Grahame Cooper1

The Salford University Technical System for

its Workload Balancing

ModelGrahame S Cooper

University of Salford

Grahame Cooper2

IT System Design Principles

• Based on basic model structure in next slide

• Structured to support School operations– Additional structure to support summary/review

• Support local variations within model

• Support University-wide analysis & coordination– Including inter-school activities

• Central database subordinate to School spreadsheets– The School spreadsheet is the master document.– Central database provides linking, reports & backup

Grahame Cooper3

Basic Structure of the Model

Staff

Mar

y

Fre

d

Alic

e

Geo

rge

Nic

hola

Edg

ar

9 5

18

13

Activities

Course tutor

Module 1.2 - Knitting

. . .

. . .

. . .

“Effort”

14

13

. . .

. . .

. . .

Single “currency” for all activities(nicknamed: “Wammie”)

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Structure of the School Spreadsheet

Activity data

Staff data

Other Schools

Workload allocations

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Workload Spreadsheet

For summary/TR

Initial load

AdjustmentActivities Actual

Allocations

ManagementRoles

AcademicEnterprise

Block Activities

Dissertations

PublishingPhD

Supervision

Research

FundedProjects

Presence

StudentNumber

Credits

InitialFigure

AdjustmentActualFigure

Taught Modules

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Activity Summary Table

Mapped into TRAC return headings

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Module Workload Coefficients

• Define up to 3 sets of coefficients to approximate different learning/teaching methods

• Coefficients set by the School– Flexibility (subject to viability)

(Initial) Workload = WC*C + WCN*C*N

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Percentage Workloads

“Standard Workload”• Usually set to median for school

Used to calculate percentage workloads:• Head of School (50%)• Unit of research allocation (10%)• Dean (75%)

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Using the Spreadsheet

Calculate new standard workload

Allocate all or part of the current activity (inserts a formula)

Show or hide columns

Set or clear the activity leader

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Allocating workloads

E.g. allocate 60% of a moduleto a staff member

E.g. allocate the rest (40%)to another staff member

E.g. allocate a whole activityto a staff member.

E.g. Use for dissertations,Project supervisions, etc.

Workload per dissertation

Total no of dissertations

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Integration via University Database

School1

School2

Faculty2 School3

School4

Database

Faculty1

Workload InformationInter-School Information

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Reports

• Individual staff workload profiles

• Inter-school activities

• Status report

• Staff workloads summary

• Workload allocations by activity

• List of activities

• More can be added later

Database

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Workloads Chart

±5% about standard workload

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Process Monitoring

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Inter-school provision