Compass

Project Compass was established in late 2018, with the following vision:

“In partnership with students, Project Compass aims to streamline and improve the way students discover and use support services at Flinders, improving their student experience, enhancing their sense of belonging to the University community and supporting their success”.

Significant discussion was had with students to understand what success as a student of Flinders University means to them, how we can help them accomplish their goals and what they consider pain points on their journey to success. This information was used to inform the design and development of a digital personalised ‘one-stop-shop’ for students where they can access numerous university systems and services, and information to support their student journey.

You may also have heard of Compass referred to as the ‘Student Portal’ project. 

Members of the Student View Group (SVG) were invited to enter a ‘name this project’ competition in the early stages of the project. Nominations were voted on by the SVG with ‘Compass’ winning the most votes.

The rationale behind the name: "Compass - as we are providing guidance and direction to develop and transform the student experience at Flinders. Also ties in with Matthew Flinders’ role as a navigator and cartographer, where we are a reference point, mapping and planning our voyage together as to how this may be achieved." – Tom, Student View Group

In March 2021 a survey was sent to all students via Ping (the all-student newsletter) asking for their input on the naming of the soon to be released personalised webpage. Approximately 70% of respondents supported Compass as the name of the personalised webpage.

Compass has been designed to lead a student to content and systems they access on a regular basis, from a single location. It does not replace the Student System or Okta, but makes it easier for a student to find where they need to go.

Integration with University systems, including those of the Library, PrintCard and the exam timetable system, may be possible in the future.

The Project has been student-centred from its beginnings. When the Project commenced, a Student View Group (SVG) was established to provide input on the scoping and design of various project deliverables and to validate student requirements were adequately addressed. The SVG consists of a broad cross-section of students, including domestic, international, undergraduate, postgraduate, HDR, on-campus, regional and online students. Importantly, there is representation from all colleges.

Student consultation has been central to the project with the SVG meeting monthly and a number of surveys, focus groups and other student engagement activities conducted with the broader student population throughout the life of the project. These activities maximised the project’s ability to understand and meet the needs of the student body. In addition, two student representatives have sat on the Project Compass Board throughout the duration of the project.

One of the key objectives of Project Compass was to streamline and improve the ways students access information, support and services at Flinders. Consistent student feedback has been there are too many systems and websites to navigate, causing confusion and frustration.

One way Compass addressed this feedback was by consolidating the information contained across the Orientation and MyFlinders websites, into the student website. This will simplify and improve the way students access information at Flinders.

Yes. Take a look at the information in the personalisation FAQs below to see what information is personalised to different student cohorts

Step 1 (Welcome), Step 2 (Accept/Defer offer) and Step 6 (Orientation) are not FAN protected because students may access these pages prior to activating their FAN and therefore they need to be visible without the requirement to log in.

Steps 1 and 2 provide the option to select the ‘type’ of student, i.e. domestic, international or higher degree by research. This will display information specific to those cohorts.

Step 3 (provide detail), Step 4 (plan studies) and Step 5 (get enrolled) are FAN protected as they include personalised student content (that requires the student to have activated their FAN and logged in). They are also FAN protected to safeguard Flinders’ intellectual property.

Step 1 (Welcome) is not FAN protected because students may access this page prior to activating their FAN.

You can see what a student sees by visiting the welcome page

Step 2 (Accept or defer) is not FAN protected because students may access this page prior to activating their FAN.

You can see what a student sees by visiting the accept your offer page

Step 3 is FAN protected as it includes personalised student content (that requires the student to have activated their FAN and logged in).

Below are links that will allow you to see what different types of students will see when logged in.

The plan studies page has several personalised elements that will only display to students.

Under Step 1: Understand your course rule, all students will see their course rule/s.

Under Step 2: Review your course study planner students will see details of their college and a link to their college course advice officer.

The course advice officer button will link to their respective course and subject advice page. Please see hyperlinks below:

• College of Business, Government and Law
• College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
• College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
• College of Medicine and Public Health
• College of Nursing and Health Sciences
• College of Science and Engineering

The get enrolled page is the same for both domestic and international students. You can view the content by logging in with your own FAN and password.

Step 6 (Orientation) is not FAN protected because students may access this page prior to activating their FAN.

You can see what a student sees by visiting the orientation page

There are various error messages that may be displayed as follows:

It appears that you may not have a timetable right now.

This message is displayed if the person logging in does not have a student ID number (e.g. staff), if they are yet to enrol in any topics, or they fall into one of the student cohorts that does not have a timetable. 

There seems to have been a problem. Please try refreshing your page.

This means that an error has occurred retrieving the students data. Refreshing the page may fix this issue. If it does not, please see ‘How can students access support for Compass?’ FAQ.

If the student is admitted to a course, currently enrolled in topic/s and importantly, registered for classes, but their timetable component is not displaying any data, the following may apply:

The student is enrolled in topics in which all teaching is delivered online

As topics conducted entirely online do not have scheduled classes, there will not be any timetable data to display, as is so in the Student System.

Medicine students

As medicine students have their own timetable (MD timetable) that meets the current needs of this cohort, medicine students will not see data within the timetable component of Compass. Instead, they should continue to use the MD timetable application. This timetable is available in the "Systems bar".

The student has recently registered for classes

There may be a delay of up to 30 minutes for new data in the Student System to display on Compass.

If none of the above apply, please see the ‘How can students access support for Compass?’ FAQ.

There are various error messages that may be displayed as follows:

You do not currently have any admitted courses. If you have just accepted your offer please check here again in an hour.

This message will be displayed to prospective students who have a student ID number but have not yet been admitted. This will also display for students who have completed their course or any other courses status such as AWOL and Leave of Absence.

We didn't find any courses for you at this time.

This message will be displayed to staff if they are not also a student, or if a system error occurred when Compass attempted to retrieve the information from the Student System.

If the student is admitted to a course and currently enrolled in topic/s but their course and topic component is not displaying all their topics, it may be because they have just enrolled. The system can take up to 30 minutes to display the new data from the Student System.

If this is not the reason, and the student’s enrolment looks correct in the Student System, please see the ‘How can students access support for Compass?’ FAQ.

Some students are enrolled in a mix of online and internal topics.  Additionally, in the future Compass may be expanded to include key dates and examination dates which will benefit all students irrespective of cohort and attendance mode.

After Compass officially launches to all students (on 17 May), staff will be able to log issues on behalf of a student via Service One.

Alternatively, staff can direct students to do this themselves via Service One which can be found on the "Systems bar" on the student site. If the student cannot access the student site, they can contact the Service Desk by calling (08) 8201 2345.

Student data will only be collected in line with the University’s privacy policy. Cohort level data will be used to improve the provision of information to students (e.g. how many HDR students have visited the Compass page), however visits to Compass by individual students will not be tracked.