Coursedog going live August 21

The new course and program approval system, Coursedog, will launch on August 21, 2023. Training is available in the training hub for those who currently have edit or approval access in ECAS (Course) or PCAS (Program) to complete. The four training modules are:

• Course Author (for ECAS editors)
• Course Approver (for ECAS approvers)
• Program Author (for PCAS editors)
• Program Approver (for PCAS approvers)

If you did not have edit or approval access in ECAS or PCAS before but could view information in either system, you will have the same “view only” access in Coursedog once it goes live. Additional information can be found on the Coursedog Project website.

ECAS/PCAS "freeze"

The ECAS and PCAS “freeze” begins on July 8, 2023. This is when the data transfers from ECAS and PCAS to Coursedog. A few things to keep in mind during the freeze:

• All ECAS and PCAS users (at all levels) will no longer have access to make changes, but view-only access remains.
• Any proposal that is not fully approved in ECAS or PCAS will not be transferred to Coursedog. Those proposals will need to be entered into Coursedog after go-live.

Training

The Coursedog training courses plan to be available on Monday, July 17, in training hub. There will be four, 30-minute online courses, based on the end user’s role(s):

• Course Author
• Program Author
• Course Approver
• Program Approver

Completion of these courses is required for current ECAS and PCAS editors and approvers to maintain their access. Notification of training requirements will be sent to individuals in July.

Coursedog change to go live date

Coursedog will now launch at the end of August 2023, instead of its originally planned launch date of June 2023, to ensure the highest possible system quality for University faculty and staff at go-live.

As part of the implementation, there was already a planned freeze/frost period where entering data into either ECAS or PCAS will no longer be possible. With the timeline adjustment, this period will now begin on May 5, 2023. Please plan to submit all fall 2023 program and course proposals prior to May 5. We recommend submitting proposals no later than April 21, 2023 to allow for time to ask for clarification or make edits.

To ease the transition to this new product, please do not enter or approve proposals dated after fall 2023 in ECAS or PCAS. Spring 2024 and beyond course updates should be entered into Coursedog after go-live.

Note: This will impact when topics titles can be entered and approved for the spring 2024 semester. You’ll want to make sure you have the topics data you need ready to go and enter when Coursedog goes live in August 2023.

Make final changes to May/summer 2023

Registration opens February 23, 2023 for the May/summer term (1235). Please make your final changes to summer 2023 classes as soon as possible. Changes to classes made after enrollment can negatively impact students.

Course changes should be made and approved in ECAS, which include:

• credit and grading basis changes
• consent required
• component changes
• topic titles

Class changes should be made in CCS, which include:

• meeting patterns
• instructors and grading access
• enrollment capacity changes
• class cancellations

Classroom assignments for summer 2023 have been completed and are available on the Class Schedule. Please review assignments for your department to ensure all classes requiring a general purpose classroom have been assigned.

Please contact ocmsched@umn.edu if:

• A class does not have a room assignment and needs one.
• A variable credit class needs to have a set number of credits for summer 2023.

Coursedog update

Many of you know we are replacing our ECAS and PCAS systems with Coursedog. Decisions on timeline have been made, including when ECAS and PCAS will no longer be available for updates. This information, and more, can be found on the Coursedog project page.

Join the Coursedog Google group to have monthly status updates and invitations to community events sent directly to your inbox. Just click the "joining the group" link on the group page!

For questions, please contact coursedog@umn.edu.

Spring 2023 - Variable credit email

With spring registration approaching, it is imperative to make final changes to classes requiring set credits and/or changes to grade basis. After financial aid has been disbursed, the grading basis and the number of credits for a class cannot be altered.

We’ve identified all classes with variable credits and sent emails to the schedulers reminding them if they need to change the number of credits for a class from a variable number to a set number to email ocmsched@umn.edu.

If you need to make a change to the grading basis of a course, submit it directly through ECAS.

Spring 2023 (1233)

CCS is open again to make emergent changes to spring 2023 classes. Queued registration for spring 2023 begins Tuesday, November 8, 2022. To ensure the greatest success for students, please make sure to finalize the following information in the class schedule prior to registration:

• Confirm session dates are set to the most reflective session. For reference, view session dates by term.
• If choosing a set number of credits for a variable credit class, make those changes before students register by emailing ocmsched@umn.edu.
• Confirm grading basis. If changes need to be made, submit changes through ECAS.
• All date, day, time, and instruction mode changes should be made before students register to make sure to minimize student conflicts and confusion.

Fall 2022 schedule changes

Queued registration for fall 2022 begins Thursday, April 14, 2022. To ensure students have the greatest success, please make sure to finalize the following information in the class schedule prior to registration:

• Confirm that session dates are set to the most reflective session. For reference, you can view session dates by term.
• If choosing a set number of credits for a variable credit class, make those changes before students register by emailing ocmsched@umn.edu.
• Confirm grading basis. If changes need to be made, submit changes through ECAS.
• All date, day, and time changes should be made before students register to minimize student conflicts.

If any of the above information needs to be changed after students have registered, email ocmsched@umn.edu to determine if changes may still be made.

Fall 2022 classroom scheduling in progress

At this time, we are busy assigning classrooms to classes for fall 2022. CCS will open again for emergent changes to the class schedule for fall 2022 (1229) on March 31, 2022. Department schedulers may update class information (cancel, add, or change) directly in CCS.

Queued registration for fall 2022 begins Thursday, April 14, 2022. To ensure students have the greatest success, please make sure to finalize the following information in the class schedule prior to registration:

• Confirm that session dates are set to the most reflective session. For reference, you can view session dates by term.
• If choosing a set number of credits for a variable credit class, make those changes before students register by emailing ocmsched@umn.edu.
• Fall 2022 Classes with Variable Credit Ranges
• Confirm grading basis. If changes need to be made, submit changes through ECAS.
• All date, day, and time changes should be made before students register to minimize student conflicts.

If any of the above information needs to be changed after students have registered, email ocmsched@umn.edu to determine if changes may still be made.

Make final changes to May/Summer 2022

Registration opens February 24, 2022 for the May/Summer term (1225). Please make your final changes to summer 2022 classes as soon as possible. Changes to classes made after enrollment can impact students.

Course changes should be made and approved in ECAS, which include:

• Credit and grading basis changes
• Consent required
• Component changes
• Topic titles

Class changes should be made in CCS, which include:

• Meeting patterns
• Requested room features
• Instructors and grading access
• Enrollment capacity changes
• Class cancellations

Classroom assignments for summer 2022 have been completed and are available on the Class Schedule. Please review assignments for your department to ensure all classes requiring a general purpose classroom have been assigned. 

Please contact ocmsched@umn.edu if:

• A class does not have a room assignment and needs one.
• A variable credit class needs to have a set number of credits for summer 2022.

Tip: CCS pages and their uses

Schedulers mostly use the UM CCS Maintain Sched Of Class to schedule classes for a term. There are, however, three additional pages within the CCS folder and their uses are available below:

UM CCS Schedule Class Mtg: allows you to update the meeting patterns and instructors for Combined Section classes.

UM CCS Schedule New Course: allows you to schedule a section of a course that:

• did not roll forward from the previous like term.
• is a new course that has been newly approved in ECAS.

UM CCS Upd Section of a Class: allows you to view and update all the sections of large, multi-component courses in one place.

Spring 2022 - Variable credit email

With spring registration approaching, it is imperative to make final changes to classes requiring set credits and/or changes to grade basis. After financial aid has been disbursed, the grading basis and the number of credits for a class cannot be altered.

We will be identifying all classes with variable credits and sending an email to schedulers reminding them if they need to change the number of credits for a class from a variable number to a set number to email ocmsched@umn.edu.

If you need to make a change to the grading basis of a course, submit it directly through ECAS.

ECAS component updates

We have seen many changes, especially this last year, as to how classes are being taught and offered. As a reminder, ECAS informs CCS as to how a class is approved to be set up. We’ve had a significant number of classes go from multi-component (lecture and discussion, or lecture and lab) to one component (lecture only or discussion only). If how the class is being offered has changed, please update ECAS to reflect the correct components being offered.

May/Summer semester 2021

Registration has begun for summer 2021. As it was in fall 2020 and spring 2021, we are using the class formats identified in the Class Format Guide for summer 2021. Instructors can choose their modality. ECAS updates are also not required for modality changes that are meant to be temporary. 6' physical distancing will be enforced in classrooms (see Room Search for current capacities).