What is OPUS-College?

STUDENT MANAGEMENT

I NFORMATI ON SYSTEM

OPUS
-
College

Overview


What is OPUS
-
College?


What functionalities does it offer?


What is the history of OPUS
-
College?


What are the technical characteristics?


How can it be customized and extended?

What is OPUS
-
College?

„OPUS
-
College“ is a web
-
based management information system to store
and analyze data concerning:



Students

(Personal data, study plans, marks, ...)



Curriculum

(Study programs, courses, examinations, ...)



Lecturers

(Personal data, contracts, ...)



Organisational units

(Schools, departments, ...)



OPUS
: „
Op
en
U
niversity
S
ystems“

What functionalities does it offer?

Example setup of role responsibilities:


Central registry:

Admission, certificates, organizational unit
information



Decentral (schools/departments):

Curriculum (structure of study
programs, subjects), (academic) staff information



Lecturers:

Course descriptions, marks entry, personal data



Studierende:

Query own study progress (marks)


Opus‘ flexible authorization system controls access to data

Opus‘ reporting engine makes data available: e.g. Student lists, statistics

What is the history of OPUS
-
College?


Point of departure: Development cooperation project 2006
-
10; with
universities in
Mozambique

and
the Netherlands


Enhancements for
Zambia

2011
-
13

Supporting two different educational systems: Portuguese and English based


Interest is shown from universities in a variety of countries


Homepage:
www.opuscollege.net


What are the technical characteristics?

OPUS
-
College is published under Mozilla triple license
(MPL/LGPL/GPL)


Based on open source components


JAVA
und
Spring Development Framework


PostgreSQL

(database)


iBatis

for the persistence (mapping application
–

database)


JasperReports

for the generation of automized reports


Apache Tomcat
as the web server


A
web browser

for the user interface

(no further software needs to be installed on user PCs)

How can it be customized and extended?


OPUS consists of modules


Kernel/college,


report


fee


scholarship


accommodation


admission


Country
-
specific modules (e.g. zambia)


Uni
-
specific modules (e.g. cbu) to customize for example the student number format


Additional modules are possible



„Extension point“ concept


Extension points allow to customize or extend existing functionality, for example adding
own reports


Additional extension points can be made available at any time