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Academic workload planning

Opus

Opus gives tertiary institutions one transparent way to plan, review and approve academic workload using the rules and activities that matter in their environment.

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The problem

Spreadsheets make complex rules harder to trust

Academic workload planning involves teaching, preparation, marking, coordination, research, service, leadership and local arrangements. When calculations are spread across spreadsheets and interpreted differently by each planner, errors are difficult to find and staff can't easily understand how an allocation was reached.

Opus brings the rules, activities, workflow and history into one system. Managers can plan consistently, academic staff can review the detail, and institutions gain a clearer source of evidence for approval and adjustment.

Chisholm Institute, one of Victoria's largest TAFEs and Opus's founding partner, uses it to plan workload for hundreds of academic staff across multiple campuses, with their enterprise agreement rules built directly into the system.

What Opus provides

What Opus does

Configurable workload rules

Relevant enterprise-agreement and institutional rules represented in a shared calculation model, subject to implementation validation and governance.

Activity-level planning

Teaching, preparation, marking, coordination, research, service and other recognised activities allocated at the level the institution needs.

Collaborative review

Workplans move through defined draft, review and approval stages, so issues can be discussed before final sign-off.

Version history and audit trail

See how a workplan changed, who made the change and which version was approved.

Consistent planning across the institution

Faculties and planning teams share one system, while allowing for valid differences in role, workload model or academic context.

Portfolio insight

Aggregated data used to understand allocation patterns, planning pressure and the implications of changes before decisions are finalised.

How implementation works

Map current policies, rules, data sources, roles and approval processes. Configure and validate the calculation model with representative scenarios. Integrate or import relevant course, staff and activity information.

Pilot with selected planning teams and academic users. Refine, train and roll out with governance and support in place.

What Opus doesn't do

Trust depends on implementation

Opus applies your configured rules consistently and makes workload decisions more transparent. It doesn't promise that every allocation will automatically be fair or compliant. Institutions remain responsible for correct interpretation, governance and individual circumstances.

178+ clients
500k+ learning hours
7 countries
2016 since
Common questions

Questions about Opus

Can Opus represent our enterprise agreement and workload model?
Yes. We configure your enterprise-agreement and institutional rules into a shared calculation model with you, validated against representative scenarios before rollout.
How are exceptions and local arrangements managed?
Through the review and approval workflow, where local arrangements can be discussed and recorded against the relevant workplan.
What data can be imported or integrated?
Relevant course, staff and activity information, integrated or imported as part of implementation.
What do academic staff see and approve?
Staff can review their own workplan detail as it moves through draft, review and approval stages, with a full version history and audit trail.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on the complexity of your enterprise agreement and existing data. We scope a timeline with you during the mapping stage.
How are rules tested when agreements change?
Updated rules are configured and validated against representative scenarios before they go live, the same process used for initial implementation.
How secure is Opus?
Opus is hosted on AWS in the Sydney region, so data stays onshore. It's encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit, with single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, role-based permissions, continuous threat detection, daily backups and ISO 27001-aligned controls. Security documentation is available on request.
See it for yourself

See how your workload model would work in Opus

Book an Opus demo