This article provides guidance on accessing and using Students and Modules, the Power BI app developed by iSolutions to replace WEBSIS.

Moving from WEBSIS to “Students and Modules” in Power BI

Students and Modules is a Power BI app written and maintained by the Business Information and Insights team within iSolutions.  It is designed to replace the old Java App called WEBSIS.

WEBSIS can no longer be maintained or developed by iSolutions. Students and Modules gives staff a simple web-based interface to selected records from the Banner Student Information System. Students and Modules allows users to perform searches for groups of students based on popular criteria and download, cut and and paste or email individual students or groups of students using Outlook.

---

Back to the top

 

Accessing Students and Modules

Who can access the application

Staff will have access to the new Power BI App if they had access to the old WEBSIS App.  If you want access to the App you will need to obtain authorisation from your line manager and then raise a ticket with ServiceLine for access.  

How to get access

Step 1 – Open Power BI

Once you have access, you will need to find the App in PBI home.  If you do not already have Power Bi home bookmarked in a browser, you can access it in 2 ways:

1. Through Microsoft Web Access:
   1. Open Microsoft Web Access
   2. Select the App launcher at the top-left corner of the screen
   3. Search for Power BI
   4. Select the Power BI icon. Microsoft will open a new tab
2. Going to Power BI - Home page

Step 2 – Select Students and Modules application

Select the Apps icon on the bar on the left of the screen. All the Apps that are available to you will appear either as a list or in a

gallery of tiles.

 
Find the App called Students and Modules and select it.

The App will open and show the screen given.

---

Back to the top

 

How to use Students and Modules

Overview

1. Once the App is open, the screen will appear something similar to that shown below:

 
Please note the requirement for complying with the Southampton University Data Protection Policy.  

2. Once you have read this screen, select the Student Data tab on the left of the screen to start using the Power BI App.  

 
You will the see the following screen:

3. You are now ready to perform a simple query on Student data and return selected information about the student group you choose.  

The fields in the blue header at the top of the page query the student data to define a group of students.

The fields shown to the left of the Student Data table under the header Chose data to show allow users to define what data they want to see about the student group.

Please note: if you want to email a group of students, please define the group you wish to email first before going to the Email Students tab.

Selecting a group of students

The criteria for defining a list of students are at the top of the App.  All are designed as drop-down lists that also allow you to search the data for specific values.

When the App first opens the default values should be showing: 

• The default values are the same as in the old WEBSIS App.  
• The default values can be reset at any time by selecting clicking on the reset button on the top left of the App.

Unlike the original WEBSIS there is no general search button. You simply make your selections from drop-down lists and the display of student data in the centre of the screen changes to reflect the selections you make.  You will need to select click either the ID or Name fields in the Choose Data box on the left to see the student details.

To see the student details, go to Choose Data box column and select either: 

• The ID
  or 
• The Name

The data populating the drop-down lists is restricted to:

• The data in the dataset 
• Any selections you have already made.

For example, if you choose Faculty A1, the departments in the Dept drop-down list will be restricted to those in A1 for the selected term.

Using the drop-down lists

Drop-down lists allowing multiple selections and searching

All the drop-down lists work on the same principle with a few exceptions. We will use the “Programme 1” drop-down list as an example.

Initially, the Select all box will be checked:

To select one or more programmes:

1. Clear the list by:
   • Unchecking the Select all checkbox, 
     or
   • Using the Clear selections button located above every field. When you hover the cursor on the field’s title, a very faint eraser that occurs to the top right of each drop-down list.  “Clear selections” will pop up when you are in the right part of the screen to clear selections from the relevant list.
     
2. Check the boxes of the programmes you want to see in your group. You can choose as many programmes as you want. 

You can also search by Programme name or number or any part of a name. The search is not case sensitive. You can also paste values into the search box if required.

Drop-down lists allowing multiple selections and simple searching of the lists are used for:

List	Description
Faculty	This includes the current codes. For example: A2 as well as old codes, F3 if you choose a data term pre-201819)
Dept	Department codes and names
Programme 1	Programme codes and names
Major 1	Major codes and names
M/F	Male / Female
HE level	Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught, Postgraduate Research
Year	Year of study e.g. 02- Year 2
Student Status	By default this is set to Active Students (AS), but this can be changed by clicking on the drop-down list and choosing another status from the list
Residential	For example, the UK
Programme 2	Programme codes and names for students on Programme 2
Module and CRN	This list shows Module codes, CRN codes and the name for the CRN
Module Registration	Shows the registration of the student on a particular module.  Defaults are set on this list: blank (to show students not registered on any modules), AU (auditing), CM (Module Complete), MS – (Defer to Supplemental (Special cons)), RA – Repeat, RC – repeat, capped, RE – registered)
CRN Part of Term	The semester for the CRN where 1 is all year, NS is non specific, S1 is semester 1, S2 is semester 2, T1 is term 1, T2 is term 2 and T3 is term 3

Default values are set on some of the lists when the App first loads. You can override these values by selecting other options on the list.

The App also remembers your last list settings. These You can easily remove be removed them and reset the default values reset by clicking on selecting the Reset button on the top left of the App screen.

Term Drop-down

This list does not allow multiple selections or searching. The academic term for which you are seeing data is set initially to the Current term. 

 
Select the Drop-down arrow to choose a different academic term.  You may only see one term of data at a time.

Grouped Drop-down lists

Some of the lists use grouped values. These are Student Status and Enrolment Status.

Attendance status:

- For Attendance Status the student type values are:

Student type code	Description
0 (zero)	Standard Student
A	Full Yr Exchange Out, ERASMUS
B	Full Yr Exchange Out, OTHER
C	Part Yr Exchange Out, ERASMUS
D	Part Yr Exchange Out, OTHER
E	Full Yr Exchange In, ERASMUS
F	Split PhD
G	Part Yr Exchange In, ERASMUS
H	Part Yr Exchange In, OTHER
I	Non Fee paying visiting student
J	Pt Yr Fee paying visiting student
N	Non Staff Candidate by Publication
P	Staff Candidate by Publication
S	Staff Candidate NOT by Publication
U	Obsolete
V	Full Year fee paying visiting student
W	WUN
X	Full Yr Exchange In, OTHER

 

- They are then grouped into:

Group	Student type code
IV Incoming visitors/Exchange	E, G, H, I, J, V, X
OV Outgoing visitors/Exchange	A, B, C, D
NV Non visitors/Exchange (Other)	0, F, N, P, S, U, W

 

- You can only search by the grouped values.

 

Enrolment status:

- Enrolment Status codes are both grouped and have default values set on them. They defaults and grouping are shown below:

You can only use the group options to select students.

Selecting what data to display

Displaying Student Data

When the App first opens it will set up to display just the Current Term Code in the Student Data table:

To see student data, you will need click in select either the ID or Name boxes under the Choose data box on the left.  

 
Please note:

• You may choose any or all the columns under the Choose data box to display the relevant data.
• The order in which you click on the boxes will determine the order of the data columns in the Student Data tables.
• The number of student records currently select shows at the top of the Student Data table:
  
• It’s not mandatory to keep visible the Term column
• If you remove all the columns from the display, then by default all columns of data will display.  If you just click in select one column the normal data display will be returned.

All the data displayed by WEBSIS has been included in the Student and Modules App and additional data columns have been made available:

• Module codes and CRN codes
• CRN/Module name
• Module Registration code
• Tutor email 
• Final Year Indicator (False/True)

Exporting Student Data

You can export data to an excel file and you can use copy and paste to copy individual cells of data or selected rows of data.

You cannot print data directly from the Power BI App.

Exporting data to a file

Unlike WEBSIS, the Student and Modules app does not email the select student data to you. Instead, you need to export the data displayed in the Student Data table by downloading it.  

To download the data:

1. Get the data you require in the Student Data table

2. Hover on the Student Data bar

3. Select the More Options ellipses on the top right of the table:

 
4. From the drop-down menu, select Export data

5. Select the option Data with current layout – in some cases this option is the only option available for this table.

The file is then exported to an .xlsx file which is placed in the Downloads folder.  The file name starts with Student Data but also includes the number of students in the export in the title of the excel file.

When you open the file, it also shows all the filters that have been applied to the table at the bottom of the data:

Copy and Paste

It is possible to copy and paste data from the data in the Student Data table.

If you only want one cell of data, then right-click in the cell containing the data and choose “Copy value”.

Copying a number of rows of data is also possible, although it is trickier:

• You need to use either Ctrl+click or Shift+click to first highlight the rows wanted then copy the selection.  
• You cannot just select a rectangular form the table and copy it.  

You could reduce the columns of data to just those you want to copy/paste first and then select them before copying the selection.

Emailing Students

There is a separate tab for sending emails to students.  

1. Use the Student Data tab to choose the group or individual student you want to email.

2. Once you have the list, select the Email Students tab on the left sidebar (or use the yellow Email Students arrow).  to go to the Email tab:

 
The list of students (or an individual student) displays on the centre left of the screen and the selections you have made on centre right of the screen.

3. To email a single student, just click on select the link for the relevant student in the Email Students column:

To email a group of students select the link in the Email Group row of the Email Students column:

4. Outlook will open, and the student email address (o the list of emails part of the Email group) will appear in the To box. Test systems will not allow you to send out emails.

 
The email can be completed as normal and then sent.

This App is not meant to be a mass emailing tool for groups of students. There is currently a restriction on this app limiting the number of students you can email to 250 students. If you exceed this number, you will get a warning message:

Review Students

As with the old WEBSIS App, there is a Review Students drop-down box. Please note:  If you just choose students individually it will not work, but if you select a group (for example by Programme or module name) it gives you the list of students.

Please remove any students that do not have an email before sending out a group email.  You can also remove any students from the group that you do not want to email.  

All filters from the Student Data tab will be transferred to the Email students page and the list of students will be restricted accordingly.  The filters also affect the Review Students drop box except for the Student ID / Name filter which works a little differently.  Although the individual students chosen will be selected, the wider list of available students will also show but these will not be selected.

You can still remove students from the chosen list in exactly the same way by removing ticks from those you do not want to email.

About Tab

This tab shows information about the App and the refresh rate as well as links to further Power BI guidance:

How to

This tab gives some general guidance about how to user Power BI Apps:

---

Back to the top

 

Related content

Microsoft 365 Support Centre - Power BI

Power BI User Guide