University partners with Ad Astra to host summit on July 23

The University of Minnesota will partner with Ad Astra to host a regional Astra Schedule Summit on July 23, 2014 on the Twin Cities campus. More details are available on the North Central Region Ad Astra Google site.

Room assignments for summer 2014 (1145)

General purpose classroom assignments for summer 2014 are available on the One Stop Class Schedule. Review assignments for your department to ensure all classes requiring a general purpose classroom have been assigned a room.

Spring 2015 (1153) scheduling

Room assignments for spring 2015 (1153) will be available on the Class Schedule when ECS period 3 opens on May 22. The Scheduling Unit is still working on placing many classes during the busiest times of day and as classes continue to be added to the schedule. Room assignments are subject to change prior to the start of term as we work to accommodate all class activity.

Beginning on May 22, you can make updates to class information (cancel, change, or add). Please note: changes made to meeting times, enrollment capacities, and requested room capacities will result in the loss of the classroom assignment. Please consult with the Scheduling Unit if you are adding classes during peak times to ensure that a room will be available.

Summer projects impacting classroom availability

From lighting updates to furniture replacements to technology upgrades, general purpose classrooms and study spaces often receive a refresh during the summer months. Project teams and technicians will be busy this summer working on learning spaces in multiple buildings. To learn more about Office of Classroom Management (OCM) projects, visit the OCM projects web page.

Course Guide retirement

As part of the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP), it was decided that Course Guide will be retired. The new alternative will allow faculty to include a URL in the Class Notes section of Faculty Center. This URL can link to a course website or other public location where students can access information about the course; this link can be updated at any time during the term by the faculty member or by the department scheduler directly in the Collaborative Class Scheduling pages. You can view a Sneak Peek of the new Faculty Center on the ESUP news blog. Once a link has been created, students will see it in the Class Search results under Class Notes.

Before ESUP goes live, Course Guide will remain available to students. It is important to note, however, that the information included in Course Guide now will not automatically be transferred to Class Notes.

If you have questions regarding the retirement of Course Guide or the new Faculty Center, please contact Director of Academic Records Ingrid Nuttall.

Summer schedule for Scheduling Update

Scheduling Update will be taking a short break during summer. There will be no regularly scheduled Scheduling Updates in June or July. It will resume again on August 6, running on the first and third Wednesday of the month throughout the academic year.

Scheduling Update live a success

A live, in-person Scheduling Update was held last week. The session was offered concurrently on East Bank, West Bank, and in Saint Paul. It provided:

• An overview of what the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) is
• A sneak peek at what is changing for schedulers (including specific examples of changes to the schedule of classes)
• What the new production cycle will look like
• An overview of the training timeline for schedulers
• An opportunity to ask questions

If you were unable to attend, a recording of the presentation is available. You can also view the presentation slides.

Individual college-level meetings will be held in the future. Details about these meetings will be included in future issues of Scheduling Update.

Student Town Hall meeting

Attend a town hall meeting on Thursday, May 15 to learn how the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) will change the way students, faculty, and staff interact with the University. The changes discussed will be implemented in February, 2015 - less than a year away!

This meeting will focus on the student system--a key component of this multi-year effort to upgrade the University's systems and reexamine business processes. It covers admissions, financial aid, student finance, student records, and more. You will hear leaders of our student system talk about the changes and improvements that will happen as result of ESUP. We will also hear from a representative of the new myU portal effort on their progress. There will be time to ask questions or voice concerns about the student systems upgrade effort.

Confirm final exam schedules

Spring 2014 final exams begin next week. Be sure to confirm your department's final exam schedule in Astra Schedule.

To review your department's final exams, please follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to Astra Schedule with your University internet ID and password in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
2. Click on the "Academics" tab located in the top navigation menu.
3. Click on the "Sections" link at the top of the page.
4. Update the filters in the left column as follows:
1. Is Exam = Yes
2. View Meetings = Radio button selected
3. Term = Spring 2014
4. Subject = Select the subject(s) you schedule
5. Campus = Mpls/St Paul
5. Click "Search" at the bottom of the filters.
6. To save your filter selections for future use, click on the save button on the bottom left hand side of the page.

Email the Scheduling Unit at ocmsched@umn.edu as soon as possible if you notice any of the following:

• An exam scheduled for a class that does not require a room
• An exam missing for a class that should have one scheduled
• An exam scheduled at a time or place you did not expect

Expanded weekend classroom hours during finals week

Finals week begins Saturday, May 10 with the first study day. The last day of exams is Saturday, May 17. Classroom hours will be extended on Saturday 5/10, Sunday 5/11, and Saturday 5/17 to meet the needs of students and faculty during finals week.

Saturday, May 10 & Sunday, May 11: All classrooms in weekend buildings will be open from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. to accommodate students for official University study days. Weekend buildings include the following:

• East Bank: Folwell Hall, Keller Hall, Nicholson Hall, Rapson Hall, STSS
• West Bank: Blegen Hall, CSOM, Hanson Hall, Humphrey Center
• Saint Paul: McNeal Hall, Ruttan Hall

Saturday, May 17: All general purpose classrooms will be open from 8 a.m.-7 p.m.to accommodate scheduled final exams.

After final exams week, we will return to our standard operating hours.

Verify instructor information for spring 2014

To ensure instructors have access to their online grade rosters, please verify your spring 2014 courses. Also, be sure to include the instructor for course sections that require grades. See Grade Reporting for more information about how and when to enter grades.

Contact the Student Records training & support team at srhelp@umn.edu or 612-625-2803 for questions.

New Astra Schedule tutorial available

Have you recently submitted a room request? If so, you may want to check on the status of your request. To do so, you can now watch a quick Astra Schedule tutorial that shows you how to view and manage room requests. It is available on the Astra Schedule homepage and on the Office of Classroom Management (OCM) website. Please feel free share these links with anyone else who may be interested.

Course Guide retirement

As part of the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP), it was decided that Course Guide will be retired. The new alternative will allow instructors to include a link to a course website or other public location to provide information to students on how the course is taught. The link will show in the Class Search results under Class Notes.

If you receive questions regarding the retirement of Course Guide, you can inform people that, while the current Course Guide is still live, they may want to consider how much time they spend on it, as it will eventually be retired as part of ESUP. You may also want to let people know that they should be mindful of where else the course information lives (e.g., a departmental or instructor website). In the future, they will be able to provide a link in Class Notes for students to access this information.