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.

Astra Schedule upgrade completed

Astra Schedule system upgrade is now complete. Please note: Users should clear their browser history before logging into Astra Schedule.

Highlights of the upgrade include:

• a significant increase in the speed and functionality of the scheduling grid calendar views
• direct links to the scheduling calendars from the Astra homepage
• customization options for the scheduling grid calendars
• more streamlined event request forms

If you have questions about the upgrade or experience errors, please email ocmsoftwarehelp@umn.edu.

Astra Schedule software upgrade

Astra Schedule will undergo a planned system upgrade on Friday, July 10. Access to Astra Schedule will be completely unavailable during the upgrade.

The system will be unavailable from Thursday, July 9 at 10:00 p.m. through start of business on Monday, July 13. 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 a significant difference in the speed and functionality of the scheduling calendars views.

If you have questions about Astra Schedule, please contact OCMSoftwareHelp@umn.edu.

Wifi access reporting

Moving classrooms as part of Tate renovation?
Please share this information with faculty and instructors displaced by the Tate renovation project to help ensure WiFi access in new classrooms before fall.

The renovation of the Tate Laboratory of Physics is underway and will temporarily displace many Tate classes into departmental classrooms. Because some of those departmental classrooms have not been regularly used for classes, it's possible that many may not offer effective WiFi access, depending on their location and other factors.

Help identify classrooms in need of WiFi access
The UMN Office of Information Technology wants to ensure that all classrooms have adequate WiFi coverage for classroom use 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 classrooms' access to the "UofM Secure" WiFi network.

If they identify any classrooms with inadequate coverage, they should contact Technology Help at 612-301-4357 or mark the location using UMN IT's online WiFi feedback tool: WiFi.umn.edu.

Because of the potentially large number of affected departmental classrooms and because updating the WiFi system is time consuming, the earlier these classrooms are identified, the better chance they have of being WiFi-enabled by fall classes.

Schedulers action item: Please alert faculty and staff to check classrooms
If you are a scheduler planning to move classes into departmental classrooms, please share this message with the faculty and staff members with whom you work as soon as possible.

Note: The process for identifying room assignments has changed since the start of the spring semester as part of the upgrade to PS 9.0. To locate current room assignments, faculty or instructors should visit the Faculty Center in MyU.

Topics Courses resources for schedulers

In response to recent questions and concerns about Topics Courses, the Office of Undergraduate Education has worked with Academic Support Resources, course schedulers, and others to collect questions and develop written materials to explain the principles and processes.

• The first document outlines the guiding principles around topics courses, and explains the review processes for getting topics course shells and individual topics titles approved and active in ECAS.
• The second document gives step-by-step instructions for schedulers who are managing the offerings of topics courses in the class schedule.

Please review the documents and contact oue@umn.edu with any questions or comments. Your feedback is important to us as we continue to improve these resources.