Skip Navigation | ANU Home | Search ANU | Students | Staff

Analysis of Student Performance Report (ASPR)

Analysis of Student Performance Reports (ASPR) is a system designed to automate and standardise the reporting of student performance within the Faculties. ASPR uses Excel 2000 macros to modify data downloaded from the Student System on the administrative mainframe and tally, summarise, and format this data into a presentable report.

User Manual

The Analysis of Student Performance Report (ASPR) uses an Excel 2000 Macro to produce its results. As a security measure, Microsoft sets security so that Excel will not launch macros when opening program files. In order to launch the macro for this report, the user must enable macro security. To do this, open Excel 2000 or later version, go to Tools, Macro, and Security… You can see the navigation in the picture below.

Once security is clicked, a dialog box will appear with three choices for security.
High security is the Microsoft default and this will not launch macros upon opening the Excel document.
It is recommended that Medium security be used. This will mean that each time a Microsoft Excel document with a macro is opened the system will deliver a warning (seen in the Running the ASPR section below) that it is about to launch a macro. Each time this occurs the user will need to confirm this is appropriate.
Low security is not recommended, as it does not provide adequate security for viruses.

 

Running the Report in Student21

The first step in running the Analysis of Student Performance Report (ASPR) is to generate the raw data from the Student 21 system. The report is located at the following navigation:
GO, MANAGE STUDENT RECORDS, ESTABLISH COURSES, REPORT, ANU PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Add a new control ID or use Update Display if one currently exists.

Select the appropriate criteria on the run control panel. The report can be run by specific academic organisation (ANU for all Organisations), Academic Group, Term or Term range, Subject Area, Catalogue Number, Class Number, and Academic Career. The example above would bring back data on Undergraduate students in any courses "owned" by the Faculty of Arts for first Semester 2002. Use other criteria combinations to yield the data you desire.

Press the run report button  . This will bring up the following dialogue box:

Enter in Run Location of Server and a Server value of PSNT. The Output destination should be set to file and the File/Printer value should be a persons university identification number including the "U". Once completed press OK to run the report.

The report sends a comma-separated value (CSV) type file to your report viewer. The file will be called ANU0939_YYYYMMDD_XXXXXX.csv. Where YYYYMMDD represents the date and XXXXXX represents the process instance number assigned by Student21.

Once the report has been generated you will need to download the file to your local workstation. To do this, press the Download button circled in the illustration above. Once completed, you should get a message like the one below.

Once downloaded, the CSV data file will reside in the folder C:\Temp\Reports\ on your workstation hard drive.

Downloading the ASPR

Once you have generated the data for the report, you will need to download two excel files from the web. These files work together to create a formatted Excel file using the data that you have downloaded from Student 21. Download the Macro which is a self-extracting zip file. Follow these steps to get the appropriate files on your local hard drive.

This dialogue box will appear when you click on the link. Choose the option to run this program from its current location. (You can save the exe file to your hard drive, but it will create an extra step in the process).

Once the selection is made press OK. You will receive a warning like the one below:

Simply press YES to install and run the self-extraction process.

The self-extracting program will ask where you would like the Excel files place. You can place them anywhere on your local workstation. It may be easiest to send the files to the same place the data will be kept - C:\TEMP\REPORTS\. Press the Unzip button to place the files in the selected folder.

Running the ASPR

The ASPR can be run by simply opening the file Analysis of Student Performance.xls from windows explorer. Go to the drive where the file was downloaded and double-click the file.

The system will display a standard warning about enabling macros. You must select Enable Macros in the dialogue box.

Once you enable the macro the program will prompt you for the Input and Output files. Use the select file button to browse your workstation folders for the file.

Input File. This is the name of the file into which data from Student21 has been downloaded; in our example this folder is C:\TEMP\REPORTS\. If you are not sure of the file name, you may select it from a list of existing files by pressing the Select file button - this will bring up another screen that will allow you to choose the correct file.

Output File. This is the file where the Analysis of Student Performance Report will be stored - the default will always put in the same location as the input file. The name is close to identical; the output file is saved as an XLS type file, however. You can change either location or the filename by typing over what is desired. The output file is an Excel spreadsheet and will contain both detailed and summary information about student performance. Please note that if the nominated Output file already exists then you will be asked whether or not you want to replace this file at the end of processing.

Once the Excel files have been downloaded, this process will not need to be repeated unless you are notified that a new version is available.

Processing Student Performance Data

OK Button. Once you have selected the Input and Output files you start the processing by pressing the OK button.

Cancel Button. Clicking on the Cancel button will cause the ASPR macro to terminate. This will leave you in Excel with no worksheets.

During data processing a blue screen with the words "Please Wait" will be displayed. Depending on your computer, it could take several minutes to complete.

When the process has finished, the ASPR will be displayed on your screen as an Excel spreadsheet - it will also have been saved as the Output file. There are tabs (worksheets) at the bottom of the spreadsheet the first labeled Summary and other titled according to the academic organisations reported in the output - clicking on these tabs will allow you to swap between these screens.

The Organisation worksheets contain the complete information on student performance broken up by course, with totaling information appearing at the end of each section.

Examples of both the summary and organisation worksheets are pictured below:

 

You can print any screen in the usual way by pressing on the print toolbar button or by selecting the Print... option from the File menu. When printing the entire workbook, be aware that if many organisations were requested in the criteria, the report can be very long.

Understanding Report Outputs

Summary - The report summary worksheet summarises all results by academic organisation. Each row of data represents a department on this summary report. Total rows, represented in light green, summarise the departments listed above it. The light green rows are representative of the Faculty or School level. The summary worksheet will total figures for the entire report; there will be no break down on a term-by-term basis. To find view analysis for individual terms, specify one term in the selection criteria when requesting data for the report.

Detail - Detail pages display data for each Faculty or School level organisation requested in the report. Reports will have one or more of these worksheets, each labelled with the title of the academic organisation. The detail worksheets contain information about each individual course within a department, for a term or range of terms. Light green summary lines on these worksheets represent totals for the departmental level. So essentially the summary and detail worksheets are different levels of the same data. The data on the detail worksheets "rolls up" in the summary level.

Report Fields - Report fields are essentially divided into two major categories. The fields in columns B through Q on the summary worksheet and D though S on the detail worksheets analyse data against the total number of students enrolled. The columns to the right of those areas on each of the worksheets provided information based on the number of students sitting the examination.

The report fields themselves use terminology unique to the report and are described below for clarification.

Description Fields

Academic Organisation (summary worksheet only) - This field is the Long description of academic organisation.

Course (detail worksheets only) - The subject and catalogue number of course being reported.

Course Description (detail worksheets only) - The long description of the course.

Term (detail worksheets only) - The time period the course was offered in. This could be a standard semester or non-standard semester or a research quarter. Values in this field are determined by the selection criteria used in the generation of the original data file in Student21.

Percentage of Number Enrolled Fields

Effective Enrolments No. and % - This is the total enrolments at census date for a given course. Drops after census date would incur a WD or WN depending on when it occurred and would be included in wastage categories described below. The percentage for this figure is always 100, representing the total number of enrolments other figures are based upon.

Sitting No. and % - This represents the number of students with results other than WN, WD, WL, or NCN. Taking the Effective Number of Enrolments and subtracting Wastage 1, Wastage 2, and NCN's results would allow the user to reconcile this figure. The percentage is taken from the total sitting divided by the effective enrolment number.

Wastage 1 No. and % - The Wastage 1 figures represent the number of students who have withdrawn from the course after census date. These student would receive a result of a (WN/WD). The percentage is calculated by dividing the total Wastage 1 figure by the effective enrolment number.

Wastage 2 No. and % - The Wastage 2 figures represent the number of students who have withdrawn late (after results were released) with special circumstances. These student would receive a result of a (WL). The percentage is calculated by dividing the total Wastage 2 figure by the effective enrolment number.

Fail NCN No. and % - This figure represents the number of students receiving and NCN result. This result is given when students have not completed certain required aspects of a given course. The percentage is calculated by dividing the total NCN figure by the effective enrolment number.

Did Not Sit Fail No. and % - This is a subset of the Wastage 1 figure. It represents those students who withdrew from courses after the penalty date had passed and received a WN result. The percentage is calculated by dividing the total Did Not Sit Fail figure by the effective enrolment number.

Sat Fail No. and % - This is the number of students who completed the course and all its requirements and received the fail result, N. The percentage is calculated by dividing the total Sat Fail figure by the effective enrolment number.

Results to be Finalised No. and % - This number represents the total number of results that have either not received a result or have received a continuing result (RP, DA, WA, PX, WF, TS, TE, TA, IP, KU, RC, EE). The percentage is calculated by dividing the Results to be Finalised figure by the effective enrolment number.

Percentage of Number Sitting Fields

High Distinction No and % - This is the number of high distinction results (HD, H1) given. The percentage is calculated by dividing the High Distinction figure by the total number sitting.

Distinction No and % - This is the number of distinction results (D, H2A) given. The percentage is calculated by dividing the Distinction figure by the total number sitting.

Credit No and % - This is the number of credit results (CR, H2B) given. The percentage is calculated by dividing the Credit figure by the total number sitting.

Pass No and % - This is the number of pass results (P, CRS, PS, H3) given. The percentage is calculated by dividing the Pass figure by the total number sitting.

Sat Fail No and % - This is the number of fail results (N) given. The percentage is calculated by dividing the Fail figure by the total sitting number. Please note the total figure here is identical to the Sat Fail number described earlier, however the percentages might be different.