Terms of Reference
Terms of Reference
LERS & PRS: (Learner and Enrollment Reporting System and Program Registry System). LERS deals with enrolment and student information. PRS deals with program information. Institutions submit data to Alberta Advanced Education for inclusion in system-wide databases. These databases ensure consistency in reporting, storing and using data across Alberta's post-secondary educational institution system.
KPIRS: (Key Performance Indicator Reporting System). KPIRS uses the data institutions provide through LERS, PRS and FIRS (Financial Information Reporting System) and additional data institutions enter directly into KPIRS to calculate Alberta Advanced Education mandated Key Performance Indicators. The relationship of the databases come together to produce KPI data that is used to reward educational institutions through the KPI Performance Envelope.
SFI: (Student Feedback Instrument). The means by which students provide feedback on instruction. Student feedback shall be obtained from students in each course using the instrument approved by the Board/ Faculty Professional Standards Committee. Non instructional faculty members shall receive feedback from students in small groups, workshops or classes conducted using an instrument approved by the Board/ Faculty Professional Standards Committee. The dean and the faculty member shall both receive a summary of all data from the prescribed student feedback instrument each term.
Students:
Academic Term - The academic term is divided into three standard academic terms: Fall, Winter and Spring.
Continuing - A student who was registered during at least one academic term in the previous academic year.
F.L.E. - Full load equivalent enrollments are calculated for each student using the following equation:
Number of Course Credits/Hours a Student has Earned) / (Full Credit/Hour Load for a Student's Program)
Full load equivalents for each program are then calculated by adding together the full load equivalents for each student enrolled in that particular program.
Fall - September to December academic term.
Full-time - A full-time student is registered in courses equivalent to .300 FLE or greater.
Graduate Type - Career Certificate, Diploma, University Transfer Studies Diploma or Apprenticeship Program Completer.
Graduate - Indicates that a student has completed the requirements of a program and has received a parchment from RDC.
Headcount - A student registered in a program in a term is one headcount. A headcount can be either full or part-time.
Major - Refers to the specializations for the program in which the student is registered.
New - A student for whom there is no record of previous registration.
Part-time - A part-time student is registered in courses equivalent to .001 - .299 FLE.
Program Completer - Indicates that a student has completed the requirements of a program, but did not receive a parchment from RDC.
Program Type - Based on traditional Statistics Canada categories. Types of programs offered at RDC are: University Transfer, Career Certificate, Diploma, High School Equivalency (Academic Upgrading), Job Readiness Training, Trade/Vocational (Pre-Employment, Trade Related Upgrading) and Apprenticeship.
Returning - A student who was registered in the past but not during the previous academic year.
Spring - May to June - May to July academic terms.
Type of Student - indicates whether a student has attended program(s) at RDC and, if so, if there was a period of absence. The three types are: Continuing, New and Returning.
Visa Student - An individual who is in Canada as a Student Visa holder.
Winter - January to April academic term.
Year - A student's year level of a program.
Grade Distributions:
Grades - As of July 1, 1990 RDC implemented a letter grading system that is converted to grade point using the following scale.
Letter Grade Grade Points Description
|
Letter Grade
|
Grade Points
|
Description
|
|
A
|
4.0
|
Excellent Performance
|
|
A-
|
3.7
|
|
|
B+
|
3.3
|
|
|
B
|
3.0
|
Good Performance
|
|
B-
|
2.7
|
|
|
C+
|
2.3
|
|
|
C
|
2.0
|
Satisfactory Performance
|
|
C-
|
1.7
|
|
|
D+
|
1.3
|
|
|
D
|
1.0
|
Pass
|
|
F
|
0.0
|
Fail
|
Audit (AU) - The student takes part in course activities, but is not evaluated in any way.
Credit (CR) - The student has completed the course requirements.
Continuing (CS) - The student is in good standing, but not all course requirements have been met.
Deferred (DEF) - The student is given permission to write the final exam at a later date.
Grade Point Average (GPA) - Grade point averages are calculated by converting the letter grades to grade points, then multiplying the grade points for each course by the credit weighting for that course, and then dividing the total grade points by the total possible credits.
Incomplete (IN) - The student has not met all of the course requirements by the end of the academic term.
In Progress (IP) - The course is not officially over at the time that the transcript is prepared.
No Credit (NCR) - The student has not met the course requirements and is denied credit for the course.
Withdrawal (WD) - Withdrawal from an individual course.