MQCMS – Learning and Teaching Hub

Overview of Curriculum Management System

As part of the University’s curriculum transformation work a new Curriculum Management System (MQCMS) has now been launched. The MQCMS is a new system for all activities relating to the Macquarie University curriculum, integrating our new Curriculum Architecture Principles and approval workflows. It brings together multiple systems (such as webforms and spreadsheets) to provide a better user experience for staff and a ‘single source of truth’ for course and unit information.

This site explains how the MQCMS is being implemented in the Faculty of Arts and provides information, resources and step-by-step guides to help staff to amend units for delivery.

Faculty of Arts is taking a systematic approach whereby all changes will be made in consultation with department heads.

MQCMS submissions

In accordance with the Assessment Policy Appendix 3 Requirements for Unit Guide System , MQCMS approvals should be completed no later than three weeks prior to session start so that Unit Guides can be published for students two weeks before the session begins.

Check for outdated information

With so many changes happening around the university recently, now is a good time to check your unit for outdated information and links pointing to faculty student services and policies. Relevant, up-to-date policy links are automatically included in unit guides under the ‘policies and procedures’ section.

Minor editorial corrections to approved MQCMS unit offerings can still be made at any time up to the final approval of Unit Guides for the relevant teaching session.

Please note that these corrections will be rejected and returned if they constitute a change to any of the information in Unit Design: Unit Description, Offerings, Requisites, Learning Outcomes, Assessment Tasks, Learning Activities, Student Workload.

Please see "when is an amendment considered an editorial change" in the FAQ section below.

Step by Step Guides

Accessing MQCMS off-campus

Amendment to a unit

Overview:

Every unit will need to be reviewed and missing fields completed in the new MQCMS.

The Faculty of Arts has developed the following step by step guide, building on university MQCMS workflows.

REVIEWING CURRENT UNIT ENTRY

Log into https://goto.mq/cms by entering your MQ username and password. If you are not on campus, please follow these steps to be able to log into the system.
Search for your unit from the academic item listing.
To view the approved unit fields, click on the right-hand menu arrow, click on the three-dot icon and select “View”.
Click on "Unit Design" to see the unit details in the system.

PREPARING SUBMISSION FOR AN AMENDMENT

Gather information for the fields that need to be added or amended at the workshop using the following documents:

Template for CMS fields (MS Word)
1. If your unit is a PACE unit, check the CMS guide for completing PACE items (PDF) for info on what to put under WIL.
MQCMS Knowledge Articles
1. List of Assessments types (PDF) (refer to Assessment type knowledge articles for full description)
2. Guide to writing unit learning outcomes
3. Guide to student 'time on task' field
4. Guide to scheduled and non-scheduled learning activities
  Please ensure that your unit learning outcomes are aligned with the course learning outcomes and the assessments and learning activities are constructively aligned to the unit. You may also want to review the resources provided in the Curriculum Design section.
Refer to the Arts L&T department scan review of your unit. (Link available from your Department Administrator or Head of Department)
Talk to the Arts L&T Team if you need help to understand any information or to discuss your proposed amendments.
Review the changes with your HoD or nominee / L&T Directors / Course Director/s.

MAKING A SUBMISSION FOR AN AMENDMENT

Log into https://goto.mq/cms by entering your MQ username and password.

Search for your unit from the academic item listing.
IMPORTANT: if there is already an amendment in proposal stage, you do not need to make a new amendment, simply select view from the three-dot dropdown to edit the existing amendment.
If there is no amendment in proposal stage, click on the right-hand arrow, click on the three-dot icon and select “Amend”.
Select “Amendment” from the action select list.
Select an implementation year.
Click on “Create” button.

ENTERING AMENDMENT INFORMATION

Navigate to the section called “Templates for this proposal”.
Click on "Proposal Summary"
Click on "Edit"
Add your name in the 'Proposer' field
Click on 'Amendments' and mark the amendments you will be making
Click "Save"
Click on Unit Design
Click on “Edit” (found at the top right of each section) that you want to amend, make the amendment/s and "Save" each section of the amendment/s.
(This is the step where you would use the information you have gathered using the template from earlier step).

Note: If it is a PACE unit, there would be additional PACE fields to be filled out in the form. See the CMS guide for completing PACE items (PDF) for details.

SUBMITTING FORM

(Do this only after you are happy with all the information entered)

When you have finished all amendments, click on “Mark as Complete” button at the very top.
In the popup dialog click on “Confirm” button.
Click on “Submit” button on the upper right corner of the page.
Click on “Confirm” button in the popup box.

Note: form cannot be edited after completing the above steps.

OUTCOME

Amendment proposal will be submitted to Faculty Board Governance for review and endorsement by FSQC and approval by Faculty Board.
If the proposed changes are approved, Faculty Board Governance will mark it as Complete and the Proposer will be notified by email.
If the proposed changes are not endorsed or approved, the Proposer will be notified by email.

Proposing a new unit or discontinuing an unit

If you are proposing a new unit for 2021, please follow the steps below:

and remember to fill in all the fields.

Fields that must be completed:

The PACE designation can only be entered when creating the unit on the modal (the first screen when you click on Create a Unit)

The following fields can only be entered on the overview and feasibility tab:

FOE code
Owning Faculty
Owning Department
WIL Delivery
External Provider (this is where the OUA provider is captured)

Other fields on the overview and feasibility tab flow through to unit design but are editable there. However, filling them in on the overview and feasibility tab is not additional work to filling them in on the unit design tab:

Unit name
Unit level
Study level
Unit credit points

Adding a Reviewer to your proposal

SEEKING REVIEW BY HEAD OF DEPARTMENT or NOMINEE.

If you have a PACE unit: remember to add PACE Academic Manager in the Review Task as well as your HoD/nominee.

Assign Review Task:
1. Click on the 'Hamburger' menu at the top left next the the unit name
2. Click on the Proposal showing up on the left hand side
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to Proposal task and click on the + sign to add an review task for your Head of Department

FAQs

Flowchart of the CMS amendment process

What to do when you receive an email that your unit proposal has been returned

If your unit proposal has been returned by FSQC for revision. Please follow the following steps:

Click on the Proposal Link in the returned email (it might prompt you to login)
Go to Course Design
You should be able to see comments on the sections that need revising on the left navigation.
When you click on it, it should take you to the relevant section. Then click on the comment icon on the right side of the block.
This should display the comment made by FSQC.
Revise as necessary and make reply comments if applicable.
Then click Save in each section.
Then click Mark as Complete at the top
Then click on Submit (Submit to Faculty Board Governance)

If you need assistance working through FSQC's reviews and need help in rewriting learning outcomes or other course design aspects, please come to our drop in clinic 12-1pm Monday and Thursdays or contact Arts L&T team at artslandt@mq.edu.au

Note: if you have received an email but you are unable to edit the proposal - please email lynn.negus@mq.edu.au

Requesting a return of a submitted proposal

When is an amendment considered an editorial change

Whether a change is considered editorial in nature is variable depending on the situation.

For unit descriptions, learning outcomes, and other descriptive fields, it would be expected editorial changes to be trivial or cosmetic in nature:

Fixing typos
Correction to syntax/grammar
Correction to punctuation or other formatting
Fixing links

Changes which clarify meaning via rephrasing whole sentences should not be considered editorial. These changes can still be submitted and will be allocated to the Faculty workflow for consideration and approval.

If a change is submitted as editorial it will be allocated to a workflow which sends it to the Curriculum and Planning team for action. If C&P assess the change can’t be confidently viewed as editorial (i.e.: the change may alter the meaning of the description or LO) then it will be returned to the proposer and they will be requested to resubmit through the normal (Faculty) workflow.

Guidelines for describing online Learning Activities

For a consistent approach in naming online learning activities in the CMS thus the handbook, the faculty have developed a choice of wording for you to use:

Tool names:

Descriptors: Synchronous, asynchronous, pre-recorded, live

Pronouns: Small group, individual, all of class

Timing: Scheduled, unscheduled, ad-hoc

If you need any further clarification, please refer to the Wiki knowledge articles

Resources and Support

Project Beacon Wiki Support page User Guide for CMS Fields Arts Support

Project Beacon Wiki Support page

Program Beacon is an initiative that supports the MQ2020 Curriculum Transformation, which aligns with the Student Success Strategic Framework (SSSF). Program Beacon incorporates five interdependent projects including those listed below as well an e-student login and a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to replace Tracker and webforms. The Program is a body-of-work that includes IT projects, business process re-engineering and the redesign of service delivery focused on student success.

Visit Project Beacon Wiki Page here

User Guide for CMS Fields

Arts Support