Sisu instructions: Managing teaching and the registered students

You can see your ongoing teaching on the front page of Sisu when you log in to Sisu and change yourself to the user role of a teacher in the drop-down menu under your name.  

You can open the teaching’s information on the front page by clicking the arrow after the teaching’s name. You can access the teaching’s (or the implementation’s) more detailed information by clicking View credit info. You can edit the descriptions of the implementation outside of Sisu on the course pages. See the user instructions for the course pages.

You can see past and upcoming teaching in more detail by opening the My teaching page from Sisu’s top bar. On the My teaching page, your teaching is divided into five categories based on the phase of its registration and the stage of the assessment. Only five implementations under each category are displayed by default. To view more of them, click on the Show More Implementations link at the end of the category. By clicking a name of a course you can access more detailed information about the course, such as the list of participants and the evaluation actions.

You can filter courses displayed in the categories by typing in the Search and Filters field the name, code or type of implementation you want. By clearing the search box you will see all your own implementations again.

• Upcoming implementations category includes courses for which the registration period has not yet begun.
• Registration category includes courses for which the registration period has started, but the teaching has not. Here are also the courses for which the registration period has ended, but the teaching has not yet begun. For each implementation, you will also see how many students have already registered and how many of these registrations have yet to be confirmed. By clicking on this additional information, you can directly access the implementation's Registered tab.
• Ongoing implementations category includes courses for which teaching is ongoing. For courses that have a late registration ongoing, you will see a notification The late registration period is ongoing. By clicking on the notification, you can directly access the Registered tab of the implementation.
• To be assessed category includes courses which have ended under six weeks ago. Below a course's name you can see how many participants there are on the course. By clicking on the information, you can directly access the assessment tab of the course.
• Archived, cancelled and finished implementations category includes courses that have ended at least six weeks ago.

Note: If a course uses direct confirmation of registrations, i.e. registrations are continually confirmed even after the course has begun (e.g. Examinarium exams), it will be displayed at the same time in both Ongoing implementations and To be assessed categories until the course has ended.

You can find the students that have registered for your teaching or exam on the Registered students tab of each implementation. Teachers can also manually confirm and add new students to their courses. Registration policies vary between the degree programmes, so make sure to check with your educational planning officer how registrations are handled in your degree programme. You can find their faculty specific contact details on the page Teaching programmes under the heading Contact details for timetabling officers.

Checking the information of the registered students

When you click on a student in the list of participants, a student-specific information window opens, where you can find:

• information related to the student’s study right,
• a link to the student's completed studies,
• the teaching group selections the student has made, and
• the answers for possible registration questions asked upon registration.

Note: Student data is personal data and should only be processed for the purposes for which it is intended and as required for the purposes of the current job. You can read more about data protection and the principles of processing personal data on the Data Protection for Teachers page.

If the student has been asked to notify the language of learning upon registration (e.g. for exams), it can be seen in the list of participants in its own column after the registrations have been confirmed. The link Show the language of learning selections of accepted students opens an information window where the language selections are on their own tabs.

Download the teaching’s list of participants 

New: You can now order the participant list from the Course Pages that will be sent to your email. This list also contains the enrolment questionnaires and the prefilled SIMU-sheet can be used to save and import the grades to Sisu. Please note, that the participant lists are only sent three times a day, so there might be multiple hour delay before you receive the list.

You can also create the participant list directly in Sisu. The Create a CSV file of the students button creates a participant list that opens in Excel, where you will find, for example, the students’ email addresses as well as the confirmed groups for each student after the registrations have been confirmed.

The list of participants can also be utilised in evaluation, see the more detailed instructions for evaluation here.

Statuses of the registered students and editing them 

Upon registration, Sisu checks that the student has a valid study right, that they have been registered as attending for the duration of the implementation and that the course is a part of the student’s study plan. In addition to these, additional requirements might have been defined for those who are accepted for the implementation, such as compulsory prior studies or being a part of a certain target group. Based on these checks, Sisu sets a student’s status as one of the following: 

• Candidates = the student fulfils the course’s criteria and can be selected for teaching when the registrations are confirmed. If there are more registered students than there are available spots, the students will get selected on random from the candidates who fill all the required criteria. Sisu displays the status for each student based on the current situation. The status for each student is open for change whenever more students register the course.
• Requirements not fulfilled = the student does not fulfill a criterion set for the course, such as a valid registration as attending or the student has not added the course to their study plan or has registered through a wrong version of the course (see more detailed information about the selection criteria here)
• Confirmed registrations = a student’s status when the registration period has ended and the registration has been confirmed. In certain cases, an administrator can mark students as confirmed also manually.
• Rejected = a student’s status when the registration period has ended and the student has not been selected for or there was no room in the teaching. You can read more about the most common causes of rejection in the Instructions for students: What should I do if my registration is declined?

In addition, after the teaching has started, a student can discontinue their participation on the Study calendar page or they can be marked as discontinued by the teacher or administration.

Changing the students’ statuses 

A teacher and an administrator can change the status of students’ registrations as follows:  

• Select over others = when the registration period is ongoing, a student can be marked as preselected. When the registration period ends, the preselected students will be accepted first for the course in the final count
• Cancel preselection = a preselected student can be changed back as a candidate with this feature
• Mark as rejected = the student is not selected for the course and the student’s registration is rejected after the registration period ends
• Mark as discontinued = when the teaching has started, you can mark a confirmed student as discontinued, and the student will be moved to the “discontinued” section. After the teaching has started, a student can discontinue the course themselves.
• Mark as confirmed = this will move the student directly to the confirmed section. This might be useful if you need to bypass a certain selection criteria that otherwise prevents a student from being accepted, or if a student needs to be moved from the rejected section to the confirmed section.
• Remove from implementation = this can be used to delete the student’s registration. Should only be used if you have, for example, added a student to a wrong implementation. If a student has dropped out from the course, it is better to mark them as discontinued.

Adding a new student

Students should first try to register themselves independently, so that it is made sure the student has added the study unit to their study plan. However, if there is a need to add a student’s registration, it can be done by using the add a new student -button.

• First search the student by using either their student number, name, or their e-mail address. If the student has multiple active study rights, you have to choose one of them to which the student’s registration will be attached to.
• Also add group selections for the student if there are choices to be made and choose to which version of the study unit the registration will be attached to. The version should be the same that the student has in their study plan. If you add the registration to a different version than the student has in their plan, the student’s registration will go to the requirements not fulfilled section, from which you may have to manually move the student to the confirmed status.
• NB. If a student is manually accepted from the "requirements not fulfilled" section, they will be placed in the groups they fit into according to their preferences. If the student does not fit into any selected group, a red warning triangle will be displayed in the confirmed section on a per-student basis. From the "Edit student's teaching groups" window behind the button on that row, you can place the student in teaching groups with available space, thereby removing the warning triangle.
• NB. There needs to be seats left in the course for you to be able to add new students.
• NB. If the implementation is open university teaching or co-organised as open university teaching, do not add students to the course by yourself. You can recognize open university teaching based on a notification 'The course implementation is part of Open University product packages' that appears above the tabs.

Changing the group selections 

If there are group selections made by the students related to the teaching, you will see the student’s preliminary group placements during the registration period in the section Students by teaching group if the registrations were confirmed now. 

The Show students assigned to the teaching groups button opens up a new window where you can view the students by teaching groups in more detail, and you will see how many students are placed in each group and with what group selections. No more than the maximum capacity of students can be placed in a group (or an implementation). 

Group selections are not meant to be edited per se, but the student will make their own group selections and Sisu places the students in the right teaching groups in a priority order. If there is a need to get a specific student on the implementation, it is better to use the preselection (select over others) or an administrator can mark the student directly as confirmed (mark as confirmed).  

However, group selections can be edited in situations where 

• the student cannot edit their group selections themselves (e.g. the registration period has ended, registration has not been confirmed yet).
• if it is necessary to balance the groups, as Sisu does not automatically equalize the groups to the same size. Sisu can create very differently sized groups, if the students' group selections allow it.
• the teaching group is cancelled after the registration period has ended, and the group selections have to be changed. 

You can edit group selections student-by-student on the student’s line from the Edit the student’s teaching groups section found behind the three dots. 

You can see the status of the registration on the Registered students tab of each implementation, above the list of participants.

The phases of registration are described as follows: 

Registration has not started yet
The registration period has not started yet. An administrator sets registration periods and settings for the implementation. 

Registration is ongoing
Students can register for the implementation, update their group selections and cancel their registrations. If the registrations are confirmed only after the registration period has ended, the registered students can be seen in the list of participants during the registration period either in the section “candidates” or “requirements not fulfilled”. If the registrations are confirmed immediately, the students can immediately be seen in the section “confirmed registrations” or “rejected” during the registration period. 

Registration is being confirmed
The registration period has ended, but the registrations have not been confirmed yet. The registrations can be confirmed either automatically during the following night after the registration period has ended or manually. If the registrations are confirmed manually, it is advisable to do so soon after the registration period has ended, so the students receive the information about whether or not they were accepted for the course as soon as possible.  

Confirmed
After the registrations have been confirmed, the students can be seen in the “confirmed registrations” and “rejected” sections.  

If necessary, a late registration period can be set for the implementation, which opens after the actual registration period. Empty places in the course can be filled up with the late registration, and those who have registered during the late registration period are confirmed immediately, if there are still places available on the implementation. In addition to the late registration, an extended cancellation period can be defined for the implementation, during which the students can cancel their registration even after the confirmation. The late registration and the extended cancellation functions do not have to be used.

The academic administration is responsible for defining registration periods in Sisu. 
 

After the registration period ends
When the registration period for the course has ended, the registrations are confirmed either by Sisu the following night automatically or manually by the teacher or by a member of the staff. The selection method used in each course differs, and you can check the method used in your course from the Registration section in the implementation information.

Automatic selection = Sisu selects as many students from the candidates who fill all the selection criteria as there are available spots in the course. Selection is based on the preferred group selections of the students as well as any pre-selections done by the teacher.

Manual selection = after the registration period is over, the teacher or the staff updates the registration status and confirms the selections. Before the selections are confirmed, it is possible for the teacher to still mark students selected over others in the candidates section, for example.

1. Choose Update registration status. Refresh the page after a moment to see the results.
2. Choose Confirm participants.
3. A summary of the students to be selected pops up.
4. In the pop-up window, choose Confirm selections.

An administrator sets registration settings and selection criteria for implementations. If necessary, contact the Training Officer in questions related to these. 

When a student registers for teaching, Sisu automatically checks certain criteria upon registration in order for the student to be selected for the teaching. 

Basic requirements that are checked in all registrations: 

• The student has a valid study right 
• The student has registered as attending 
• The course is a part of the primary study plan 
• The course’s mandatory preliminary information are fulfilled (if preliminary information has been defined) 

In addition to these mandatory basic requirements, course-specific requirements can be defined that are the primary basis for selecting students for the course. When registered students are selected for the course based on these so-called sorting criteria, the registration order of the students does not matter. The students are selected only after the registration period has ended based on how they fulfill the criteria set for the course.

Sorting criteria can include: 

• Being a part of a target group 
• The course’s recommended preliminary information 
• Credits completed for a degree 
• Confirmed participation for teaching 
• The student cannot be selected for a parallel teaching 

If the course’s participants are confirmed immediately upon registration, only the basic requirements above are checked from the registered students and the sorting criteria are irrelevant.

If there is room in the implementation after the registration period has ended, a student will be selected even if they do not fulfill the sorting criteria. Sorting criteria can be turned into prohibitive criteria, when only students that fulfill all the criteria will be selected. 

Registrations for courses and examinations can be confirmed after the registration deadline or on a rolling basis. The instructions on this page mainly apply to the confirmation of registrations after the registration deadline.

Normal registration means that registered students are selected and registrations confirmed after the registration deadline. In normal registration, it is also possible to choose whether to use automatic or manual admission, in other words, whether registrations are confirmed automatically after the registration deadline or whether the teacher or the faculty’s Student Services staff separately review registered students and confirm registrations manually. The registration deadline must precede the beginning of the ‘implementation’ (i.e., a course or examination in Sisu). After the actual registration deadline, late registration may be permitted, for example, for a week or, if preferred, until the end of the implementation. During the late registration period, any remaining places will be filled in order of registration, which means that registrations will be confirmed on a rolling basis.

If registration is based on direct confirmation (i.e., registrations are confirmed on a rolling basis), the student’s registration is approved or rejected at the time of registration. Students who meet the basic requirements are admitted to the course immediately if the groups they selected have places available. Ranking criteria are not taken into consideration. Students can cancel their registration until the beginning of the course. Registration may continue throughout the course. For further information, please see ‘Continual confirmation of registrations’.

Registrations for courses may also be confirmed on a rolling basis in a process known as direct confirmation. This means that registrations are approved or rejected as well as confirmed immediately at the time of registration. The direct confirmation method is used most for examinations taken in the Examinarium facilities, which require that registration remains open throughout the examination period.

A registration can be accepted if the student meets the basic requirements and if places are available in the group they have chosen. For the basic requirements, please see ‘Selection criteria and checks related to registrations’. Ranking criteria are not taken into consideration because registrations are confirmed immediately, preventing the ranking of registered students.

The stages of registration based on direct confirmation differ from those of regular registration. The direct confirmation process has no stages involving the confirmation of registrations because they are always confirmed immediately as students register. In regular registration, registrations are not confirmed until after the registration deadline.

Under ‘Teaching calendar’ in Sisu, you can see your upcoming, ongoing and past courses in calendar format when you have selected the courses and groups to be displayed from the calendar on the right-hand side of the page. You can view the calendar one week or month at a time. You can also export the calendar into your electronic calendar.

By default, no courses are shown in the calendar. You can select courses and teaching groups on the right-hand side of the page.

1. Start by selecting the ‘Upcoming’, ‘Ongoing’ or ‘Past’ tab.
2. Select the course by clicking on the arrow next to its title.
3. Activate the selection by clicking on ‘Show events in the calendar’.

Repeat for all courses and groups you wish to select. Please note that all sessions for the selected group will be displayed in the calendar even if you are indicated as the teacher for only some of them. Cancelled teaching sessions appear in the calendar with the status ‘Cancelled’.

You can view detailed information on an individual teaching session (e.g., course, group and venue details as well as any additional information) by placing the cursor on it.

You can export sessions displayed in your calendar to your electronic calendar by clicking on the calendar link.

1. Click on ‘Export into external calendar’ above the calendar.
   
   
   
    
2. In the window that appears, click on ‘Copy’.
   
   
   
    
3. Open your calendar application and add a calendar subscription.

For instructions on how to import information from another calendar to your Outlook calendar, please see the website of the University’s IT Helpdesk: Synchronising different calendars. Instructions for using other calendar applications can be found in their user guides.

You can see the title and venue of the course as well as the name of the group directly in the calendar view of your electronic calendar. By opening the description, you can view any additional information provided for the teaching session.

You can also create a calendar subscription from Optime, the system used to plan practically all of the University’s courses with a set timetable. Instructions for using the Optime calendar can be found on Flamma: Room reservation and teaching calendars in Optime.

You can send messages from the implementation for the registered and for those students who have not registered yet but have added the implementation to their calendar in Sisu. A message can be sent from the implementation’s Messages tab.

Note! Messages sent through Sisu are only visible to students in Sisu, and no separate email notifications are sent.   

When you are sending a new message, first define the recipients with the terms of your choice, and finally click Add to recipients, and the message’s send button will activate. Students that have been selected for the implementation are the recipients by default.  

All messages that have been sent are visible in the Sent messages section.  

In addition, Sisu sends automatic messages. Automatic messages are sent to the registered students in the following cases: 

• The status of the implementation is changed from published to cancelled 
• A teaching group is cancelled 
• The location information of a teaching group’s time series is changed 
• The timing information of a teaching group’s time series is changed 
• A teaching group’s separate teaching time’s teaching place changes 

Automatic messages are send to the students who are going to be selected for the implementation (teaching group) or who have been (pre)selected or already confirmed. Messages will not be sent to the non-selected, rejected, discontinued or to those who are not going to fit in the implementation. The message is visible to the student on the front page and in the messages. The messages cannot be replied to. 

In addition to Sisu’s message functions, you can contact students with, for example, the email addresses available in the list of participants or through the course pages. Communication is also possible through the Moodle pages, if such has been connected to the course.  

All Sisu instructions for teachers can be found on page Sisu instructions for teachers.

See also Frequently asked questions about Sisu.

Students' user instructions can be found on Instructions for students, on page Sisu instructions for students.