AIMS FAQS for Lecturers

1. AIMS Staff Portal: aims.mak.ac.ug
Note: AIMS is self service. Whenever you forget your password, use the forgot password link to rest your login password.

2. AIMS Account Access.
For lecturers to have an AIMS account, we have a special form from DICTS that users fill. The completed form is signed and stamped by your immediate supervisor i.e. Lecturer give forms to HODs who gives consent by stating your roles, signs and stamps the form with the Departments stamp.

This is for accountability purposes. The form is then delivered to DICTS to create the users profile. A message is sent to your phone contact that you provided and email. Please write clearly so that we dont get your phone contacts and emails wrong.

Note: Email address required is strictly your institutional email i.e. @yourunit/college.mak.ac.ug

Attached in this response is the account request form and the procedure we followed to introduce AIMS to lecturers.

3. Failure to View Results
This is common in viewing sem 1 results that we are uploading using the bulk option that was added to enable us clear the backlog. Going form i.e Sem 2+ results will only be uploaded using the Assessment Method in which HODs assign lecturers their respective course units. Lecturers upload results through the Results Submission Module.

As we check what could have happened. Please take note of the following for successfull upload and viewing of uploaded results especially Sem 1.

i. AIMS takes about 15mins to display results uploaded using the bulk upload option. This method is only for Sem 1 results.

ii. The format for Course Unit Codes on the System is code without space as a separator between the string and number. I.e. CSC1100 and not CSC 1100. Before upload of Sem 1 results, reformat your codes to this standard.

Where a user uploaded results for sem1 with a space in course codes, the system is unable to return the results. A user is therefore required to edit the code on the curriculum to have the same format as that on the excel sheet that was fed into the system or forward the complaint to the AIMS team (AR-ICT or DICTS) to have the results reformated to the right code.

iii. Take note of the successfull versus the failed uploads when uploading sem 1 results on the system. Before closing the pop up, download the failed upload report and read the errors returned by the sytem to enable the registrars and or techinical team to track the problem.
For errors such as Student not known in SIC (Student Information Center), this could be due to a wrong id. Try the alternative option i.e. if user used student number, retry the upload with regNo else, confirm if the first ID used was correctly written.

For any inquiries, contact the support team to give a hand whenever you are stuck.

4. System does not accept any changes since the results were already published as final. What is the way forward on this?

• System does accept changes only if results are published as provisional.
• Users should only publish results "as final" if they are sure all is well.
• We do advise that you write to Academic Registrar and request for help. DICTS has no control over state of results so AR should be able to handle your case which (It is still a learning curve for all AIMS users).

5. Colleagues in the Department who claim to have uploaded their results for second semester, but I cannot view them as HOD. What could be the problem?

• After uploading results, a lecturer clicks the Submit Button in order for the HOD to view the uploaded results.
• Before hitting the Submit button, results remain on the lecturers side. HOD has no view at this point. This allows lecturers to freely update results through further uploads, an action that will replace the students mark without requiring HOD’s intervention.
• Once the lecturer hits the Submit Button, HOD is able to view results. Any further upload by the lecturer will not immediately affect the student’s mark. The change gets effected when the HOD approves each record that came through the re-upload.

6. I don’t have to assign for DAY, and the EVE. Can we be in position to generate a template for all enrolled students on a course regardless of whether day or evening?

• This is not possible at the moment. Why? For a user like HOD to find a certain course unit to be assigned to a lecturer, user like HOD sets a context {Campus,Academic Yr,Sem,Study Time,Department} through which the system is able to load the corresponding programs and course units.
• We can only say that this is because the behaviour is not the same across all programs. It could be that some programs dont share the same program content for day and evening thus the need for a user to select either Day or Eve.
• We have recommended changes to include a parameter like “ALL STUDY TIME” This help with merging under such scenarios.

Note: Merging is only possible on the lecturers side after HOD has assigned course units.  This is meant to help them combine 1 or more similar course units that were assigned to them so as to have a combined list to download, update and upload.