Fall 2017 final exam deadlines

In a response from schedulers asking to be able to confirm final exam room locations earlier in the semester, OCM has moved forward the final exam production cycle beginning with fall 2017. The Final Exam Change Request form is due on Tuesday, October 3.

After all common final exams are scheduled, change requests are processed in the order in which they are received. The earlier you submit your Final Exam Change Request form, the greater likelihood you will get the instructor's preferred classroom. You will notice some small changes to the change request form itself, in particular for those utilizing common exams. Please let us know if you have any questions.

For classes not holding an in-person exam during finals week, notify us by emailing ocmsched@umn.edu by Tuesday, October 3. Please use the subject line “Fall 2017 Final Exam” and include the subject designator and class section number(s) in the email text. In particular, it is helpful to know when large, lecture classes will not be using their classroom during exam week to fulfill special requests for other final exams requiring large classrooms.

All event requests made through Astra Schedule for finals week are held in our queue until all final exams are scheduled. Astra Schedule event requests should be used to schedule review sessions, but should not be used to secure classrooms for final exams. If you are unsure how to submit your request for an exam room, email ocmsched@umn.edu.

• Final exam regulations
• Final exam schedule
• Final exam change request form
• Scheduling Examinations, Final Examinations, and Study Days policy

Note: An edit has been made on 9/20/17 to change the day Wednesday to Tuesday, October 3. Apologies for any confusion.

Roll forward for May/summer session 2018 (1185)

Class data entered into CCS rolls forward from the same term in the previous year (e.g., fall 2017 to fall 2018) as a convenience to schedulers. We will roll forward classes for May/summer session 2018 (1185) on Sunday, September 10. This happens two weeks prior to CCS Open - Initial Build to allow for behind-the-scenes data clean up.

As a reminder, classes with the following criteria will not roll forward:

• Cancelled sections
• Tentative sections
• Topics classes
• Classes with zero enrollment (excluding directed studies and research)
• Undergraduate classes scheduled in Extended Regular Session (session 011)

Helping U desk: Students helping students navigate the U

One Stop Student Services and the Office for Student Affairs have partnered together to enhance the Helping U desk in Bruininks Hall.

At the Helping U desk, student-staff have been trained to connect fellow students to University-based resources such as academic support, career help, and health services. The desk is open M-F 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.



If you know a student or department who may benefit from the Helping U desk, please share this message. Thank you.

Welcome to fall 2017

The Office of Classroom Management (OCM) welcomes you to the start of fall 2017 semester! 

We have information to share with you about teaching in classrooms, updates about projects we have been working on, and information about a planned, enterprise-wide system maintenance outage happening in September. Please read below for details.

Locate your classroom assignment
Room assignments for fall 2017 are available on the Class Schedule. Please note: room assignments are subject to change prior to the start of term. While this usually only affects a small number of classes, verify your classroom assignment before the first class meeting. If you have specific questions about your room assignment, contact your department scheduling coordinator.

Room Search
The Room Search allows you to view the classroom inventory. You can filter by campus, building, capacity, and/or feature. You can also view room details, including capacities, layout, photos, links to campus maps, and room schedule. Orientation is available upon request for those who want to learn more about the technology features. For any questions, contact OCM Classroom Support.

Classroom technology
The classroom technology instructions provides a list of equipment and additional features as well as a representative image of the instructor station in each classroom.

Class rosters
Access and print your class roster.

ADA table and chairs
All OCM classrooms are equipped with ADA compliant tables and chairs as a standard feature. We work with Disability Resource Center to accommodate student needs and ask for your help in assuring its proper use.

New Study Space website
A new study space website has launched that helps students find places on campus where they can study: studyspace.umn.edu. The site includes images, building features, and locations on the East Bank, West Bank, and St. Paul campuses. Listings include computer labs, coffee shops, and on-campus study spaces for both individuals and groups. The website was a collaborative project between OCM, University Libraries, Student Unions, OIT, AHC Classroom Services, and Facilities Management.

Summer classroom renovations and updates
Several general purpose classrooms received environment or technology updates during the summer, including the following:

• Magrath 8 has been converted to a testing center and is supported in partnership with the Office of Information Technology (OIT). 
• McNeal Hall - OCM partnered with the College of Design (CDES) in McNeal 144 and 146 provide two additional Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs), using six-person group tables with student displays. The rooms seat 42 and 30, respectively. 
• Mondale Hall - Major renovations in 15, 35, 45, 55 and 65 include new furnishings and technology features. 
• Rapson Hall - An additional partnership with CDES to combine two classrooms into a new 112-seat ALC that will support the unique, collaborative, and team-based structure of the product design program courses. Rapson 56 differs from other ALCs on campus in that the student tables are movable. 
• Tate Hall - We welcome the reopening of John T. Tate Hall this fall semester. The building will open to the public on September 5th and house 10 general purpose classrooms ranging in capacity from 32 to 250 seats. 
• Technology feature upgrades were completed in nearly 70 rooms. Specific features are detailed by room on the room search page.
• Improvements included: wide-screen video projectors, HDMI input cables, and document cameras. Instructor microphones and class capture cameras were also added to select classrooms. 
• Seating has been replaced in a variety of classrooms as part of planned lifecycle renewal updates. 

Planned system maintenance
An extended planned maintenance window during the weekend of September 23-24 is necessary for the upcoming upgrade of PeopleSoft Campus Solutions (Student Records). From Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon, students, faculty, and staff will not have access to functions such as registration and grading. Other systems such as email, Moodle, and Canvas will have regular availability.

Contact us

As always, OCM is available to help with questions, concerns, and comments regarding general purpose classrooms, scheduling, and central student study spaces. We are available for calls Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Call Classroom Support Hotline at 612-625-1086

Messages left at the hotline are monitored by an on-call manager after hours

Email classrm@umn.edu

We wish you a great start to the semester!

Make final changes to variable credit/grading basis for fall classes

It is imperative to make final changes to classes requiring set credits and/or changes to grade basis as soon as possible. After the semester begins, the grading basis and the number of credits for a class cannot be altered. 

• To change the number of credits at the class level from a variable number to a set number, email ocmsched@umn.edu as soon as possible.
  
• To make a change to the grading basis, submit the request directly through ECAS.

Similarly, it is important to cancel classes that will not be offered prior to semester start. 

• If you do not plan to offer a class that has students enrolled, set the status of the class to Stop Further Enrollment, notify the students directly of the short notice cancellation, and email ocmsched@umn.edu to process the cancellation.

Removal of grade access for all undergraduate students

In response to an internal audit following ESUP, ASR will be removing Approve and Grade access for all undergraduate students assigned to classes during the last week of August. Full-time employees who are taking undergraduate classes will be excluded from that process.

Moving forward, do not grant undergraduate students Approve or Grade access to your classes. An automatic process will remove this grading access from undergraduate students if they are added inadvertently. Consider assigning this access to a faculty member or staff proxy instead to ensure grades can be reported. If you have any questions about this change, please contact ocmsched@umn.edu.

Summer classroom renovations and updates

Several general purpose classrooms received environment or technology updates during the summer, including the following:

• Magrath 8 has been converted to a testing center and is supported in partnership with the Office of Information Technology (OIT).
  
• McNeal Hall - An additional partnership with CDES in McNeal 144 and 146 provide two additional Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs), using six-person group tables with student displays. The rooms seat 42 and 30, respectively.
  
• Mondale Hall - Major renovations in 15, 35, 45, 55 and 65 include new furnishings and technology features.
  
• Rapson Hall - OCM partnered with the College of Design (CDES) to combine two classrooms into a new 112-seat ALC that will support the unique, collaborative, and team-based structure of the product design program courses. Rapson 56 differs from other ALCs on campus in that the student tables are movable.
  
• Tate Hall - We welcome the reopening of John T. Tate Hall this fall semester. The building will open to the public on September 5th and house 10 general purpose classrooms ranging in capacity from 32 to 250 seats.
  
• Technology feature upgrades were completed in nearly 70 rooms. Specific features are detailed by room on the room search page.
  
• Improvements included: wide-screen video projectors, HDMI input cables, and document cameras. Instructor microphones and class capture cameras were also added to select classrooms.
  
• Seating has been replaced in a variety of classrooms as part of planned lifecycle renewal updates.

Preparing for the Campus Solutions 9.2 technical upgrade go-live

The first phase of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions 9.2 Upgrade is the technical upgrade of Campus Solutions from version 9.0 to version 9.2. In order to complete this phase, Campus Solutions will be unavailable for approximately 30 hours over the September 23 weekend. During this time, students, faculty, and staff will not have access to functions such as registration, student account payments, and grading. Human Resources and Financials systems and Moodle will have regular availability.

While this timeframe was selected to minimize impacts to the University community, we would like to hear from you if there are activities that will be negatively affected by this downtime. Please contact project manager Carrie Otto (zast0020@umn.edu) with details.

System changes as a result of this technical upgrade are minimal and restricted to look and feel. Preview these changes.

Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) content transition to One Stop

On August 24, 2017, Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) content will be moved from the Graduate School website to the One Stop Student Services website. Users looking for GSSP content on the Graduate School website will automatically be redirected to One Stop during the transitionary period. Faculty and staff content will remain on the Graduate School’s website, and only Twin Cities websites will be affected.

GSSP content will appear under the Academics tab on One Stop in the following pages:

• Degree completion steps
• Examination committees
• Doctoral oral exam scheduling 
• Thesis/dissertation submission and formatting
• Contact GSSP

GSSP forms will be housed on the One Stop forms page. Application for degree and other information related to graduation will be updated on the ‘apply to graduate’ and ‘checklist for grad students’ pages that already exist on One Stop.

The goal of this content transition is to better serve students by housing content in one place and making navigation easier. Integrating GSSP with One Stop also better aligns with GSSP’s organizational structure.

Please communicate this change with students, staff, and faculty who may not be aware. Contact Chris Abts at cjabts@umn.edu with any GSSP questions. Thank you.

Cancel classes for fall 2017 with zero enrollments

There are classes on the fall 2017 (1179) class schedule with a room assignment but no enrolled students.

If you do not plan to offer a class, cancel the class in CCS as soon as possible. Simply changing the enrollment capacity to zero and checking the “no print” box in CCS will not release the classroom assignment. The class must be cancelled directly in CCS.

If you plan to offer the class, please move it to a departmental classroom or conference room when available. Email ocmsched@umn.edu if you need assistance assigning the room.

For classes with low enrollment that you plan to cancel, email ocmsched@umn.edu to process your cancellation. If your college requires collegiate approval for cancellation with low enrollment, refer to your college procedures. Remember to always notify enrolled students directly, before requesting a class cancellation.

Upgrade to Astra Schedule

Astra Schedule will undergo a planned system upgrade on Friday, August 11. Access to Astra Schedule will be unavailable from Friday, August 11 from 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. This upgrade does not affect PeopleSoft or CCS. Updates on the outage will be available on the University's IT Service Status page.

After this upgrade, users will notice the following changes:

1. Scheduling Grids – Significantly faster loading times. 
2. Event Summaries – The subject line of the email will now auto populate with the Event Name and Reservation Number 
3. Event Request Notifications – Now will include the actual event reservation number instead of a previously used event request number.
4. Inactive Customer Contacts – Will no longer appear on drop down menus on the Event Request forms. 

If you have any questions about the upgrade, please contact ocmsoftwarehelp@umn.edu.

Assign instructors to classes

A presentation of the internal audit for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions was given at the February 2017 Registrar's Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting. The conclusions of the audit were that the system is doing its job, but some users are frustrated. Class schedule data entry errors were highlighted, noting that the 300+ system-wide Collaborative Class Scheduling (CCS) users impact the quality of data. Specific audit findings of note:

• 725 of 1,101 (66%) graduate students were entered as Primary Instructor instead of Teaching Assistant
• 2,234 of 7,521 (30%) classes with no instructor listed
• Meeting patterns set up incorrectly 

Two bullets highlight the importance of instructor information for students. Please input instructor information, grade access, and meeting patterns in CCS on the Meetings tab. See the UPK on meeting pattern set up.

Study Space Finder

Study Space Finder has launched for students that includes images, building features, and locations. Students can find computer labs, coffee shops, and study spaces for individuals and groups via the map markers on East Bank, West Bank, and St. Paul campuses. The finder will be housed at studyspace.umn.edu and will also appear as a link on sites with study space content.

This is a joint project between the Office of Classroom Management (OCM), University Libraries, Student Unions, Office of Information Technology (OIT), AHC Classroom Services, and University Services. Technical fixes are still in progress, but issues should be resolved shortly. Please share with students and contact studyspacefeedback@umn.edu with any questions.