Heidelberg Campus Online FAQs - Lecturers and Employees

Are old courses imported from LSF?
From the coming summer semester 2024, no courses will be imported from LSF. These courses will be newly created by you and your institution. Older courses that are linked to examinations will be imported from LSF to heiCO by your institution's course data migration or have already been imported. We generally recommend that you do not use imported course data for future courses, as LSF and heiCO are not directly compatible and experience has shown that the data may be transferred incorrectly. 

Is the input of Semester hours per week a mandatory field?
Unlike in LSF, entering the SWS at various points in the system is mandatory and not optional. Without this entry, an error message is generated and you cannot create a course.

What is the "supervising organization" and what is the "examining organization"?
When you create a new course in the “Course administration” application, the "responsible organisation" and the "examining organisation" can be found in the "Course parameters" (basic data of a course). Both organization types are already preset to your organization. The "responsible organization" is the organizational unit where the course is located and is therefore also visible to students via heiCO. Unlike in LSF, it is not possible to assign a course to several organizations in heiCO. Accordingly, the "examining organization" is the organizational unit where the exam is located. As a rule, these organizations should be identical.

When and where are courses assigned to modules of a study and examination regulation?
You can link a course to a study and examination regulations (SPO) template as soon as the course has been created. To do this, you must have access to the “SPO Management” application with your authorizations. You will find the corresponding click instructions called “Linking a course to a template in the study and examination regulations (SPO)” on SharePoint (Our SharePoint instructions have not yet been translated and are only available in German). This process is also discussed in the training block Courses - Advanced. You will also find an overview of the processes for creating courses on Sharepoint.

How is the “course number” for courses put together? 
Each course has a unique ten-digit course number that you assign yourself. Our recommendation is to take the first four digits from your organizational unit (service key). You can choose the other six digits freely and either think of a logical sequence within your organization or click on the "next free number" button if the number does not fulfil an important function for you. However, the old LSF numbers cannot be adopted, as the limit of ten digits was often exceeded. 

Can only digits be entered for the course number?
Theoretically, you can also use letters, but we do not recommend this. The use of letters can lead to problems, e.g. with subsequent or existing exports or reports, particularly in external systems. The extent of the associated problems and the resulting workload, including in the decentralised areas, is difficult to estimate at this time, so our urgent recommendation is: Please only use numbers.

What is the difference between the “Report course” and “Approve course”?
Reporting a course is an internal organizational process that is a preliminary step to publishing and releasing the course. As a rule, once a course has been reported (meaning registered), the course has been created and contains all the important data (lecturers, content, room, times, days, etc.). In accordance with the four-eyes principle, another person can now check whether all information is correct and complete. Only then can a course be "approved" by a person with the appropriate function (authorization). The course is only visible to students once it has been "approved". This was previously done centrally by LSF for all subjects; in heiCO, the courses are activated by you and are therefore visible to students from the moment the courses are "approved". 

Are "tags" linked to certain functions/rights so that not everyone can assign "tags"? Is it possible for one person to create a "tag list" for the entire organization?
“Tags” can be created and edited by all those who are authorized to edit courses. A "tag list" can currently not be created automatically, as "tags" are entered at the level of each individual course. However, you can manually create such a list yourself after searching through each course. Students have the option to search for tags (through the "Courses" application). Students can search for tags within both an organizational unit as well as for the entire university.

Is it possible to specify dates for a course without already having a classroom for it?
Yes, this is possible. You can create both individual and series dates for a course and select “Room not yet known” for the room. You can add a room later. 

How do room bookings via heiCO work?
All rooms at Heidelberg University will be displayed in heiCO once your subject has been integrated and can then also be booked there. Independently of heiCO, the role and authorisation concepts of Heidelberg University still need to be defined and implemented for this purpose. 

I don't see my organization's rooms in the "Resource Management" application. What could be the reason?
There may be several reasons for this:
1) Each room is assigned to an organizational unit. If a room is assigned at "Faculty level" but you have the "VLM-Raummangement" function (authorization) at institute level, you will not be able to access the rooms that are located at faculty level.
2) If you have not yet found rooms that you need for teaching, you can use the “Resource Management” application to “create/select new resource". For this purpose, you will find the corresponding step by step instructions in “Create authorization profile” on SharePoint (Our SharePoint instructions have not yet been translated and are only available in German).

Are rooms imported from LSF?
Rooms with their basic data (e.g. room code, room size, number of seats, etc.) come from Heidelberg University's central room management system (CAFM) and are imported centrally into heiCO or synchronized with heiCO. You can view this basic data university-wide in the "Rooms" application.

In the "Resource management" application, I do not see any people for selection in the contacts. What could be the reason for this?
You will only see people in the selection if you have previously assigned people to the “Administrator” profile (people who are responsible for room management) in the "Authorisation profiles". You will find the corresponding click instructions “Create authorization profile” on SharePoint.

How do I find out whether I have been allocated a requested room?
As soon as the person responsible for room management from whom you have requested the room allocates the room to you or rejects your request, you will receive a corresponding e-mail. This topic is covered in the training block “Rooms and resource management - Processing room requests”.

Creating and editing exams

I can't find the course for which I want to create an exam. What can I do?
Please check:

• Have you selected the correct organisational unit in the exam administration? Does the course belong to the organisational unit for which you have the rights to create exam dates?
• Have you selected the correct exam type (course exam/module exam)? 
• Are you looking in the right semester or academic year? Remember that in heiCO the academic year 2023/24 comprises the winter semester 2023/24 and the summer semester 2024.
• If you are searching with a word from the title of the course, remember to place an asterisk (*) before and after the word, depending on whether the word appears anywhere or at the beginning of the title.

What is the difference between course exams, module exams and partial exams?
The course exam refers to the content of a real course that was created in the course administration, e.g. a written exam at the end of a lecture. A subject/module exam makes it possible to record an exam achievement without a specific course. Subject/module exams can be created and managed in the Curricula Management application. If you require subject/module exams, please contact the heiCO team. If several exam dates are planned for a course, all of which contribute to the assessment and are held or processed individually as separate exam dates with separate registration/deregistration periods, these are mapped as partial exams.

In the course, students can receive different numbers of ECTS points depending on their performance or earn different achievements (term paper and written exam or written exam only). How can this be reflected in an exam?
If students perform different tasks or receive different assessments or ECTS points, a separate exam must be created for each variant.

EXCEPTION: If the course results in different ECTS in different modules and is modelled in this way, only one exam can be created with the same grading scale. The system automatically draws the ECTS from the modelling.

If a course can be taken in different contexts, do I have to create a separate exam for each context?
No. The course, and therefore the exam created for it, is automatically linked to the contexts via the so-called identity code and the templates.

How can I edit an exam that has already been validated?
It is not intended that a complete exam can be changed after it has been validated. If this is necessary, please contact the heiCO team. However, you can correct the results/achievements of individual students yourself. You can find the corresponding click instructions on Sharepoint: heiCO Anleitungen - Prüfungsverwaltung, "Anleitung - Gültige Leistungen korrigieren".

I only see a selection of exam dates in the overview of exam dates.
Check whether the display is filtered.

Assessing Exams

How can you search for created exams, e.g. to grade them?
Under Exam administration, go to either “Create/edit exams” or "Assess exams". You can use the filters in the top row of the table to restrict the overview of exams to the exam you are looking for, e.g. by filtering specifically for a lecturer or for the title of the course.

Can I export several candidate lists for assessment at the same time?
No, you can only export one candidate list per date.

Do I have to enter all assessments at once?
ANo. Both in the system in the mask and when importing grades, you can proceed piece by piece. The import can be repeated as often as required and you can also print an exam protocol and validate the exam in the next step if not all assessments are available. In this case, the system will ask you what to do with the ungraded students. Select the option to move them to a copy of the exam date.

See the instructions “Anleitung - Prüfung bewerten und gültig setzen“.

What do you enter if students do not attend the exam?
If students do not attend the exam without an excuse, the assessment will be set to “X Did not attend” either linked to a 5.0 or with the addition "Attempt counts". If a certificate or an excuse is available, "Q Withdrawal with recognised reason - Q No assessment" is selected. If there is no certificate, but the attempt should still not be counted, you can assign the assessment "RUE Withdrawal - z withdrawn".

• X Did not appear - 5.0 not sufficient
• X Did not appear - X did not appear (attempt counts)
• RUE Withdrawal - z withdrawn
• U Invalid/deception
• Q Withdrawal with recognised reason

Can I enter an achievement without an exam?
It is possible to freely enter achievements, e.g. for an internship. You can find the corresponding click instructions on Sharepoint: heiCO Anleitungen - Prüfungsverwaltung, "Anleitung - Nacherfassung von Leistungen und Praktika".

Correction of Results

How can grades or ECTS awarded be corrected retrospectively?
Both grades and credit points can be corrected retrospectively. You can find the corresponding click instructions on Sharepoint: heiCO Anleitungen - Prüfungsverwaltung: "Anleitung - Gültige Leistungen korrigieren" and "Anleitung - ECTS-Credits korrigieren".

If the credit is a recognition or an individual achievement (with proof), it can only be corrected in the Recognitions/Achievement supplements application. To do this, the achievement must first be rejected so that it can be processed. You can find instructions on how to do this on Sharepoint: heiCO Instructions for exam administration: "Anleitung - Anerkennung von Leistungen" or "Anleitung - Nacherfassung von Leistungen und Praktika". 

Under “Correct valid results” I cannot find the achievement I want to correct.
In this case, it is probably a recognition or an achievement supplement. Both can only be corrected in the Recognitions/ Achievement supplements application.

Student counselling

How can you tell if students have almost reached the maximum number of failed attempts?
The permitted failed attempts for exams are recorded in accordance with the curriculum regulations. In the student file, you can see the number of attempts for each student in the "All exams" tab at the back of the exam list under "Attempt". 

The number of attempts can also be displayed in the list of candidates for an exam. To do this, click on the "Settings" tab at the top and select "Change". The columns of the exam list are displayed here. Scroll down and search for "Attempt (course)" and click on it. Click on the green arrows to specify the position in the candidate list. Finally, click "Save and Close".

Students have changed their specialisation (e.g. 1st Main subject to 2nd main subject or from 50% to 75%). Do I have to recognise all achievements individually or even add them late?
No. There is also a tool for quickly transferring achievements. However, in doing so, they are deleted from the previous degree programme. The following therefore applies:

• Create a transcript before you transfer the achievements/recognitions to the new degree programme.
• Go to "Change degree programmes" under "Correct valid results". Select the origin and destination degree programme and start the correction process.

I would like to change the curriculum version in heiCO for individual/several students at my institution. What is the best way to do this?
At the moment, it is not possible to change the curriculum version in the seminars/institutes independently, which is why we are happy to do this for you. Simply send a list of the students to be changed (name & matriculation number) and the version of the desired curriculum version to the heiCO Helpdesk - we will then implement the change as quickly as possible.

Important: This only applies to changes to the version of a curriculum (e.g. change from 20171 to 20232) - other changes such as (e.g. change of the entire curriculum or Bachelor's degree weighting change) are still "real transfers" and are made by application.