Get ECAS Help When You Need it

When you need help with ECAS, please consult the ECAS UPK topics which are published on the Quickstart Guides page. Conveniently, you may also access these UPK topics through the PeopleSoft ‘Help’ link. We do have the ECAS Manual available for reference on the ECAS home page. Please note, however, the manual is no longer being revised, as it is being replaced with the UPK topics.

Quick Start Guides Available on Many Topics

In addition to UPK topics that can be accessed by clicking on the ‘Help’ link in PeopleSoft, the Training and Support Team maintains a quick start guide library at https://asr.umn.edu/qsguides. Here users can find helpful guides on using Faculty Center, Advisor Center, Student Center, academic standing, entering manual registration appointments, Astra Schedule, ECAS, and more.

Supplemental Class Search Tool

With registration for summer and fall 2016 underway, advisors and student services staff may wish to use the Supplemental Class Search tool to assist students with class selection. It can be used along with the class search to find courses that meet multiple LE requirements, to view the reserve capacity on the class, and to easily identify online and distance learning classes. You can find this supplemental tool on the One Stop staff page under “Advising”, and may wish to add it to your MyU Favorites.

As you use this tool, remember that it is designed to assist advising and student services staff with their work advising students. It has limited search options and there is no integration between this tool and the registration shopping cart. For these reasons, please do not share this link with students. While it’s understood that students may encounter it as you work with them, it is not being promoted to them.

Use MyU Favorites to Bookmark System Links

If you are a user of ECAS, PCAS, Astra Schedule, or other systems not housed in MyU Key Links, consider adding these to your MyU Favorites for quick and easy access to the systems with just one login. To add a MyU Favorite:

1. Click the Favorites tab
2. Click ‘Add External Link’
3. Name your Favorite and copy/paste the URL link
4. Click ‘Add my Favorite’

SR Help Workshops

Mark your calendar for the following upcoming SR Help workshops:

Entering Grades: Tips, tricks, and reminders
Wednesday May 11, 11 a.m. to 12 noon, 131B Bruininks Hall

CCS Advanced Topics
Wednesday June 15, 11 a.m. to 12 noon, Location TBA

No registration is needed for these workshops.

Ensure grade rosters are available for instructors on time

Final grade rosters are automatically created for classes based on the End Date entered on the Meeting Patterns tab in Collaborative Class Scheduling (CCS). The End Date defaults to be the last day of the term session in which the class is scheduled, but can be adjusted if appropriate.

If your department offers classes that do not run the full length of the term session, it’s important the CCS scheduler adjust the End Date on the Meeting Patterns tab to be the actual last day of the class. By doing so, the grade roster is created on time, about a week prior to the last day of class. Once created, the grade roster is immediately available to the instructor and/or proxies in the Faculty Center for completion and submission.

New UPK Topics for ECAS

We now have a variety of Electronic Course Authorization System (ECAS) self-help topics published to our Quick Start Guides page and ready for you to “See it!, Try it! or Print it!” These topics will prove useful as you navigate ECAS, make changes to courses, and submit course proposals. More topics will be published soon.

These are the newest ECAS topics:

• Updating a Current Course in ECAS
• The ECAS Approval Process
• Creating a new course in ECAS
• Deactivating a course in ECAS

Please note, the ECAS Manual is still available for reference on the ECAS home page, but is no longer being revised, as it is being replaced with the UPK topics.