Departmental Assessments System (DAS)

The Departmental Assessments System (DAS) is part of the Corporate Information System (CIS) and as such is linked directly to the University student record. DAS enables departments to locally record and maintain assessment and examination results for their UG and PGT students on CIS, without having to continue to maintain separate standalone systems and upload/download student records data. Student results data, down to the level of module assessment components and individual exam questions, once loaded is also displayed on CIES, thus making viewing this data more accessible to academic staff, personal tutors etc. Related uReports are also available for use at departmental examination boards and for data checking etc. A document, available from the downloads box on the right, provides more detail about what DAS encompasses and the benefits of the system. A summary of the principal benefits is listed below:

• DAS is part of the University's Corporate Information System (CIS).
• Responsibility for maintaining the system and backing up data lies with CICS.
• DAS links automatically to comprehensive student records and registration data already loaded by central services onto CIS.
• Departments set up and maintain their own ‘Reference Data’ for each module to be assessed.
• Bulk creation of assessment records for students registered on a module can be created very quickly.
• Loading results is straightforward and underlying calculations are consistent and robust.
• Amending results is straightforward and does not require paper copy Amendment Forms.
• Confirmation (‘Upload’) of results to Taught Programmes Office is much simplified.
• Notes (medical, personal, extenuating, special circumstances etc.) can be loaded at various levels within DAS to give a comprehensive student history.
• Student results data can be reported/viewed in a variety of ways.

A copy of the Departmental Assessments System (DAS) User Manual is also available from the CICS website (click on the link in the See Also box on the right and then scroll down to the section 'Using CIS')

A large number of academic departments across the University are now using DAS to record and maintain results for UG/PGT students. If you would like further information about how DAS works and/or a demonstration of the system or you wish to discuss being set up to use the system, please contact Andrew Stainforth in CICS (Ext. 21115)

email : a.stainforth@sheffield.ac.uk