Overview

Paradigm records a variety of time periods which gives meaning to specific dates or date ranges in your business or institution. It also allows you to configure the time periods to meet the business requirements of your institution, and at the same time comply with government reporting. This article provides detailed workflows on how you can Search, Edit and Create Time Periods in Paradigm.
Complexity Medium

Navigation

1 Assumptions
2 Key Terms and Concepts
3 Implications
4 Related Pages

Workflow

1 a. Add New Academic Year
2 b. Add New Academic Term
3 C. Add a Census Date
4 D. Edit Configuration Period
5 how to Edit a Time Period’s Start and End Dates

Videos

1 How to Add New Academic Year/Term
2 How to Add New Census Dates

Assumptions

Your Paradigm user account is able to access the System menu;
You are aware that making changes to form fields has system-wide implications; and
You have an understanding of the Australian Tertiary Education System / VET Sector.

Key Terms and Concepts

Time periods include the following:

Academic periods
Census dates
Invoicing dates
Invoicing periods
Timetabling periods
Scheduled units search date ranges

Summary of Time Period types

A variety of time periods may be recorded in Paradigm allowing the system to associate meaning with specific dates or date ranges. This information is used across the system including government reporting, student course and unit enrolment, and scheduling units.

Time Period Type	Description	Recommended

Time Period Type	Description	Recommended
Academic Term	A generic record to define the start and end date of the following: term, semesters, trimesters or time period	Yes
Academic Year	A record to define the start and end date of an Academic Year, which may or may not align with a calendar year	Yes
Census Period	The last day to withdraw without incurring a FEE-HELP debt	Yes (for Higher Education Providers)
Configuration Date	A configuration time period is a set of dates that control specific site functionality	Yes
Dates used to populate default date ranges for reports	Some reports require date parameters for population
Enrolment Period	The Dates between enrolments will be accepted
Examination Period	The dates between when exams will be conducted
Teaching Period	The dates from commencement to the end of the teaching period
Timetable Period The dates from commencement to the end of the teaching period. NOTE: This parameter also controls what report information / student / course statistics is displayed on the staff dashboard reports.

Summary of Configuration Periods

Paradigm contains a number of special time periods, called configuration periods, that control specific areas of system functionality for example the course outline screen for online unit enrolments. Some of these configuration periods are also used in various system generated reports to limit the contents of a report when a user does not declare a specific date parameter such as a unit enrolment start date or a census date.

The Student load on the student summary information specifically the Part/Full time displayed in the “Classic records loaded” is derived by Paradigm based on the true EFTSL enrolment of the student in question by summing up the EFTSL on the scheduled units that sit within the dates specified in the time period called “SEMESTER_LOAD_PERIOD”.

Key Term (Time Periods Id)	Description

Key Term (Time Periods Id)	Description
UNIT_ENROLMENT	It controls the scheduled units the student can enrol from the course plan.
ENROLMENT_PERIOD	Period that opens or closes the course plan to students [opens and closes online enrolments for students].
TIMETABLE	A set of dates that controls which scheduled units are showing on the Student and staff View Timetable screens. It controls the session start and end dates imported from Rapla. The start date of a student’s unit enrolment must equal or sit within the beginning of the specified time period - ‘TIMETABLE’.
SCHEDULED_UNIT_DATES	The default start and end date for scheduled units.
SEARCH_SCHD_UNT_DATE	Default dates used on scheduled unit search fields across the site when the user does not specify a date. It should be change every year to the current year.
MOODLE_EXPORT	Dates for what data is sync via integration to a Moodle or other external site
INVOICING	It is used to the invoice time period when creating invoices, if a student’s unit enrolment sits within the window of the Invoicing date range defined in the system. This applies to both bulk invoice and manually raise the invoices.
INVOICING_DUE_DATE	An override can be used on the invoice to put on invoices.
Statement Of Fees	It controls what unit enrolment to put on the Statement Of Fees report that is printed for student. It is commonly called as Proforma Invoice.
CAN_CENSUS_PERIOD	It is used to control the units put on a CAN Notice when running the CAN report to send to students.

Implications

NOTE:

Incorrectly setting configuration periods may adversely affect the following system functions:

Invoice generation;
Student and Contact user personal timetable views;
Unit enrolments performed via the Course Plan; and
Controlling access for students to make unit enrolment changes via the Course Plan.

BE ADVISED:

By default Time Period Editing is only available to users with full admin permissions. Time periods contain critical information within the system and should not be changed by users who have lower permission levels.
When dates and periods are set incorrectly this will cause issues, incorrect data will have a flow-on effect to other periods, dates and settings.
Please ensure that new dates and periods are created in advance to allow for future functions e.g. Scheduling, enrolling (Academic Years, census etc).
Ensure that old dates are set to hidden for the convenience of other users.
Please note there are different types of time periods. Some are created multiple times and once created (unless there has been a mistake) never altered (except to archive). e.g. Academic Year, Academic Term, Census date, census period.
Others are configuration periods e.g. Invoicing period, CAN census period, Application Portal etc. These are set up in consultation with the institution when the system is initially set up. These time periods only have one per system and are updated (rather than created) to reflect the new time period.

Workflow

a. Add New Academic Year

You can add a new Academic Year in Paradigm in two ways: Follow workflow 1 if you have existing Academic Year records in the system. However, if you want to add a new Academic Year from scratch [if you don’t have any existing records yet], follow workflow 2.

Workflow 1 Add New Academic Year with existing records

1, 2, 3 Choose System > Edit Time Period > Set Type: Academic Year.

4 Click the SEARCH TIME PERIODS button.

5 Select the previous Academic Year record from the list of academic records which are being displayed after clicking the SEARCH TIME PERIODS button. You can also filter the record by typing the year in the Filter Box, this will display the Academic Year records of the year that you specified.

6 Click the EDIT button on the right of the Academic Year record that you’ve chosen to start editing.

7 After clicking the EDIT button, a TIME PERIOD DETAILS Form will appear below the SEARCH TIME PERIOD Form, showing all the fields to be edited. Change all the fields which have the previous year's data to the new Academic Year that you want to add.

8 Click the SAVE TIME PERIOD button to create the record.

_{back to top}

Workflow 2 Add a New Academic Year with no existing records

step 1 Navigating in Paradigm to add a time period

1, 2, 3 Choose System > Edit Time Period > Click the ADD TIME PERIOD button.

step 2 Filling out the TIME PERIOD DETAILS Form

After clicking the ADD TIME PERIOD button, a TIME PERIOD DETAILS Form will appear below the SEARCH TIME PERIOD Form, showing all the fields to be filled out to add a new Academic Year. Follow the guide below in filling out the fields.

Fields with * are marked as required.

4 Time Period Id* – It is highly recommended in this field to use the acronym AY for Academic Year followed by an underscore, and then the year of the Academic Year that you want to add. The format to be followed should be like this: AY_YEAR. In the example below, since the user is trying to create a new Academic Year for 2022, the field is being filled out as AY_2022.

5 Parent – Leave this field blank, as the newly created Academic Year will serve as the Parent period.

6 Organisation – Select your organisation/institution from the drop-down list.

7 Type* – Select the Academic Year from the drop-down list.

8 Number – Set this field to 1.

9 Name* – Copy the data from the Time Period Id field to the Name field. In the example below, AY_2022 from the Time Period Id field is being copied to the Name field.

10 Label* – You can set the label to this format: Academic Year YEAR. In the example below, it’s set to Academic Year 2022.

11 From:* AND the To:* – Enter here the Start Date and the End Date of the Academic Year that you want to create.

12 Visibility* – Set this field to Visible if you want your newly created Academic Year to be available and ready to use.

step 3 Click the SAVE TIME PERIOD button, to create the Academic Year record.

_{back to top}

b. Add New Academic Term

You can add a new Academic Term in Paradigm in two ways: Follow workflow 1 if you have an existing Academic Year with Academic Terms record in the system. However, if you want to add a new Academic Term from scratch, given that you already created a new Academic Year with the instructions above follow workflow 2.

Workflow 1 Add New Academic Term with existing records

1, 2, 3 Choose System > Edit Time Period > Set Type: Academic Term.

4 Click the SEARCH TIME PERIODS button.

5 Select an existing Academic Term record from the list which are being displayed after clicking the SEARCH TIME PERIODS button. You can also filter the record by typing the year in the Filter Box, this will display all the Academic Terms records of that year that you specified.

6 Click the EDIT button on the right of the Academic Term record that you want to edit.

7 After clicking the EDIT button, a TIME PERIOD DETAILS Form will appear below, showing all the fields to be edited. Change all the fields which have the previous year and term/semester data to the new Academic Term/Semester and Year that you want to add.

Overview

Assumptions

Key Terms and Concepts

Implications

Workflow

a. Add New Academic Year

b. Add New Academic Term

C. Add a Census Date

D. Edit Configuration Period

how to Edit a Time Period’s Start and End Dates

Videos

How to Add New Academic Year/Term

How to Add New Census Dates

Related Pages