Introduction to Paradigm

Overview

This article outlines the expected heading structure, layout and style of all public-facing articles within Confluence.

Complexity: Low

Page Contents

 

 

Key terminology

In this section, important key terms and concepts involved in the process of carrying out the tasks explained in this Knowledge Base will be listed, and each of these concepts and terms will be explained.

It is recommended to use table for convenience when it is appropriate.

 

Key Term

Definition

Further Reading

Key Term

Definition

Further Reading

Student

Students are the learners who study at an institution



Provider

Describes the organisations that have relationships to people reflecting some form of service they provide in an education context.

Examples of services include a campus, a higher education provider, work experience business etc.



Base Course

A term used interchangeably with program that describes the awards, non-awards, programs or courses offered by a provider.



Course Outline

The visual representation of a student course enrolment that consists of rules to govern course progression.

Base Unit

Describes the learning outcomes and accreditation information for units, subjects and modules that form one or more programs.

Base Assessment

Describes the specific assessment tasks associated with a unit. Assessments include items such as essays, quizzes, exams etc.

Scheduled Unit

The record of what units are offered and how they are offered for a specific time. Key fields include start date, end date, delivery mode, and delivery location.

Scheduled Assessment

The record of how assessments are delivered for a specific scheduled unit.



Fee rules

A rule based approach that uses matching criteria to dynamically calculate unit tuition fees.

Course Enrolment

Describes the academic progression of a specific student in a specific course or program

Unit Enrolment

Describes the academic progress in a unit of study for a specific student in a specific course

Code Item

One of four potential ways that Paradigm builds drop-down menus for display on the user interface. Code items are grouped by type.

Status Item

Status items represent one type of drop-down menu within Paradigm and are used to reflect the last and best known state of a record. Most records in Paradigm may be assigned a status.

Contact

A contact is a non-student user who may or may not have an account to directly access Paradigm. Examples of contacts include administration staff, lecturers, teachers etc.



Time Period

Time periods are records that capture meaning against specific dates or date ranges. Time periods are used to control specific system functionality such as the course outline, or to capture the academic calendar in the form of terms, census periods and academic years.



Grade table

This record reflects the grade schema used by Paradigm to calculate academic outcomes at an assessment and a unit level. The grade table may also be used to calculate GPA or to associate specific academic outcomes with enrolment status codes.

HEIMS Question

Fields that capture information for government reporting may be edited from within Paradigm to improve the user experience.

Communication Event

The means for sending communications to students from within Paradigm.



Report Builder

A graphical tool to build ad-hoc reports that are categorised and saved for use later.



Report Generator

The reporting engine within Paradigm that uses Jasper iReport templates to build complex letters or PDF reports.



Jasper iReport

A 3rd party open source application used to build report templates in XML format for use within Paradigm



Import Wizard

A complex visual tool for power users to quickly import data into Paradigm.



Invoice

The primary record that describes the financial position of the student from the perspective of the education provider. This is a core component of the accounting module featured within Paradigm.



Payment

A record that describes a transaction involving money between the provider and the student or potentially another provider acting on behalf of the student.





Visualising How the Data Sits

This page describes in easy-to-understand language the core data relationships featured within Paradigm and how they relate to specific groups of information such as students, units, courses, and providers.

 

Further reading

Now that you have an understanding of the basic principles, terms and structures contained within Paradigm, we recommend continuing your journey by reading the following pages: