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Monday 6 February 2012

Who's the STAR?

-By Noel.

You are! After all, these blogs are for you to read and to make the most of. :-)

Anyways, I've been inundated, lately (and even at the time of originally posting this!), with people asking me about STARwhich is currently in Read Only Mode; therefore, the following information is for those who want to know about more about it, in preparation for Trimester 2.

To that end, this is simply a FAQ Post; the questions you see below are those that I've actually had to answer many times to my colleagues last year.
  • What exactly is STAR?
    • STAR (Student Timetable Allocation [and] Registration) is a web-based application used by Deakin to, based on your preferences, allocate your classes to create a (theoretically speaking) clash-free timetable.
  • Why the need for STAR?
    • In secondary school, your teachers would have created your structured timetables for you. At Deakin, however, the timetable is more flexible in nature and allows you to have a say in when your classes are held.
  • How does STAR work?
    • I'll let Deakin explain that for you; feel free to click here.
  • How do I use STAR?
    • Deakin's STAR Video Tutorials can be found here.
  • So, how do I access STAR?
    • You do so by clicking here and logging in using your username and password.
  • But I've forgotten my username and/or password... What should I do?
    • You could contact ITSD; however, provided you can answer four simple questions, a more convenient way to retrieve your credentials is to click here. To that end, your Deakin Card or Letter of Offer can provide you the answers to two of those questions.
  • Are there any important dates, pertaining to STAR, that I should take note of?
    • Yes; here they are.
  • I want to only do three days; yet, my timetable is spread across five... What gives?
    • If you're doing a full-time course, you're expected to be available across all five weekdays.
  • Is STAR only used for on-campus units?
    • Yes. This explains why the off-campus or online units don't appear on STAR. Having said that, you should be able to see your Trimester 2 Units as well; if you can't, for some reason, then I'd suggest you should check your enrolment via StudentConnect.
  • I have a timetable that clashes... Where do I go from here? 
    • I suggest you go contact the Unit Chairs in question for advice.
  • I know you haven't answered everything there is to know, regarding STAR; where is Deakin's FAQ?

Anyways, I hope this helps to answer your questions;
until next time, do take care. :-)

9 comments:

  1. Great post, thank you! It's very helpful.

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    1. Thank you for your feedback, Robbie; my pleasure. :-)

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  2. I had no idea about STAR. Thanks for the info!

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  3. I love being able to select a timetable that suits my life. I like the tip about talking to the unit chair about clashes.

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    1. I personally love that as well;
      I've found that I'm able to actually make it to my classes, compared to secondary school, where I would struggle to make it before first class starts at 9am.

      Thank you; with that said, it's a somewhat-rare situation...
      ...I hope you don't have to worry about that when you receive your timetable next Tuesday. :-)

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  4. STAR only applies to on-campus students.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your clarifying comment;
      however, I implied that when I said in the third-last FAQ:

      "No. The only Preference Entries required at this stage are only for Trimester 1 Classes that are on-campus; off-campus and online modes have no on-campus classes, and Trimesters 2/3 are not available for Preference Entry in Trimester 1".

      In light of this, this post has been updated to include another FAQ.

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  5. This would have been very helpful info for me when I started last year-I found STAR so confusing initially! Great job of demystifying it :)

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