

A course belongs to one unit at a time; ticking it for another unit moves it. A course in no unit counts as a unit of its own. Deleting a unit keeps its courses and their marks.

How LMD results are worked out

Lecturers enter marks on the Mark Sheet exactly as before; each course's mark out of 20 is its total out of 100 divided by 5. Compute, approve and publish results as above. Then, for each student:

• A unit's average is its courses' marks weighted by their coefficients. A unit is Validated when every course is 10 or more, Compensated by its own average or by the semester's, as your rules allow, or Not validated.

• A unit's credits, once earned, are kept for good. A course of 10 or more in a unit not validated is kept too and is not taken again.

• A year is Year validated at the year's credits, Conditional progression at the minimum, and Repeat the year below it. A year whose semesters do not all have results is In progress.

Run the resit session

Students may resit the courses below 10 in the units they did not validate in the normal session.

1. Open Resit session under Results, and choose the semester and the course. Only the students who may resit can be given a mark; tick off Only students who may resit to see everyone.

2. Enter each resit mark out of 20 and select Save resit marks. Mark now shows the course's mark with the resit counted, by your rule.

3. Under Publish resit results, select Publish beside the department, and confirm. Students and parents then see their results worked out again, compensation included. The marks are locked until you select Withdraw.

Follow LMD results

Open LMD results under Results. Choose the Academic session and, if you like, the Year of study to see how many years were validated, passed conditionally or must be repeated, the mentions, the spread of averages, how each teaching unit went and how many students took a resit. Find a student below to see their transcript of marks and select Print for a copy.

A transcript request opened under Transcripts shows the transcript of marks too. A degree certificate issued to an LMD student records the mention they hold, and the public certificate check shows it.

Process transcript requests

Open Transcripts under Results. Requests are listed oldest first with the student, purpose, number of copies and delivery type. Choose Pending, Processing, Ready, Delivered or All to filter them.

Move a request on one step at a time with Start processing, Mark ready and Mark delivered. Select View to see the transcript itself.

Set a computer-based exam

Institution and campus administrators, deans, heads of department and lecturers can set papers.

1. Open Exams under Results and select New exam. Give it a Title, Duration (minutes), Course and Semester. Under Counts as, choose Exam score or Continuous assessment; for a continuous assessment, choose Which part of the course's assessment scheme it fills. Add Instructions to candidates if you want to.

2. Under How it is sat, choose Online (CBT) or On paper (printed). For a paper sat online, set Attempts allowed (1 unless you change it, and at most 10), and tick Give each student the questions in an order of their own and Give each student each question's choices in an order of their own if you want them. Select Create draft.

3. Select the paper's title to open it, and add its questions: multiple choice, true or false, short answer or essay, with the marks for each. Select Add question for each one.

4. Open the paper and select Submit for approval. Once it is approved, select Publish on Exams. Registered students can then sit it. A published paper's questions cannot be changed, but How it is sat on its page can, for scripts opened from then on. Select Close to stop anyone else starting it.

5. Select Marking to mark the written answers. A written answer left blank is given 0.

6. Once every script is marked and nobody is still writing, select Release scores on the Marking page. Only then do the paper's scores reach the course's results, and students see their result.

Answers are saved as each student writes, and a script whose time runs out is handed in for the student with what was saved. Scripts, on the Marking page, shows where every registered student is on the paper, and Sitting log shows how each sitting went. The guide for deans, heads of department and lecturers has the details.

Question bank, printed papers and paper approval

Question Bank under Results holds the questions lecturers write once and reuse, in a bank for each course and one for each department. Administrators reach every bank. Questions are written there or imported from a CSV file, and drawn onto a paper from the paper's own page, one by one or by a blueprint.

Any paper can be printed on the institution's letterhead, with its marking scheme as a separate PDF. A paper set On paper (printed) is never published online; its marks are entered as for any other mark.

Every paper is approved before it is used, by the head of the course's department and then, if you require it, by an external examiner:

1. Open Paper approvals. At the top, under Who approves, switch on Require an external examiner after the head of department if your institution wants one. It applies to papers submitted from then on.

2. Name each department's external examiners: on Departments, select External examiners on the department's row and add an account that holds the External examiner role.

3. As institution administrator you can also approve or send back a paper waiting for its head of department, for example in a department with no head. A paper waiting for an external examiner is theirs alone.

Until a paper is approved it cannot be published, and its printed copies carry a DRAFT stamp. The guide for deans, heads of department and lecturers has the steps for the bank, printing and approval, and the guide for external examiners has theirs.

Hostels, payroll and the library

• Hostels: administrators see the Hostel section. It is described in the HR and hostel guide.

• Payroll: institution administrators see Salaries and Payroll Runs under Finance, and can both build and approve a run. Both pages are described in the HR and hostel guide and the bursar's guide.

• Fees: institution administrators see Fees, Payment History and Fee Structures under Finance, and can do everything the bursar does there. Campus administrators can read them, raise invoices and generate a cohort's invoices, but cannot change a fee structure, record a payment or void an invoice. All of it is described in the bursar's guide.

• Library: the Library section is described in the library guide.

• Staff List under Staff lists every member of staff with their staff number, rank, specialisation, role and status, and Role requests beside it lists the roles waiting for approval. Search by name or number, filter by rank, and select a row to open their profile.

Author course content

Institution administrators can build structured course content.

1. Open Content Builder under Staff.

2. Choose a course and a semester. The current semester is chosen for you.

3. Under New module, type a title and select Add module. Inside a module, add units with Add unit, then add items to a unit with Add item: a video, file, link, reading, assignment or quiz.

4. Modules and units start as drafts. Select Publish when they are ready, or Unpublish to take them back.

To reuse last semester's content, use Copy from a previous semester: choose the earlier semester and select Copy into this semester. Student progress is never copied.

Staff who teach see the result under Course Content in Registration.

Update the public website

Anyone who can edit the website sees the Website section.

1. Open Manage site. Work through the tabs:

   • Appearance: the institution name, logo, tagline, brand colour, the default light or dark mode, contact details and the About section. Select Save appearance.

   • Home page slides: add slides with Add slide, give each a heading and optional subtext, image and button, reorder them, then select Save slides.

   • News & events: publish a news item or an event. Each has its own Publish button.

2. Select View site to open the public website.

Open Pages to see the site's pages with their status. To start a page, select + New Page, enter its Page Title (its Slug, the page's address, is filled in from the title), and select Create and edit. Select the edit icon on a page to change its title, content and status, then select Save. A page's slug is fixed once it is made.

A page whose status is Published appears on the public website at its slug: a page with the slug library is at /library on your institution's address. Four slugs have a place of their own: about is added to the About page, admissions becomes the admissions guide, and privacy and terms are the pages the site's footer links to. A draft is never shown.

Update the institution's identity

Institution administrators see the Settings section. On a computer, the menu with your initials also has a Settings link.

1. Open Institution under Settings.

2. Change the Institution name, the Logo URL or the Primary colour, and check the Preview.

3. Select Save. The change reaches the portal and the public website.

The Grading panel beside it lists the CGPA scale each of your programmes runs on, with how many programmes use each (for example 5.0 for most and 4.0 for a few). The scale is set per programme when the programme is created, not here. Everything about a student's results follows their own programme's scale: grade points, semester GPA, CGPA and degree class. On a 5.0 programme an A is worth 5 points down to an E (40–44) worth 1; on a 4.0 programme an A is worth 4 down to a D (45–49) worth 1, and a mark below 45 is an F. Its Classification line points to the Degree classes panel further down the page (see Set the degree classes).

Use your own domain

Open Custom Domain under Settings to serve the portal on a domain your institution owns. Enter the domain and select Add domain, publish the DNS record the page shows, then select Check DNS. Remove takes the domain away again.

Set the assessment scheme

The assessment scheme is what a course's mark is made of: its parts, what each is out of, and which one is the exam. The parts add up to 100. The mark sheets show one column for each part, and a mark over its part's maximum is refused.

1. Open Assessment Scheme under Settings. Institution default shows the scheme every course uses unless it has its own. Until you set one, it is the standard CA 30 + Exam 70.

2. Select Change the default. Name each part, give it a maximum, and tick Exam for the examination. Reorder the parts with the arrows and add more with Add a part. Select Save default once the total reads 100. Go back to the standard CA 30 + Exam 70 undoes your default.

3. To give one course its own scheme, choose it under A course's own scheme and select Give this course its own scheme. The course's lead lecturer and its head of department can do this too. Use the institution's default undoes it.

Keep the academic calendar

1. Open Academic Calendar under Settings and select Add event.

2. Enter a Title, choose a Type (such as Resumption, Registration Deadline, Exam Start or Holiday), and set the Start date and, for more than one day, the End date.

3. Tick Show publicly to show it on the public academic calendar as well as to staff, then select Add event.

Use the edit and delete icons on an event to change or remove it.

Turn on online learning

1. Open Online Learning under Settings.

2. Switch Enable online learning on to allow online and hybrid programmes and online students to be created. Turning it off does not change students already enrolled.

3. Choose the In-person requirement.

4. Under Front doors, you can give your online arm its own address: enter the Online domain and an optional Display name (optional), then select Add online domain. Use Make primary or Remove on a domain in the list.

Language and appearance

• Language: on a computer, select EN or FR at the top of the page. On a phone, open More and choose English or Français under Language. Not every page is translated yet, so some text stays in English.

• Appearance: the portal follows your device's light or dark setting. On a computer, the sun or moon button at the top switches between light and dark. On a phone, open More and choose System, Light or Dark under Appearance.

Tips and common questions

• Where are the at-risk students? On the Dashboard, in the at-risk table.

• Why is a student missing from the classification list? Only students with a computed CGPA appear.

• Why did a student's class change when their results did not? Somebody changed the degree classes for their scale. The audit log records who, when, and how many students moved.

• Why can I not publish a department's results? Results are published after they are approved, and approved after they are computed.

• Why does a student say they cannot see their results? Only published results are shown to students.

• Where is the menu on my phone? Under More, at the right of the bar along the bottom.

• A table is cut off on my tablet. Scroll it sideways: the table says More columns to the right when there are more.

Getting help

For help with the portal, contact your institution's administrators. The portal has no support chat or ticket desk of its own.

Try it yourself on the demonstration institution.