Tips & Tricks2009

U.SELECT ADMINISTRATOR TIPS

u.Select Header Message

• Add to your Header Messages in order to link to web pages both outside u.select (your school website, for instance) and inside u.select.

• Presentation includes both types of links

Recently added User Message

• Added in late August to all u.select sites on Minnesota Server

• Link to ‘How to use u.select’ captivate presentation

Appearance on home page

Clicking on link opens new browser window:

User Message set up

My Courses View Header Message

• On the MY COURSES Page, the goal is to have the student enter their courses and then run a Plan (Degree Audit) in u.select, to see how their courses apply to their intended degree plan. I will show you how to enter a link to another page in u.select.

Sample Header Message

CREATE A PLAN is an active link the student clicks on to be taken directly to the Create a Plan page.

How to add/change Header Message

• Log in as administrator. Click on Administration in top ‘ribbon’.

Select Manage Header Message on left menu

Choose Edit for existing header messages. Choose Add button for new messages.

Make changes as needed in the message window. Click update button to save changes.

My Courses View Header html example:

• <b><p>Go to <a href="https://mn.transfer.org/cas/requestPlanningGuide.htm?">CREATE A PLAN </a>to determine how the courses you have entered in MY COURSES will meet the degree/program requirements for the program you are interested in at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.</b></p>

Glossary Messages in u.select

• Here are copies of questions received from students in our u.select Help Desk:– I was just wondering what this means CHEMT***

Does this mean it does not transfer?– I was doing an equivalent course search and I

found choices to have "TECHT**" and "ENGLT**" as some of the results. I would like to know what is the meaning behind these results?

Course Equivalencies – Equivalency by School

• No glossary message for BIOLT***

Better glossary

Also for generic transfer- ELECT***, TRANT***, TECHT***, REMDT***

How to create Glossary Messages

• Click on Courses in top ribbon

Click on Manage Glossary Messages – left menu

Choose Add

Choose Message Type – CEG target course

Enter your Message ID and Message

Other messages

• Course Equivalencies tables messages– DPMask– Alternate IDs– Flags (You must first let us know you want

those to show)– Effective dates

Issue: Why do I see a different audit result on u.select then when I request an audit through DA0001CP?

• COM values on default MNSCU may not be duplicated on the u.select

• The COM on u.select is not directly accessible to institutions.

Institution’s COMs

• Institutions have default MNSCU, MNTC , WEB communication tables, as well as others for testing and other special audits.

u.select’s COMs

• Each MnSCU and U of M school has a Communication Table.

Your COM on u.select

• U.select communication table for your institution contains basic control information copied from your MNSCU COM,

and communication fields necessary for processing on u.select.com

Changes on your MNSCU COM, which may affect plans on u.select, should also be changed on u.select COM.

Changes which might produce different audit outcomes: DUPLCTL, REFY

• When you make changes to your MNSCU.COM which may impact the plans on u.select, you should contact one of the DARS team so that we can make the change(s) on your u.select COM.

DARS AUDIT ENCODING TIPS

Repeated courses – GPA effect of Z graded courses

• Problem: Student is now retaking courses to improve their grade. Once registered for these retakes, DARS sees these as duplicates and the original bad grade loses it’s GPA effect. Z grade has no GPA effect, so student sees inaccurate GPA until retaken course is graded.

Student is currently repeating 2 F’s, so GPA impact of F grades is removed while still in-progress.

Setting a REPLAC value of G for In-Progress (Z) grade on grade table changes that.

Definition of REPLAC value of 'G' = A course with this GMASTER table field value is eligible to replace another duplicate course but WILL NOT eliminate the GPA affect of the course being replaced.

Now the repeated courses will not negate the impact of the bad grades until they get a ‘real’ grade

COM.CURYT/COM.CURYTSKIP

Using COM fields to affect date range reporting in select

from lists

Date Ranges on courses

Select From list without COM setDate ranges show on courses

COM.CURYT set to Fall 2009

Date range suppressed when FYT is earlier or equal to COM.CURYT

and LYT is 9999 99 – Hist 1404 date range suppressed

COM.CURYTSKIP set to Y

Suppresses courses with old date ranges – LYT is less than COM.CURYT

date – HIST 1333 suppressed

COM.REFY – Used for date ranges that change over time

Problem: Courses taken over seven years ago will not count without petition.

Currently have to update every program tracking that date range every year.

Current encoding

On the audit

REFY set to 2009

Reference Year encoding – R-07 9

R-079 ????

• R = Indicates a relative date range

• + or - = add to or subtract from

• 07 = number to add to or subtract from REFY

• 9 = term (Fall)

On the audit

AND’d Courses

• Problem – ECON **** is encoded on an A line. The student has taken excess ECON courses yet the sub-requirement will not pick up the additional courses even though the sub-requirement is NOT complete.

Encoding includes a set of AND’d courses

Plenty of ECON courses taken

DARS Rules for AND’d courses

• Courses AND’d together are considered a set for matching and applied as one toward the REQCT

• All other courses in the same sub-req. Select from list are considered a course set (a single course set of one) including wildcards and pseudo courses

Solution

• Encode AND’d courses in their own sub-requirement when ever possible.

• Add additional wild card courses or pseudo’s to the sub-requirement.

Additional ECON **** added

On the audit

DARS NAVIGATION TIPS

Find Course

Also works to find pseudos

Find Condition Code3.5.8 New Feature

Tiling Window

Tiled VerticallyIn this position, dragging/dropping requirement &

sub-requirements is possible

Shortcut Keys

NOTE:F4= Alternate View

F5 = Refresh

Add vs InsertSub 2 = Insert

Sub 3 = Add

Sorting

Example: By clicking the title header, titles are sorted alphabetically

You can sort alpha or

numeric by clicking on the header name of any

column

NOTE: You can sort or filter on any to the data tables in DARS

&

Filtering

You can filter by

entering alpha or

numeric on the fields at the bottom

of the columns

• You can filter by multiple fields…the more you know about what you’re looking for the more refined your filter becomes.

• You can also use the Sort AND Filter options together to locate your data.

DARwin Help on CAP server

• DARwin Help Topics is current redLantern on-line resource for encoders

Have you seen this message when opening Help Topics?

Help Topics does not open from CAP server

Solution: copy and paste

• As the browser attempts to open, copy the html

Paste html into browser

Prompted to add User Name & Password

Welcome to DARwin Help

TRANSFER ARTICULATION TIPS

• New CLEP exams scheduled for July 1, 2010

– College Composition replaces English Composition with Essay

– College Composition Modular replaces English Composition and Freshman College Composition

How does this affect you?

CollegeBoard: Colleges granting credit for English Composition with Essay—You may use the same policy, including credit-granting scores and course equivalencies, for College Composition.

Add Effective Date to retiring rule

Add rule for new examCLEPC41 College Composition

Update TA tables • Retire:

– CLEPC04 English Composition with Essay - Computer– CLEPP04 " - Paper and Pencil– CLEPC38 English Composition (w/o Essay) - Computer– CLEPP38 " - Paper and Pencil– CLEPC03 Freshman College Composition - Computer– CLEPP03 " - Paper and Pencil

• Add: – CLEPC41 College Composition - Computer– CLEPP41 " - Paper and Pencil– CLEPC42 College Composition Modular - Computer– CLEPP42 " - Paper and Pencil

• Learn more about the new College Composition Exams at:

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/higher-ed/placement/clep/policy/composition

Why is this not articulating!!!?

Issue: “Course looks OK in red book blue book and on the student. Why is this not articulating?”

Answer: A missing Target in TA table causes the next rule to be skipped.

Transfer Evaluation on student record shows no articulation.

Rule in Red book/Blue book • AAS 1201 is encoded accurately

Preceding rule is missing Target

Insert the missing rule

Course correctly articulates

New Feature in CollegeSource and TES

• Search CollegeSource or TES

• Transcript legend available on reporting schools.

* * * * All MnSCU institutions displaying legends

CollegeSource

Click on the icon to pdf

TES Course Finder

Click on the to pdf

Icon Opens to pdf

TES

Adding Transcript legends is on-going • Updates requested annually • Send transcript legend only if different

– Future Display common course outline Link to common course outlines on school web site.

Next….

Lunch at poolside, across the hall.

Sessions resume at 1:00 p.m.