v2.1.1

This release of WAM contains some improvements and bug-fixes from v2.1.0, as well as some slight clean ups in navigation and typographical fixes, and upgrades for compatibility with Django 3.2.

What is WAM?

WAM started life as a Workload Allocation Modeller, although it is now supports the workflows around moderation and external examination of assessment, and has other features intended to provide support for Academic Schools and Departments. WAM is Free and Open Source, and is designed to be flexible to the needs of many Higher Education Providers.

More details, instructions and screencasts can be found on the project wiki.

Improvements

• Improvements to the master assessment tracking list on modules, such as:
  • There is a new option to show moderaters and coordinators to be shown (or not) from the master list, without having to drill into individual modules. This also shows the "Lead external examiner". As a result all key people are easily visible from the main list.
  • Modules can be filtered by "Lead Programme" to make it easier to see assessments for a given External Examiner.
• There are significant improvements on clarity of instructions to users at each assessment stage both within the app, and emails.
• Superusers can access all modules
• More prominent advice to use staff numbers when adding new members of staff (usually assuming you are authenticating against a corporate database).
• Assessment resources can be better handled from within the admin interface.
• When Permission is Denied, there is sometimes more information as to why.
• Fixes to be compatible with Django 3.2 have been added.

Bug Fixes

• when a new superuser is created, WAM automatically creates a matching staff record on first login, fixing a problem for completely fresh installations. (See #45)
• there is clearer handling for when an authenticed visitor has no user account created. (See #34)
• the populate_database --add-test-data command was slightly broken in 2.1.0 and has now been fixed (See #32)
• fixed deletion confirmations for assessment items.
• some recipient address were missed on sign off notification emails.
• slight improvements in "quiet" handling of assessment notification emails with the command tool.
• users marked as "inactive" are bypassed in all email communications.
• sometimes incorrect guidance was shown when there were unsigned assessments.
• cloning workpackages could be broken when items outside the package were referenced. (See #39)

and some others not worth recording.

v2.1.0

This release of WAM contains some improvements and bug-fixes over v2.0.0, as well as some slight clean ups in navigation and typographical fixes.

Improvements

• The Modules index can now be filtered by programme
• External Examiners have a much more clear and distinct menu and navigation system.
• External Examiners can be allocated tasks like other members of staff
• External Examiners can upload resources and sign them off in the same way as other staff
• A more clear and detailed warning is given when users try to add assessment items or sign-offs for packages in previous years.
• It is now possible for External Examiners to change their own work package (to any that include the groups they are a member of).
• A new Admin tab allows authorised users to more easily add other Staff and External Examiner users
• In the Advanced Admin it is now easier to filter sign-offs in case they need to be deleted.
• Where possible, assessment items will be viewed inline in the browser.
• While assessment resources can still not be deleted after they have been signed-off, WAM will prompt to confirm deletion for unsigned-off resources.

Bug fixes

• Cloning work packages didn't carry over course directors of external examiners, this is fixed.
• Some redirections due to insufficient permissions seemed to be going back to login, this is fixed.
• The new dialog for adding Tasks sometimes did not add enough groups relating to the logged in user, this is now fixed.
• Some subtle cases that could cause the functionality emailing assessment updates to fail have been fixed.

v2.0.0

This release of WAM sees significant improvements to functionality, stability, scalability and ease of installation out of the box. It also shows significant new functionality for handling Assessments being uploaded and moderated and the workflow associated with this.

There are very many fixes and improvements, but the main highlights are:

General Improvements

• There are numerous improvements in the presentation
• Pages accessed without valid users now redirect or explain this better.
• More typical "admin" features now exist integrated into the main User Interface, so as to simplify creation of Modules, Activities and similar things.
• The Wiki Pages on the GitHub site are now much more comprehensive and linked to from a Help tab in the application.

Workload Features

• Packages now allow a choice of representation by hours, or by percentages.
• Packages can now be Hidden to allow them to be worked on without causing undue speculation.
• Enhanced support for mass creation of Activities through Generators and Projects.

Task Handling

• It is now possible to easily add Tasks from the main User Interface
• Staff shown in that interface are restricted to those relevant to the logged in admin
• There is now an option to easily view Archived Tasks

Assessment Features

The features for Assessment Handling have been completely overhauled:

• Exam Trackers and Coursework Trackers have been removed
• Programmes (Courses) have been added
• Fully configurable assessment workflow has been added, this allows you to choose what states are allowed, which users can trigger each one, what next states are allowed, and who should be notified.
• As implied above, the system now emails users on Assessment updates.

Other Technical Notes

• A new management command populate_database allows for the easy creation of default configuration in a new install, but also the creation of test package data in a new, or existing system.
• There is now a (still hidden) /cadmin/ directory with better support for package migration, and creation of staff and external examiner users.
• In installations that aren't using the REMOTE_USER middleware to hook into University authentication, WAM now features fully standalone login and logout.
• Various changes required by more modern Django installations (2.1) are complete
• Slowly moving the architecture to more Class based views for maintability

Initial Release

Initial Release

This is the initial release of an Academic Workload Modelling system, though the system now has some other functions.

Main features are:

• Support for groups of staff, and separation of these groups;
• Recording modules and splitting the load against staff;
• Allocating other custom activities to staff;
• Dividing work into packages based on time and groups;
• Intelligent per package guessing of likely module loads with full overrides;
• Migrating workload from old packages into new;
• Recording task checklists for individual staff and groups;
• Automated email functionality to remind staff;
• Progress tracking for Exams and Coursework.

This is still early stage software, but we are using it in production.

This is a Python Django App, released under the Affero GPL v3 license.