Online Option Choice – Troubleshooting

Introduction
This guidance is for Academic Departments/Schools, Service Desk,Academic Registry (Registry Support System Analyst Team) and ADM (Application Design & Maintenance) staff when troubleshooting Option Choice queries.

Useful InformationAssociated with Option Choice:

  • The URL to the Option Choiceservice is
  • The URL for continuing students to change existing passwords is
  • The URL for continuing students to reset forgotten passwords, who have set password secrets, is
  • The URL for Unit Web Search is

Registration Queries

  1. Login Errors - these queries should generally originate with the Service Desk on extension 7777

Message to Students:

Error Message - ‘Your login was unsuccessful’
What does this mean?

  • The student’s username or password is incorrect

How can these queries be resolved?

  • Service Desk should check whether the account has been created
  • If an account has been created and the student is using the wrong username or password
    Service Desk should deal withthe incident
  • If an account has been created and the student is using the correct username and password, the incident should be assigned to EPS/IS.
  • If an account has not been created, the incident should be assigned to ADM

Only continuing students will be using the service therefore it is unlikely there will be login problems encountered with students using this service.

  1. Plan Curriculum Service Unavailable (person already registered)-these queries should generally originate with the department

Message to Students:

Plan Curriculum Service Unavailable (option choices already submitted)

What does this mean?

  • The student has already chosen their options and is trying to access the service again

How can these queries be resolved?

  • The department should ask the student if they have already chosen their options and establish why they are attempting to access the service again.
  • Check to see if options have been chosen by going into Student Records and looking at the Planned Curriculum from the student’s current record or into the Control Centre.

Otherwise:

  • If the student has not accessed the service the incident should be reported to your RSSAas there may be an underlying issue with the student’s record
  1. Plan Curriculum Service Unavailable (no courses to register to) – these queries will generally originate with the department

Message to Students:

Service Closed for 2016 Option Choice

What does this mean?

  • The end date has passed for the period which the service has been made available for.

How can these queries be resolved?

  • The students will not be able to access the online service to select their options. The department will select options on behalf of the students.
  • Very few queries should generate from this error
  • If the student reports seeing this error before 01/03/2017 please contact with details of the student’s course.
  1. Plan Curriculum Service Unavailable (personal records) - these queries should generally originate with the Department

Message to Students:

Service Unavailable: You are not at the correct status to use this service. Please contact your Department

What does this mean?

  • The student must have a status of Registered to be able to access the Option Choice service

How can these queries be resolved?

  • The Department will need to check the student’s status. If the student is not Registered then the Department will need to explain to the student they will be unable to use the service. If the student has a WOS status they will need to make good on the withdrawal of service before they can use the Option Choice service
  • If the student is Registered query will need to be referred to Academic Registry (RSSA)
  1. Service Unavailable (next year course instance does not exist) – these queries should generally originate with the Department

Message to Students:

Service Unavailable (next year course instance does not exist)

What does this mean?

  • The course instance does not have an entry for the following academic year or the institutional calendar is not set up

How can these queries be resolved?

  • The Department will need to contact their RSSA to ensure the course instance has been created. This should not be an issue as course changes would have been made and signed off against the following year’s instance.
  • Academic Registry will also need to check the Institutional Calendar (INSTITUTION_CALENDAR) to ensure the correct years have been entered
  1. Service unavailable (no course instance passed) – these queries should generally originate with the Department

Message to Students:

Service Unavailable: Please try again later.

What does this mean?

  • There is a problem with the server not passing the information across to the live service.

How can these queries be resolved?

  • Contact o will raise a request through Service Desk to check the set up of the service
  • RSSA could run through the service with a test student in the live system to see if the problem is widespread
  1. Service Unavailable for the Course Instance – these queries should generally originate with the Department

Message to Students:

Service Unavailable for the Course Instance. Please contact your Department

What does this mean?

  • The course instance has not been attached to a course group in the live service. The instance needs to be added via the Control Centre and applied to the live service template.

How can these queries be resolved?

  • Check the student’s record to note the course and instance they are currently registered to. The student must be registered and continuing on the course in the following year.
  • Contact check the course instance is attached to the course group in the live service in the Control Centre.
  1. Error upon pressing SUBMIT – these queries should generally originate with the Department or Service Desk

Message to Students:

Error (followed by a long coded error message)

What does this mean?

  • Once the students have pressed the submit button after selecting their options they are presented with an error message and unable to continue. This is caused by the workflow not being set up properly.

How can these queries be resolved?

  • Contact check the workflow set up against the service in the control centre.
  • The service has been tested with a test student in the live system and the error did not occur. This would be an issue for the service as a whole and not specific to courses or student data. Therefore we do not anticipate any errors of this kind appearing upon submit.

General Queries- these queries should generally originate with the Department

Issues arising within the Option Choice Form

  1. A student’s personal or course details may be incorrect on the Course Information page in the Option Choice form

How can these queries be resolved?

  • Department should be able to resolve these queries or contact RSSA for assistance
  1. Students may experience problems completing the Option Choice form. Typical problems may arise with:
  • Not understanding/knowing the answer to the question or the options that are to be chosen

How can these queries be resolved?

  • Department should be able to resolve these queries

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