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PhD Planner Portal for Supervisors

Contents 1. Supervisor tasks ................................................................................................................................... 2

2. Log in ................................................................................................................................................... 2

3. Structure of the PhD Planner management portal (as seen by supervisors) ...................................... 2

3.1. Setup link ...................................................................................................................................... 2

3.2. My tasks ........................................................................................................................................ 3

3.3. Students ........................................................................................................................................ 5

3.4. Calls .............................................................................................................................................. 5

4. Contents of the PhD Plan .................................................................................................................... 6

4.1. Profile ........................................................................................................................................... 6

4.2. Plan elements ............................................................................................................................... 8

4.3. Progress ........................................................................................................................................ 9

4.4. Approval log ............................................................................................................................... 10

4.5. Snapshots ....................................................................................................................................... 11

5. Overview of PhD Plans ...................................................................................................................... 12

6. Email .................................................................................................................................................. 14

7. Workflow ........................................................................................................................................... 15

8. How to make a PhD Plan evaluation ................................................................................................. 16

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1. Supervisor tasks The supervisor’s main task is to evaluate the PhD Plan of his or her affiliated students. At a later date, the supervisor will also be able to handle various types of requests from the student, such as applications for leave, extensions etc.

Remember, of course, that the PhD Planner is not meant to replace regular talks about the PhD Plan between student and supervisor; it is merely meant as a convenient way of passing the regular evaluations through the entire system, from student and supervisor to programme chair and head of school.

2. Log in Log into the system by following the link in one of the two emails that were sent you, containing your username and password for the PhD Planner management portal. The first time you log into the system, you will be asked to change your password.

3. Structure of the PhD Planner management portal (as seen by supervisors) When you log into the PhD Planner management portal, you are automatically taken to the MY TASKS pane; one of the main panes of the PhD Planner. As a supervisor, you will have access to three main panes, located at the top of the screen, in the grey bar directly below the Aarhus University logo. Also in this gray bar will be the ‘Setup’ link. Be aware that users with other roles in the Planner may have additional main panes they can access.

This section provides a comprehensive guide to the contents of the main panes. You are encouraged to familiarize yourself with the contents in this section, but not necessarily to read it from A to Z. Use it as a reference in case of doubt.

3.1. Setup link The ‘Setup’-link takes you to a page (fig. 1) where you can change your password. Here you can also set up specific rules for email updates and for the tasks that show up in the MY TASKS pane. For instance you may choose only to see certain tasks by due date.

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Fig. 1. The 'Setup' screen.

3.2. My tasks For supervisors, the MY TASKS pane is the most important of the main panes (fig. 2). It contains a table which lists all your tasks. If you have many tasks, you may filter them by Role or by Status, using the two dropdown menus immediately above the table. You can also do a text search by typing in a searchstring in the third field above the table.

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Fig. 2. The 'My tasks' pane.

The table on the MY TASKS pane contains eight columns:

Due date: The date on which the task is due.

Task accounts: The department and programme to which the task belongs. Usually this will be the department and programme of your affiliated PhD student(s).

Type: Specifies the type of task. For supervisors, presently this will only be PhD Plan. At a later date, the system will be set up to handle various types of requests from PhD students, e.g. applications for leave etc. When this functionality goes live, these task types may show up here.

Person: The PhD student in question.

Subject: The subject of the request. Presently this will only be PhD Plans. The letter and number preceding ‘PhD Plan’ (fig. 2) designates the graduate school in question and the enrolment type of the PhD student.

Status: The current status of the task. When a task shows up on a supervisor’s ‘My tasks’ pane, the status will usually read ‘Awaits supervisor action’.

Comments: This column may contain a short note; either from the immediately preceding station in the workflow or even from yourself.

Select: This column contains two links. ‘Update’ is used when you wish to update the status of the task, i.e. carry out an evaluation of a PhD Plan and pass it on in the workflow (section 8). ‘View’ takes you to the student’s PhD Plan for you to peruse in connection with the evaluation. For a complete breakdown of the various parts of a PhD Plan, see section 4.

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3.3. Students The STUDENTS pane (fig. 3) currently lists all students in the programme with which you are affiliated, i.e. not only the students that you are directly affiliated with as supervisor. This is due to continuing development work on the Planner; at a later date only your directly affiliated students will show up here.

Fig. 3. The 'Students' pane.

The students are listed in a table containing seven columns:

Name: Name of the PhD student.

Account: The department with which the student is affiliated.

PhD programme: The programme with which the student is affiliated.

Status: The status of the PhD student, e.g. ‘Part A’.

Location: The physical workplace of the PhD student.

Role: Your role in relation to the student.

Select: Contains two links. ‘View’ brings you to an overview screen of the student’s PhD Plan. This is not to be confused with the ‘View’ link from the MY TASKS pane, as there are differences in the way the Plan is presented. ‘Mail’ allows you to send an email to the student through the system. See section 6.

3.4. Calls Unless you also have another role in the system, related to the assessment of PhD applications, the ‘Calls’ tab will be empty.

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4. Contents of the PhD Plan Clicking ‘View’ from the MY TASKS pane brings you to the student’s PhD Plan which contains a number of vertical tabs (fig. 4): PROFILE, PLAN ELEMENTS, PROGRESS, APPROVAL LOG and SNAPSHOTS.

4.1. Profile The PROFILE tab provides an overview of basic PhD Plan information, divided into three main sections: ‘Plan’, ‘Stage and ‘Workflow’.

Plan gives you an overview of basic information:

Name: The type of plan. Currently AU only uses one type, namely PhD Plan.

Start date: Enrolment start date of the student.

End date: Enrolment end date of the student.

ECTS: The number of planned ECTS-points in the PhD plan. o condition: The number of ECTS usually needed to complete a PhD. o completed: The number of currently completed ECTS points.

Res.env.days: ‘Research environment days’. Stays at institutions and workplaces outside Aarhus University, e.g. other universities, companies, public or private organizations, hospitals, educational/research institutions etc. This also includes compulsory changes of research environment, but excludes participation in conferences etc.

o condition: The number of research environment days usually needed to complete a PhD.

Stage lets you know what stage the current PhD Plan is on

Kind: Can be Initial (the first Plan the student creates) or intermediate (for regular half-year evaluations).

Current approval cycle: The number of the next half-year evaluation. If this is the student’s initial PhD Plan, the value will be 0.

Trial period status

Workflow tells you where the PhD Plan is currently located in the workflow.

Status: Current status of the PhD Plan. In the example shown in fig. 4, the Plan awaits supervisor action.

Location: The current location of the task.

Note: May contain a note from either the immediately previous station in the workflow or from yourself (see section 8.4.).

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Fig 4. The student's PhD Plan.

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4.2. Plan elements The PLAN ELEMENTS tab (fig. 5) gives you an overview of the various elements of the student’s PhD Plan organized in a table that also contains the planned start and end dates and the current status of each element. The status of an element may be ‘Planned’, ‘In Progress’, ‘Completed’ or ‘Discarded’.

Connected to each element is a ‘View’ link, which brings you to a more detailed screen. Also connected to each element could be an attachment, e.g. a confirmation of participation in a PhD Course, a Financing plan etc.

Fig 5. The 'Plan elements' tab of the student's PhD Plan.

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In the top right corner of the PLAN ELEMENTS tab you can see the current workflow status. In the example shown in fig 5, the plan awaits supervisor action. When that is the case, there is also a link directly to the ‘Update’-screen.

The various plan elements are:

PhD Project: The student’s overall PhD project.

Publication: Lists the student’s publications.

PhD Course: Lists the student’s PhD Courses.

Dissemination: Teaching or other types of dissemination.

Research environment: See above, section 3.1.

Other activity: Activities that do not fit in any of the other categories.

Supervision agreement: The agreement between student and supervisor for amount of supervision.

Financing plan: The financing plan for the student’s PhD. This is uploaded by the graduate school.

4.3. Progress The PROGRESS tab (fig. 6) provides you with a visual overview of the progress of the various elements of the PhD Plan. By default the overview is visualized on a quarterly scale, but you can change this by clicking the ‘by month’ link above the graph. Here you can also open the graph in a pop up window by clicking ‘Full screen’. The visualization makes use of four colours, explained in the legend below the graph.

Fig 6. The 'Progress' tab of the student's PhD Plan.

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4.4. Approval log The APPROVAL LOG tab (fig. 7) gives you an overview of the overall workflow of the PhD plan, divided into five boxes, corresponding to the stations in the workflow: ‘PhD Student’, ‘Main Supervisor’, ‘PhD Student Comments to Main Supervisor Assessment’, ‘Programme Chair’, ‘Head of School’.

Fig. 7. The 'Approval log' tab of the student's PhD Plan.

All five stations in the workflow contain the same elements, except for ‘Essential changes’ which is only available to the student to fill in:

Name and time: Name of the person responsible (i.e. student, supervisor, programme chair and head of school); date and time the Plan is passed on in the workflow.

Assessment: The overall assessment of the Plan. Depending on the stage of the PhD plan – Initial or Intermediate – there are two or three possible overall assessments to choose from:

o “Expect plan will lead to timely completion”

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o “Concerned plan may not lead to timely completion, adjustments necessary” o “Expext plan will NOT lead to timely completion, 3 month trial period necessary”.

This cannot be chosen during the Initial PhD Plan stage.

Essential changes: The student’s comments to any major changes in his or her PhD Plan.

4.5. Snapshots The SNAPSHOTS tab (fig. 8) lists a number of PDF-snapshots of each Approval log, corresponding to the number of completed evaluations. This gives a quick overview of the evaluations, from the Initial Plan onwards and makes it easier for the supervisor as well as the programme chair and head of school to track the progress of the PhD student as expressed in his or her half year evaluations.

Fig. 8. The 'Snapshots' tab of the student's PhD Plan.

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5. Overview of PhD Plans Clicking ‘View’ from the ‘Students’ pane brings you to an overview screen which provides a quick overview of the PhD student in six boxes and four tables.

Fig. 9. The boxes in the overview screen, accessed from the ’Students’ pane.

The boxes (fig. 9):

Name: Name of the PhD student Study: Contains basic information about student affiliation, enrolment type, enrolment period, status and other elements. All these elements have been explained previously (section X) and will not be dealt with in detail here.

Qualifying examination: Contains the date and status of the PhD student’s qualifying examination. This information will be uploaded to the system by an administrator.

Study conclusion: Contains the PhD student’s dissertation title, defence date and status. This information will be uploaded to the system by an administrator.

Office: University address and other contact information for the PhD student.

Home: Home address and other contact information for the PhD student.

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Fig. 10. The tables in the overview screen, accessed from the ’Students’ pane.

The tables (fig. 10):

Contacts: Contains basic information about the PhD student’s contact persons: Name, role, position, account (the department with which the contact person is affiliated) and phone number.

Plans: Contains the PhD student’s PhD Plans: Plan (name of plan), Type, Start date, End date, Status, Location (in the workflow) and a ‘View’ link. The latter takes you to the ‘View’ screen described in section 4).

Requests: Contains any requests the student may have made. As described in section 3.2, the system currently does not support requests.

Mails and documents: Lists selected documents and correspondence, e.g. the PhD Plan approval snapshots which are generated by the Planner every time a PhD Plan has been approved. Directly above this table, there is a grey box titled ‘New mail’. This is a link which brings you to the mail system in the PhD Planner (section 6).

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6. Email Clicking ‘Mail’ in the ‘Students’ pane (section 3.3.) or ‘New mail’ on the student overview screen will bring you to the PhD Planner email client (fig. 11).

Here you will initially be prompted to choose a template. Presently no templates are available, so just click ‘Select’. This opens a basic email client within the Planner. Your email address is filled in in advance, as is the email address of the student in question. You may add recipients as CC or BCC.

Remember to fill in the subject line and type your message just as you would in e.g. MS Outlook.

You may also attach a file. Click the ‘Browse’ button below the text field, choose your attachment and remember to click ‘Upload’.

Fig. 11. The email client in the PhD Planner.

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7. Workflow This section very briefly outlines the workflow of a PhD Plan assessment, since the workflow is not necessarily linear from student to school head. In fact, the system is designed so that the Plan must be returned from the supervisor to the student before it is passed on to the programme chair. This is to allow the student to see the assessment and any comments from the supervisor and to give the student a chance to make his own comments on these.

Also, there are several other steps where the PhD Plan may be returned to a previous step in the workflow for further comments or adjustments.

Step 1: The PhD student creates or adjusts the PhD Plan. He or she passes the Plan on to the supervisor.

Step 2: The supervisor reviews and assesses the plan and returns it to the student, either for comments prior to the Plan being sent to the programme chair (Step 3) or wholesale for major revision (return to Step 1).

Step 3: The student adds comments to the main supervisor’s assessment and passes the Plan on to the programme chair (Step 4). The student has a two week window to make any comments and pass on the Plan. If he or she does not do so, the Plan is automatically sent to the programme chair after two weeks.

Step 4: The programme chair reviews and assesses the Plan and then either sends the Plan to the school head (Step 5) or, if the programme chair deems adjustments necessary, returns the plan to the supervisor (return to Step 2).

Step 5: The school head reviews and assesses the Plan. He or she then has several options. The Plan may be: approved, approved with adjustments, returned to programme chair (return to Step 4) or returned to supervisor (return to Step 2). Finally, if any of the assessments from supervisor, programme chair or school head deem it necessary to begin a 3 month trial period, the school head may choose to “Start trial period”. If the school head approves the plan with or without adjustments, the Plan has finished its way through the workflow and it is returned to the student for further work prior to the next evaluation.

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8. How to make a PhD Plan evaluation This section outlines in somewhat greater detail how, as supervisor, you make an assessment of a PhD Plan. It all begins when a PhD student passes on his or her PhD Plan to you.

8.1. When you log into the system, the task will show up on the MY TASKS pane with a due date, as described in section 3.2.

8.2. Review the plan: Click ‘View’ and read all relevant material in the PhD Plan. Once you are ready to make your assessment, you click ‘Update’ – either from the front page of the ‘My tasks’ pane or from the PLAN ELEMENTS tab of the student’s PhD Plan. This will bring you to a screen, looking much like fig. 12.

8.3. Make your assessment and comments in the box titled ‘Main supervisor’. This entails two steps:

8.3.1. Make your overall assessment of the PhD student’s plan. From the dropdown menu titled “Assessment”, you choose from one of the two or three possibilities:

“Expect plan will lead to timely completion”

“Concerned plan may not lead to timely completion, adjustments necessary”

“Expext plan will NOT lead to timely completion, 3 month trial period necessary”. As previously mentioned, the latter cannot be chosen during the Initial PhD Plan stage.

8.3.2. Add your text comments in the box titled “-text”. Two headlines have been supplied in advance: “Progress of research” and “Progress of study elements”. See the short text near the top of the page, explaining what is meant by the two.

8.4. Now you may either save your current work if you do not have time to finish the assessment in one sitting, or you may pass it on to the student. For these purposes there are two yellow fields in the box titled ‘Status’. Think of the yellow boxes as a sort of digital post-it notes.

‘Current’ (awaits supervisor action): Here you can write a note to yourself in the yellow field. You may then either ‘Save’ or ‘Check and save’. The latter means that the system checks the status of any prerequisite fields, in case there are mandatory elements you have forgotten to complete. In that case, the system will alert you.

‘Next’: Passes the Plan on to the student. Here you can write a note to the student in the yellow field. You may then:

o ‘Complete assessment. Send to student’: Takes the PhD Plan to the next step in the workflow (section 4, step 3). The student will then pass the Plan on to the programme chair.

o ‘Return to student for plan adjustments’: Returns the Plan wholesale to the student for further work and requires it to be sent to you again before it can be passed on in the workflow. Clicking this button essentially returns the Plan to the very first step in the workflow (section 4, step 1). Remember to make a comment to the student regarding required changes/adjustments.

This ends your present involvement in the workflow. The task will disappear from the list on the MY TASKS pane.

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Fig. 12. Clicking the 'Update' link from the ‘My tasks’ pane will take the supervisor to this screen, where he or she can make the assessment