Introduction

London’s leading film school required a sophisticated timetabling system capable of tracking student attendance, managing pay claims, and booking rooms and kit.

MetFilm School is a leading film, television, and online media school offering undergraduate, postgraduate and short courses across various craft areas. The school has campuses in London and Berlin.

Challenge

In 2014, the school explored the market to identify potential suppliers of a sophisticated timetabling system capable of tracking student attendance, managing pay claims, and booking rooms and kit.

The system would replace the home-grown spreadsheet system and streamline the management of resources to provide the information required for data returns and lead to considerable savings in time.

Solution

Following a comprehensive supplier selection process in 2014, CELCAT was appointed by MetFilm School to supply the system.

CELCAT Timetabler has the advantage of facilitating the management and scheduling of both rooms and equipment resources. Furthermore, using the equipment resource type, filmmaking kit can be booked individually or as part of a package; with the system alerting users to double-bookings. The scheduling also respected their booking interval policy and so allows for the recalibration of kit between bookings.

CELCAT Timetabler also shone in producing statistical data for tutor and room utilisation that can be exported into an MS Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. In 2019, MetFilm School implemented Ellucian Quercus providing CELCAT with another opportunity to integrate this popular student record system by using CELCAT SIM (Systems Integration Manager). SIM automates the import of curriculum and student data; and dynamically manages user accounts using single sign-on (SSO) via MS Office365.

Staff and students can access their personalised timetables in both the CELCAT Calendar web application and, via CELCAT AutoCal Ex, their MS Outlook calendars.

Tutors mark attendance registers using CELCAT Mobile Web Attendance. As a download of a native app is not required, tutors can use any device to mark attendance; including their own smartphones.

Since 2020, the school has been using CELCAT Pay Claim to allow part-time tutors to submit pay claims based on their timetabled activity. The workflow incorporates all the processes of a claim, from submission through to payroll, and includes validation by managers.

During the pandemic, MetFilm School has benefited from using CELCAT VCIM (Video Conference Integration Manager) to create online classes in MS Teams.

Benefits

  • CELCAT Timetabler – A 50% time saving over timetabling using spreadsheets
  • CELCAT Pay Claim - Has significantly reduced the time the paper-based system took and prevented fraudulent claims.
  • CELCAT VCIM (Video Conference Integration Manager)

“CELCAT VCIM proved invaluable in rapidly moving our whole timetable to synchronous online classes on the Microsoft Teams platform, saving a huge amount of time and stress for our administrators. It helped us standardise the online delivery across all the courses during lockdown”

Data and Management Consultant - MetFilm School

Solutions Used

  • CELCAT Timetabler: Windows client application for timetabling and reporting
  • CELCAT Timetabler Live: Feature rich web version of the timetabling application
  • CELCAT Attendance: Windows client application for registers and reporting
  • CELCAT Attendance Live: Feature rich web version of CELCAT Attendance
  • CELCAT Mobile Web Attendance: Mobile web application with a simplified register marking interface CELCAT Calendar: Mobile web application serving real-time online timetables CELCAT AutoCal Ex: Synchronises timetabled events to MS Outlook via Office365 Exchange
  • CELCAT Pay Claim: Uses the timetable to produce pay claims for tutors paid by the hour and manages the workflow from validation through to payroll
  • CELCAT VCIM (Video Conference Integration Manager): Creates online meetings in MS Teams and Zoom for timetabled events and includes the online meeting links in events displayed by CELCAT Calendar and MS Outlook.
  • CELCAT SIM (Software Integration Manager): Windows-based configuration tool and service to manage integration with Ellucian Quercus