Confirm your room assignments for fall semester

All room assignments for fall 2015 (1159) have been made. Review assignments for your department on the Class Search to ensure all classes requiring a general purpose classroom have been assigned. Contact Scheduling with any questions about general purpose classroom assignments.
Reminders:

• The Office of Classroom Management (OCM) only finds a general purpose classrooms for classes with a blank Facility ID in CCS. If the Facility ID field is populated (including a virtual space such as ROOM000TBA), OCM is not actively looking for a classroom for your class.
• Please encourage instructors to verify their classroom assignment before the first class. While it usually only affects a small number of classes, room assignments are subject to change prior to the start of term.
• Changes to room assignments do not generate automated emails. If you change a room assignment, you must notify instructors and students directly.
• Room assignments are subject to change prior to the start of the term. While this usually only affects a small number of classes, the Office of Classroom Management (OCM) encourages instructors to verify their classroom assignment before the first class meeting.

Cancelling classes for fall 2015

There are a large number of classes on the fall 2015 (1159) 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.

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 prior to requesting a class cancellation.

Changes to Scheduling Completely Online Classes

Students and others using the Class Search may wish to search for only those classes offered in a completely online format. The manner in which class schedulers set up completely online classes, so that they are searchable on this criterion, has changed slightly.

Beginning no later than the Spring 2016 schedule, CCS schedulers should enter the following information on UM CCS Maintain Schedule of Classes Basic Data tab when scheduling a completely online class:

• Location: OFFCAMPUS
• Instruction Mode: CO (Completely Online)
• Course Attribute: ONL (Online)

Those using the Class Search will then be able to search for completely online class offerings by selecting “Online Class” as the Course Attribute, or “Completely Online” as the Mode of Instruction.

Room assignment changes are possible if changing a meeting pattern or enrollment capacity

If making changes to a class meeting pattern or enrollment capacity after a classroom has already been assigned, schedulers will notice that the classroom assignment does not immediately drop from the meeting pattern’s Facility ID display. Rather, OCM monitors changes to meeting patterns and enrollment capacities to make sure that classrooms do not double book or exceed the maximum capacity following a change. Classes needing a General Purpose Classroom reassignment will receive one. Schedulers can be proactive by checking the room calendars and capacities in Astra Schedule prior to making these changes in CCS.

Entering instructors on multiple meeting pattern classes in CCS

CCS schedulers should take care when entering instructors for multiple meeting pattern classes. Incomplete entry of instructors can result in some pitfalls to grade roster access and the students' academic schedules on MyU.

When scheduling classes with multiple meeting patterns, make sure to have an instructor with Grade Approve access entered onto each of the meeting patterns. This ensures that instructors with grading responsibilities have access to their grade rosters when it comes time to enter the grades.

When using an Instructor Role of Primary Instructor in CCS, be sure to enter a Primary Instructor for each meeting pattern of multiple meeting patterns classes. Doing so ensures that all meeting patterns are correctly displayed for the enrolled students on their academic schedules in MyU.

Class Search for spring 2016

To facilitate the registration for our newest undergrads, Class Search is modified for spring 2016 (1163) to display only undergraduate classes that are open for freshmen full year registration (FRFY).

If your classes do not have the class attribute FRFY, they will not show up in the Class Search until summer orientation is completed and fall term begins, September 8, 2015. However, you can still find them in the Class Schedule Summary Report in the Reporting Center, or in Course Enrollment Status in Student Center.

You may notice classes without the attribute FRFY have Stop Further Enrollment status on the Enrollment Control page. An ASR nightly process puts Stop Further Enrollment status on all non-FRFY classes. Once fall term begins, ASR will return these classes back to Active status, and they will again be listed on the Class Search.

Reminder: Check WiFi access in departmental classrooms

Are you scheduling classes in departmental conference rooms or classrooms? The UMN Office of Information Technology wants to ensure that all academic spaces have adequate WiFi coverage in time for the fall semester.

To help do that, it's important for faculty and staff members to take a few minutes to check the classroom's access to the "UofM Secure" WiFi network. If you identify any classrooms with inadequate coverage, please contact OIT Technology Help at 612-301-4357 or mark the location using UMN IT's online WiFi feedback tool: WiFi.umn.edu.