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Publishing module descriptions online: step-by-step guide

All undergraduate and postgraduate modules are published on our web site.

Step 1. Module approval - pre-publication process

  • Before we can publicise your module description via our online listings, it needs to receive formal approval.

Step 2. Formal notification

  • ASQ notify ER and BSIS that your module has been approved, by sending through a copy of the approved module proposal form.

Step 3. New module record created on SITS

  • Based on the approved module proposal form, a module record is created in SITS (ASQ creates ug/pg module records; BSIS creates modular certificate module records), consisting of (at minimum) a module code and approved module title. (If fees have been approved for modular certificate module, these are also set up in SITS at this point. If fees are approved after this point, they are added later.)

Step 4. Module record information appears on publications database (PDB)

  • The module record information will appear on our publications database (PDB), pulled through from SITs after the SITs record has been created.
  • Modular certificate modules are then assigned to relevant prospectus subject headings by the ERA.

Step 5. New module description set up in Plone by External Relations Administrator (ERA)

  • The details from the PDB will trigger the creation of a corresponding module description in Plone (the content management system we use to publish our online course information).
  • Using your approved module proposal form as the basis, the ERA will populate this new online module description on our development site.

Step 6. School/department online checking/amending

  • At this stage, the ERA will send the link to the relevant School/department administrator (SDA) who has been authorised to work on it in Plone. The SDA will be able to amend the content in Plone.
  • Please note: all Plone guidance and support will be provided through Yammer, our internal communications tool. If you need to be permissioned as an SDA, please contact us about our training.

Step 7. SDA approval

  • Once the SDA is happy with the module description, they will need to submit it for publication.
  • Note: you will be asked to submit the module for publication using the inbuilt workflow in Plone - all SDAs will have this authority. If you need to be permissioned as an SDA, please contact us about our training.

Step 8. ERA final checking

  • The ERA will check edited module description that has been submitted for publication. Please note: External Relations has been tasked by Birkbeck senior management with the task of converting our programme and module descriptions into effective promotional tools. Therefore, before we can approve amended descriptions for publication on our live site, we may need to edit/rewrite the text, depending on the content. In such cases, we will liaise with the SDA offline in order to achieve a result both the SDA and the ERA are happy with.