Orientation
Place a student in a campus and group, and understand exactly which classes they receive and why.
Orientation is the moment a student's plan meets the real timetable. Until now they have subjects and dates, but no sessions to attend. At orientation you choose the campus and the group they will study with, and XPortal gives them every class that group has within their subject dates.
From then on, the student's timetable stays in step with their group automatically.
Where to start
Open Students → Pending Orientations. It lists students scheduled for orientation who haven't completed it. On the student's row, select Start Orientation.
Orientation works on the student's first pending program. For a packaged course, that is the first program in the package that hasn't been activated yet.
The orientation steps
The Start Orientation window walks you through six steps. You can't move on until the current step is complete.
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1. Send Orientation Start Email | Choose an email template and send the student their orientation email, including their account link. |
| 2. Program | Confirm the program is being activated, and confirm the payment plan. XPortal flags any unpaid deposit invoice so you can deal with it first. |
| 3. USI | Record or confirm the student's USI where required. |
| 4. Classes | Choose the Campus and Group, and review the classes the student will receive. |
| 5. Assessment | Record whether the student submitted the LLN indicator and booklet. |
| 6. Review | Check the summary: student, program, campus, classes and LLN. Then finish orientation. |
When you finish, XPortal shows Orientation finished and program activated.
The Classes step in detail
This is the step that decides the student's timetable.
Choose the campus
Campus starts on the student's preferred campus. You can choose another campus that has groups for this program, for example if the student has asked to study elsewhere.
Choose the group
Group lists the program's groups at that campus, each with its seats: 3 seats left, 1 seat left, or Full (0 seats left). Full groups can't be chosen. Seats count the group's students whose program is Pending, Active or Inactive.
Review the classes
Classes for this group shows every session the student will receive, with a count. It shows exactly what XPortal will give them when you finish, so read it before you continue.
It is fine for this list to be empty, or shorter than the whole course. Classes are often added closer to each run's dates. When they are added later for the student's group, they reach the student automatically.
What happens when you finish
XPortal does the following, in one go.
1. The program becomes active
The program moves from Pending to Active, its payment plan becomes active, and the student is placed in the chosen group at the chosen campus. They leave the Pending Orientations queue.
2. Each subject is placed at the chosen campus
XPortal goes through the student's subjects, skipping credit transfers and recognition of prior learning:
- If the subject's run is already at the chosen campus, it stays exactly as it is.
- If the run is at another campus, XPortal moves the subject to that subject's run at the chosen campus that covers the subject's start date and serves the student's program.
The student's dates never change. Only the run a subject belongs to moves with the campus.
If a subject has no suitable run at the chosen campus, orientation stops and explains:
No delivery of CPCCWHS2001 at Geelong covers 01 Feb 2027
Either choose a different campus, or add a run of that subject at the chosen campus that covers the date, then try again.
Manual prerequisites have no run, so they don't move and don't receive classes. Their dates are whatever staff entered.
3. The student receives their classes
For every subject, XPortal gives the student each class in that subject's run that:
- is linked to the student's group, and
- falls between the student's own start and end dates for the subject.
That second rule matters in a rolling intake. Suppose a student joined a run on Wednesday. They do not receive that run's Monday and Tuesday classes, even though their group had them, because those were before the student's start date for that subject.
Orient students promptly
Classes are given for the whole of each subject's dates, including dates already past. If a student is oriented two weeks after they started, they receive the last two weeks' classes too, with no attendance recorded. Orient students close to their start, and record attendance for any past sessions they actually attended.
After orientation, the timetable is live
The student's subjects and dates now stay put. Their classes keep following their group:
- A session added for the group reaches them, if it falls within their subject dates.
- A session cancelled, or unticked from their group, disappears, unless it is past or they attended it.
- A change of time, room, trainer or notes updates their upcoming sessions.
- Nothing they have attended, and nothing in the past, is ever changed.
The full detail, including moving campus and other changes, is in After orientation.
Orientation checklist
- The student's first day is close, or just passed.
- The right Campus is chosen. If it differs from their plan, every subject has a run there covering its start date.
- The right Group is chosen and has a free seat.
- Classes for this group looks right for the student's start.
- USI and LLN are recorded.
- Past sessions the student actually attended have their attendance recorded afterwards.