Credit

When the provider gives a student a waiver for one or more of the normal requirements for completion of a course of study, such as not having to complete a particular unit of study. In this way, academic credit is awarded on the basis of evidence that the student has already undertaken learning that is deemed to be equivalent to the parts of the course of study for which credit has been granted.

Credit is interpreted broadly to include:

• specified and unspecified credit

• exemptions

• advanced standing

• credit transfers

• opportunities for substitute learning 

• other similar outcomes. 

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Defined in the Australian Qualifications Framework as a process through which eligibility for the award of credit is assessed, through the assessment of formal, informal, and non-formal learning. 

Paradigm concepts

There are two ways of recording Credit and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in the form of unit enrolments within Paradigm:

1. Specified credit

2. Unspecified or Block credit

The key difference is that Specified Credit is when credit is awarded toward a specific unit included on the academic course plan. In contrast, unspecified credit reflects credit that broadly aligns with the learning outcomes of the course and means the student is required to take fewer units in total to successfully complete the course.

There are implications for higher education providers with regards to TCSI and the reporting of Credit and RPL to the government.

• TCSI Early Exit Awards Packet

• https://silverband.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PKB/pages/633962555/Student+TCSI+Edit#Course-Enrolment%3A-Prior-Credit

1. Specified Credit

Providers may choose to award RPL or Credit for units that are not currently offered in the current semester or term. There are advantages in separating these unit enrolments from the remainder of the student cohort for easier internal reporting, or for those providers that use the scheduled unit maximum enrolled participant field to enforce a limit on the number of enrollments in a specific unit delivery.

Specified credit for a unit not currently offered

Paradigm supports creating a single scheduled unit for the purposes of grouping students who receive RPL or Credit for a specific unit code. This means a single scheduled unit used across multiple enrolment periods. This requires a single scheduled unit coded as follows:

• Start date and End date = set to a wide date range capturing the accreditation dates of the base unit

• Census date = leave unset

• Flexible learning mode = YES

TCSI Reporting Considerations

Non-Vet Student Loan TCSI Providers are advised to carefully code their RPL and Credit scheduled units in a way that ensures the linked student unit enrolments are not reported to the government

• Home institution = provider not linked to the TCSI reporting provider

2. Unspecified or Block credit

The most effective way of tracking block credit is as a single unit enrolment with a sum of credit set on the student unit enrolment record. This requires a single scheduled unit coded as follows:

• Start date and End date = set to a wide date range capturing the accreditation dates of the base unit

• Census date = leave unset

• Flexible learning mode = YES

By enabling flexible learning, the student unit enrolment will inherit the start date and expected end date of the course enrolment, rather than the dates defined against the scheduled unit. This is a convenient solution that avoids the need for creating multiple scheduled units for every academic term.

TCSI Reporting Considerations

Non-Vet Student Loan TCSI Providers are advised to carefully code their RPL and Credit scheduled units in a way that ensures the linked student unit enrolments are not reported to the government

• Home institution = provider not linked to the TCSI reporting provider

Grouping credit into blocks

The exemption to this would be for providers who wish to distinguish between blocks of credit, for example by discipline or academic area. In this scenario, providers will need to create multiple base units to reflect the grouping of credit blocks.

There are three fields on the base unit that are relevant:

• Unit Category

• Unit Focus:

• Unit Discipline

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AVETMISS reporting for VET providers

• Credit transfer is reported as a unit enrolment in the file NAT00120 with an outcome code of 60

• Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is reported as a unit enrolment in the file NAT00120 with an outcome code of either 51, or 52

TCSI reporting for VET providers

The Department of Education, Skills, and Employment maintains a guide for VET providers outlining their obligations for reporting Credit and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) via TCSI. Read more here.

TCSI for Higher Education providers

Both Credit and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) are tracked as unit enrolments in Paradigm but are reported via TCSI in the form of TCSI Course Prior Credit packets

Processing RPL or Credit as a new unit enrolment

1. With the student’s record and course enrolment loaded, choose the Student > Course Enrolment > Units menus on the side. Go to the ADD UNITS VIA SCHEDULED UNIT SEARCH section, enter your search criteria, and then click the SEARCH SCHEDULED UNIT button

2. After searching for the scheduled units, scroll down and put a checkmark on the unit(s) where you want the student to be enrolled as exempt, and click the ENROL SELECTED SCHEDULED UNITS AS EXEMPT button.

3. After enrolling the student to the unit(s) as exempt, you can now see in their UNIT ENROLMENTS section (Student > Summary) the unit(s) with an Exempt status. Select all the unit enrolments that you just processed as RPL and proceed to the menu options below.

4. At the bottom part of the UNITS ENROLLED BY STUDENT section, select Update Advanced Standing set fee fields to 0 and update grades option from the drop-down list and set the following fields as highlighted below. This will auto-create a prior credit packet in the TCSI Edit screen.

5. Check if the TCSI Course Prior Credit packet has been created. Refer to the workflow below.

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Processing RPL or Credit with an existing unit enrolment

1. With the student’s record and course enrolment loaded, choose the Student > Course Enrolment > Units menus on the side. It will then load a page with all the units enrolled by the student under the UNITS ENROLLED BY STUDENT Form section.

2. Look for the unit enrolment where you want to process as RPL or credit. Click the 📝 EDIT button on the right of the unit. This will load the UNIT DETAILS Form section of the student where you can edit.

3. Go to the UNIT DETAILS Form section, and update the following fields:

4. After updating the unit details above, scroll down and go to the FINANCIAL INFORMATION Form section. Set the fee fields to zero [0.00].

5. After updating all the required fields, click the SAVE UNIT ENROLMENT button to apply the changes. Repeat the process for all the other unit enrolment(s) that you want to RPL.

6. With all the intended unit enrolments to be credited processed as RPL, choose the Student > Course Enrolment > Units menus on the side. Select all the unit enrolments that you just processed as RPL and proceed to the menu options below.

At the bottom part of the UNITS ENROLLED BY STUDENT section, select Update Advanced Standing set fee fields to 0 and update grades option from the drop-down list and set the following fields as highlighted below.

7. Check if the TCSI Course Prior Credit packet has been created. Refer to the workflow below.

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Transfer Credit Internally: selected unit enrolments from one Course to another

1. Refer to the instructions on this workflow Units (Student Section) > Workflow #12: Transfer Units from One Course to Another.

2. In the Select Action to perform on Units drop-down list, select the transfer option “Transfer Credit the selected units to the degree” as specified in the screenshot below:

Transfer Credit the selected units to the degree option

Choose this option when you do not need to report the transferred unit enrolment to the government via TCSI. The government only wants to know the credit in the form of a credit packet reported against the course enrolment. The prior credit sub-packet will be created automatically when selecting this option on the Student TCSI Edit screen that belongs to the new course.

This option will copy the selected units to the new degree (course), where the old unit remains unchanged and the new unit has the status set to "transferred credit", and all of the fee fields are set to '0.00'.

3. Check if the TCSI Course Prior Credit packet has been created. Refer to the workflow below.

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Check that the TCSI Course Prior Credit packet has been created

1. Choose Student > Course Enrolment > Student TCSI Edit menus on the side, go to the COURSE ENROLMENT: PRIOR CREDIT section, if you have followed the workflows above, you should see the record(s) under this section.

To and a new record, click the NEW PRIOR CREDIT RECORD button. Enter the required details for reporting prior credits. Click the SAVE DETAILS button to save the details.

You might need to go back to the student’s main course enrolment details and save the record again to check for more TCSI messages (that need action) within Paradigm.

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