What does Allocate expect from an integration
The Allocate module relies on the integration with your student information system to keep students, modules and study programmes up to date. This guide describes what the integration is responsible for, so that Allocate works reliably.
The integration owns the object data
Student, module and study programme objects are created and maintained by the integration. The integration is the source of truth for these objects, so they should be maintained through the integration rather than edited manually in TimeEdit.
The exception is that the Allocate module owns the memberships (the allocations) between students and student groups.
Enrolments are relations between students and modules
A student's enrolment in a module is represented as a relation between the student object and the module object. When adding or changing an enrolment, update the relation on the student object. Allocate looks for recently updated students and automatically allocates them.
Removing an enrolment
If a student should no longer be enrolled in a module, remove the relation between the student and the module. Allocate then removes the student from the student groups related to the module — as long as the student object is not made inactive.
Students who leave the university
When a student is no longer studying at the university, remove all of the student's relations to modules and prevent the student from logging in to TimeEdit. Keep the student object active so that Allocate can deallocate the student from all groups.
TIP
Remove the student's module relations while the student object is still active, so that Allocate can clear the student group memberships, before you make the object inactive.
IMPORTANT · Inactive objects
Allocate does not handle inactive objects. If you make the student object inactive you have to remove all the memberships between student groups and the student object, as Allocate will not be able to do this.
If memberships are left in place for inactive student objects, group sizes will not match: Allocate does not count the inactive student in the group, while other modules in the TimeEdit suite do.
Students are related to study programmes
Each student can have one or more relations to study programmes. Allocate uses these relations for the rules that decide how students are allocated (dedication and distribution). The relations are created and maintained by the integration.
Staff who should only see specific modules
Staff users who should only work with a limited set of modules need a user object that is related to those modules — for example through a staff object or a department object. Depending on the number of users affected, this may need to be maintained by the integration rather than manually.
Checklist for your integration
- Objects — create and own student, module and study programme objects.
- Enrolments — add or change student–module relations, updating the student object.
- Withdrawals — remove the student–module relation while the student is active.
- Leavers — remove all module relations and block the student's TimeEdit login.
- Inactive students — remove all student group memberships (Allocate cannot).
- Study programmes — add student–study programme relations used by dedication and distribution rules.
- Staff access — relate restricted staff users to their modules, e.g. via a staff or department object.
