Changes to TA role assignments in Canvas

Beginning Thursday, August 15, 2019, teaching assistants (TAs) who are the sole instructors of a course must be marked in PeopleSoft with the grade roster access field of ‘Grade’ or ‘Approve.’ This ensures TAs who are sole instructors have the appropriate level of access to enter grades and grant them the correct access in Canvas. TAs with grade or approve access will have the “Teacher” role in Canvas, which allows them to publish courses.

Please note: CCS grade “Access” for undergraduate TAs must be left blank. They are not allowed to enter or submit grades.

Auto-generation of unpublished courses in Canvas

For each active PeopleSoft course, including their sections, empty unpublished academic course sites are automatically generated in Canvas. Instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) assigned in PeopleSoft will see the generated courses in their Canvas dashboards. They can import course content or build it from scratch. Once they are done, they will need to publish the course, so enrolled students can see the content. The following schedule shows the dates when the courses are generated for each upcoming term:

• Fall term: April 16
• Spring term: August 1
• Summer term (including May term): January 3

If faculty and instructors are planning to teach a class in Canvas and their course site does not appear on their dashboard, they are directed to reach out to their college or campus scheduler to ensure they are assigned as the primary or secondary instructor in PeopleSoft. More information can be found on the OIT page on Auto-generated Course Sites.

Astra Schedule updates

Astra Schedule, the University’s academic and event scheduling system, has been converted into four unique, campus-specific databases (Crookston, Duluth, Morris, Twin Cities/Rochester) and should now be accessed via the links below.

• Crookston: z.umn.edu/CrookstonAstra
• Duluth: z.umn.edu/DuluthAstra
• Morris: z.umn.edu/MorrisAstra
• Rochester: z.umn.edu/RochesterAstra
• Twin Cities: z.umn.edu/TwinCitiesAstra

Please update your bookmarks accordingly. Any questions, comments, or feedback should be directed to ocmsoftwarehelp@umn.edu. We want to hear how it is going and appreciate the feedback.

Canceling classes for fall 2019 with zero and low enrollments

If you do not plan to offer a class, the class needs to be cancelled in CCS as soon as possible and before the start of the term. Failure to cancel a class has a direct impact on students. Please do not try to do workarounds to hide the class from the schedule.

For classes with low enrollment to be cancelled, please do the following:

1. Change the Class Status to “Stop Further Enrollment” on the Enrollment Control panel of CCS.
   
2. Notify enrolled students directly to offer alternative options before requesting a class cancellation.
   
3. Email ocmsched@umn.edu to process your cancellation.
   
4. ** If your college requires collegiate approval for cancellation with low enrollment, also refer to your college procedures.

For classes with zero enrollments to be cancelled, change the Class Status to “Cancelled Section” on the Enrollment Control panel of CCS.

PeopleSoft Campus Solutions user guides

Need help remembering the path to a Campus Solutions page? If so, please refer to the Campus Solutions Navigation Guide (Google Sheet). Detailed PeopleSoft Campus Solutions guides can be found on the Academic Support Resources (ASR) website.