Watch the June workshop on CCS Advanced Topics

Our June 15 SR Help workshop focused on CCS advanced topics including: session codes, special use pages, and combined sections. Lots of good tips and tricks were discussed. Thanks to everyone who attended!

Collaborative Class Scheduling users who couldn’t make it to the workshop are invited to view a recording of the workshop. (Tip: After clicking the link, it may take few minutes for the recording to load.)

Housekeeping tip for Astra Event schedulers

Events in Astra Schedule must have an event status of “Scheduled” in order for them to appear on the Astra calendars. Events with a status of “Incomplete” (i.e., those missing Event Type, Customer, Customer Contact, or a room assignment on any meeting) will not display on the calendars, causing the room to appear available. If, however, the scheduler attempts to book that room for another event, they find the room is unavailable. The “Incomplete” event is holding the room.

To avoid this, event schedulers should ensure they complete their event records so that the status is “Scheduled” and the event displays on the calendars. Additionally, schedulers can proactively screen for “Incomplete” events they have unintentionally created by periodically filtering for and resolving “Incomplete” events. Instructions for how to find incomplete events in Astra are available at the Astra iCoP website.

Course and class changes approval process

It is imperative to make changes to credits and/or changes to the grade basis of a class or course prior to the start of registration.

• To change the number of credits for which a class is offered, from a variable number to a set number, email ocmsched@umn.edu to make the change.
• To make a permanent credit change for a course and/or to make a change to the grading basis of a course, submit changes directly through ECAS. 

After registration starts, the Office of the Registrar (OTR) & Office of Classroom Management (OCM) will still make the following changes to courses and class sections:

• Credit changes: Will make changes as requested, but will conduct internal review to determine how enrolled students are affected
• Grading basis: Will add grading basis options (e.g., from A-F to A-F/S-N Option), but departments will not be allowed to eliminate grading basis options (e.g., from A-F/S-N Option to S-N only)

After registration starts, the department will be expected to contact students about these changes. To minimize impact for students, however, these changes should be made before registration starts.

After financial aid is disbursed (typically 10 days prior to the start of term), no credit or grade basis changes will be permitted. If the department insists upon a change and has a legitimate reason, an internal committee including the Office of Undergraduate Education will review.

Improvements to the grade-entry process

The Collaborative Class Scheduling (CCS) system was modified in late May so that the primary instructor now defaults to having the grades access set to “Approve”. This will ensure that instructors have access to their grade rosters. Departments that delegate grade entry responsibilities to individuals other than the primary instructor may still adjust grades approval access in CCS as needed.

We expect Faculty Center to be modified later this summer so that the Final Grade roster is the default roster instead of the Mid-Term Grade roster. This will help to ensure that final grades are entered on the correct roster.

Grades entry wrap-up for spring 2016

During May 2016, the Training & Support team did outreach to proactively resolve spring semester grades entry issues. This included:

• Identifying 215 classes which did not have any instructors/proxies with grades approval access and setting the primary instructor to have access to approve grades.
• Providing a friendly reminder about approving grades to 577 instructors/proxies who had entered and saved all grades for a class but had not yet approved them by the afternoon before the deadline.
• Contacting the instructors/proxies of 139 classes where final grades had been entered on the mid-term instead of the final grade roster.  

Thank you to everyone at the departments and colleges who helped make the grades entry process go smoothly and enable students to receive their grades on time!