DARS User Group Meeting
Tuesday, November
18, 2003,
10:00 am – 3:00
pm
St Cloud State University, Columbine Rm., Atwood Center
10:00 am – 3:00 pm
St Cloud State University, Columbine Rm., Atwood Center
Present: Ann Nelson, Gin Forseman, Kelly Kienitz, Pat Carmody, Gloria Deick, Daryl Johnson, Rita Moore, Gina Boeckermann, Donna Marzolf, Sue Bayerl, Melanie Callister, Mary D’Andrea, Laurie Tralle, Fred Forseman.
Minutes http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/usergroup/April_24_03.html of the April 23, 2003 meeting were approved.
A Basic Encoding workshop was presented at ETC Oct. 21-23, 2003. Five campuses (6 participants) attended. All campuses have attended at least one Basic Encoding workshop, but due to inevitable personnel changes on the campuses, we will continue to offer Basic Encoding once a year, and as demand warrants additional sessions. The next Basic Encoding will take place in Fall 2004, unless demand warrants an earlier training.
A Transfer Articulation workshop was presented at ETC Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2003. Five campuses (10 participants) attended. TA workshops will continue to be offered twice a year. The next TA workshop is scheduled for Feb. 3-5, 2004.
Third Thursday & Friday sessions continue to be popular. Seventeen schools and 26 encoders have attended the 1-2 day sessions of open lab and presentations. The Third Thursday/Friday sessions are booked in the ETC lab through the 2003-2004 academic year. Topics for Third Thursday come from the campuses, User Conference, and the DARS Planning session. The Nov. Third Thursday topics are: Exceptions, and Reference Year, and are posted on the web. Future topics: RepeatF, Weighted Average, Checking transfer GPA, Rule Report to MnTransfer.org, Campus implementation, New Features, Fixing a broken audit, Getting ready for web audits, Working faster and more efficiently with DARS, NCAA checking, Non-collegiate TA: AP, CLEP, and Military, Honors for Graduation, CAS on campus, Tech Prep with DARS, Creating and sending the DARS MnTC ‘out’ audit, and Analysis Tables. Third Thursday/Friday labs are reserved through 2004.
During the last year, individual lab sessions, at campus request, provided support for 29 campuses and 45 participants. The popularity of these sessions is causing the DARS team to review the availability policy. Would we be able to serve the campuses equally well with pre-determined lab dates, as we currently do with Third Thursday/Friday sessions? User Group recommends that we reserve 2 consecutive days, first week of the month, for individual campus encoding sessions. Two set-aside days, per month, are scheduled for ETC Training lab through 2004.
UMACRAO annual conference was held in Fargo, ND, Oct. 26-28. Laurie and Margo Mueller presented CAS to conference attendees. Laurie has been elected President of UMACRAO. The three year term of office includes: President elect, President, and past President.
Laurie and Mary attended the annual CSAO/CAO/Deans Meeting at Rutgers’s Oct. 29-30. DARS Implementation Strategies was presented in two afternoon break-out sessions by DARS encoders: Landon Pirius (MSU, Mankato), Pat Carmody (Southwest MSU), Brenda Zamlen (Lake Superior), and Sharon Boone (Central Lakes). Laurie presented CAS during two morning break-out sessions.
The Transfer Specialist Conference was held Nov. 6th at the U of M TC campus. DARS and CAS were featured as break-out sessions: Posting TA Rule Report to MnTransfer.org (Mary), and CAS (Laurie & Margo).
Future training: CAS User Conference, Dec. 7-9, Miami University, will be attended by Laurie and Fred. The DARS User Conference, June 2004, will probably be attended by Fred and at least one other DARS team member.
CAS training for administrators of the six pilot schools (Anoka-Ramsey, Bemidji, Central Lakes, Hibbing, Lake Superior, & Southwest MSU) will be at ETC in January 2004. Laurie will invite additional schools to begin CAS set up. For set up in CAS, it is recommended that schools have 5-10 complete catalogs encoded & tested in DARS Transfer Articulation, and degree audits encoded, tested and up-to-date.
Gina reports hits on dars.mntransfer.org since April:
April:
4286
May: 4225
June: 6633
July: 3821
Aug: 5074
Sept: 5414
Oct: 6266
Nov: 4148
Gina reminds members of the User Group to notify any of the DARS team when pages need updating.
The Analysis Tables are being explored by Pat Carmody and faculty and staff from Southwest MSU. The PEA (Projected Enrollment Analysis) project will help plan courses for majors by identifying courses still needed for degree completion. The analysis tables include data from: DARS Requirement, Course, and Student tables.
Completed Tasks
A complete list of completed DARS Team Task List: Items completed since the April, 2003 meeting can be found on the DARS What’s New page: http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/whatsnew.html.
Completed User Group requests were summarized during the Nov. meeting:
INCLTOP #RC enhancement and documentation for displaying Registration Access Codes in an audit http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/poundRC.pdf
INCLTOP #TP allows percent values associated with test scores being displayed with the use of #20. The document describing this enhancement also incorporates directions for the use of #20 and #TS http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/TestScores.pdf
INCLTOP #PR (Programs) and #CO (Cohorts) have been rewritten http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/auditcustomizing.html
TA rule report sent to mntransfer.org (a/o 11-17-03, we have sent 18 TA tables for 4 campuses to mntransfer).
Catalog transport update: 429 catalogs have been transported since March 2002. All MnSCU semester colleges (& Akita), the U of M Twin Cities, and Duluth, and 4 MnSCU quarter catalogs are available. Additionally, Bethel, Hamlin, U of St Thomas, North Iowa, Iowa Lakes, UW Superior, and UW LaCrosse, grant project catalogs, have been completed and announced. In-progress catalogs: U of M Crookston, University of Wisconsin colleges, and Mpls. quarters. Outstanding grant catalogs: College of St Scholastica, Lake Superior qtrs., Gogebic, WITC, South Dakota SU, NDSU, College of St Catherine, UW River Falls, and UW Stout.
Campuses have asked if Target courses can be changed, by request, to a campus specific course: e.g., TECHT***, ELECT***, etc. Fred can do this globally for a campus, upon request. The change must be made for TARGET = to one course identity only. This will be announced to campuses.
Tasks carried forward
INCLTOP #PD enhancement to show completed majors/degrees currently sets a condition code; request is to display degree. #PD to keep current functionality and additionally to process and display program, major, and concentration. Assign a course in INCLTOP, title from ST1132UG table in ISRS.
As part of the discussion for #PD, the User Group also requested the following two enhancements:
INCLTOP #DO [display option] enhancement to limit printing from ST1104UG of Degree, Program and/or concentration. Users need a way to turn off printing of Concentration.
INCLTOP #NC [no concentration] enhancement to not read Concentration in ST1104UG. The enhancement will allow web degree and program functionality for campuses currently using Concentration variously.
Export from DARS to ISRS for invalid target course. The User Group agreed that, using current business rules, if the target course is not validated on the campus curriculum files (invalid course), the course will be blank for export purposes.
INCLTOP #TS for Praxis scores: Need up to (+) 20 codes for licensing in DARS. Fred believes this can be tweaked to accommodate more then 20 codes.
Create Web audit usage statistics. The Web statistics that Fred can pull, by region, count each time the web audit button is used. Multiple audits for the same student would be included in the count. Fred can pull the numbers by day, month, or year. Group agreed to announce the availability of Web statistics with a campus request to Mary. In the future, if many requests are forwarded, then Fred will request Gerry Rushenberg to post these statistics.
INCLTOP #PT# campus bug request to include non-FICE institution. Current functionality identifies transfer institutions on student record in ST1111UG that are not also in Joe Cool. With the transfer information listed in Joe Cool, the INCLTOP message drops off the audit. Campuses have asked this to occur with non-FICE institutions also. Identification of non-FICE (999999) organizations (i.e., AP, CLEP, and Military) among campuses varies greatly. User Group agreed that #PT# should only be used for active FICE codes. Update web documentation.
Hypertext is needed in a web audit for email to DARS web helpdesk. INCLTOP can only read 65 characters (web address currently includes the hidden >a href=”…). Can the address be set up on two lines? Set up as a forwarding type of message, with 35 different names of darscem@, darsmkfa@, etc. Need for more testing.
INCLTOP #TM#, transcript message. Functionality should be designed to print selected messages listed on the student in ST1135UG. Include the Message Code (validated in ST2024UG), Fiscal Year Term and the Long Description, up to 65/40 (?) characters. If year term is 0000 or 9999, the message won’t print.
Ongoing tasks
Curriculum Comparison is scheduled for the first week in December. Mary and Gina will list the curriculum differences found in the cu_cou files for the dates of April 2003 and Dec. 2003. The list of differences will be sent to the DARS encoder (copied: Chief Academic Officer, Transfer Specialist) for review process. The DARS encoder will have to add any MnTC changes, as this information is not consistently maintained in ISRS. The campus approved lists will be posted on mntransfer.org and used to update the catalogs in dvlp. Ann asked us to hold the curriculum comparison for Fergus Falls until she completes her updates of additional curriculum.
Web audits are currently being used by over one third of the MnSCU campuses. The User Group has asked for more functionality, which will be a significant portion in the next version of DARS. Laurie reported (after Dec. 6-9 CAS meeting at Miami University) that the 3.5 version of DARS (due out in Jan. 04) will have more color, and graphics. Students will be able to add courses to a shopping cart and a link to registration. The new version will be more expensive. The current structure of the MnSCU web functionality (using the ebf server) prohibits us from utilizing the new web functionality offered with DARS version 3.5. However, ITS reports that they plan to structure the web functionality NOT using the ebf server sometime early in 2004.
The Advisor link now only makes the advising transcript available. The e-student services group has requested there also be a process for advisors to access their advisees’ audit via the web as well. ITS has reported that this is possible, but it has not yet been set up.
Announcement of Tech Prep articulations through DARS is planned for early January. Mary has been working with Mary Messimer, Minn. Tech Prep Program Director, to provide approved TA rules of high school courses to the colleges. The courses are approved between specific high schools and colleges. The Tech Prep courses will be handled in DARS as transfer. The User group is concerned about the time-intensive nature of the task of providing all articulated high school courses to the colleges. Mary Messimer and Mary D’ will announce the availability of approved Tech Prep catalogs to the campuses. Use of the Tech Prep DARS catalogs would be through a campus request to Mary D’, through May of 2004 only.
Enhancement requests/bug fixes
Student tech ID appears at top right of Web Audit, with no explanation of what it is. Can an identifier be added to identify this as the student’s id? Fred will look into the security issues of such a request. It was acknowledged that the student requests the web audit with the student id and pin.
Request for full demo or INCLTOP enhancement (#EA [e-mail address]) to display student email address, but only if the email address is one that is in ISRS. Write functionality for future alternate e-mail addresses.
Address discussion: institutions may wish to send audits to student local address rather then to the Permanent address. Additional options INCLTOP enhancement (#AT [address type]) to display in address box on audit should be (P) for preferred, (L) for local, and (D) for dorm.
Enhancement: Reporting via DA0001CP – create queries out of Joe Cool information, like: Report of INSTID’s used, students by source ID, # of students in Joe Cool with exceptions, program information and TA schools.
DARS Team identified the campus need of cleaning out the Job Queue view audit screen on a routine basis. Multiple audits in the view screen slow DARS processing. User group recommended Fred removing them each Friday night. Announce to list serve.
Minnesota DARS User Conference 2004 discussion threads from the User group: great value to encoders; computer labs are not critical; more break out sessions; more alternation; one and a half day conference is minimum time; AR had good facility and good parking. Consider St. Cloud area, dorm use or a possible group rate for hotel. Laurie agreed to check about food service options at St Cloud TC in summer.
CAS update: View course equivalencies, planning guides, and “reference articulation” for the CAS pilot schools of Bemidji, Anoka-Ramsey, Central Lakes, Lake Superior, Southwest MSU, and Hibbing www.mn.transfer.org Laurie has created Preparing for CAS http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/PreparingforCAS.pdf , sent to DARS encoders, outlining the basic, minimal, requirements for preparing for CAS. Pilot schools will be invited to ETC for a CAS workshop for administrators. An invitation for the next set of CAS schools was sent to campuses 12/02/03, encouraging schools with 5-10 fully encoded TA tables and tested DARS to consider CAS. Further considerations include: training for administrators, identifying administrators, and marketing approaches. Laurie and Fred are due to attend the CAS User Conference Dec. 6-9, 2003.
SPEEDE will be finished as “specked out”, and will not go into DARS. SPEEDE has not been updated for 15 years, and XML is now the standard. The User Group agreed that this in not good enough. We need to explore ways to electronically send and receive student academic records. [Note: Glen Guida is calling a meeting for 12/16/03 to pursue electronically exchanging transcripts via portal among MnSCU and between MnSCU schools and U of M – drop SPEEDE implementation if this is possible.]
Over 200,000 records will be re-assigned on Nov. 28, as the three data bases of Fergus Falls (ffc), Northland (trf) and Northwest (ntc) will all be merged. Students will be assigned a student number which keeps their original number with an additional number replacing a leading zero (e.g., tech id 00038974 becomes 00338974). Note to DARS list serve, that campuses should clone Fergus Falls to the new FICE code, once it is determined.
The User Group agreed that setting a DARS catalog in ST1104UG is an enhancement that should be recommendation to ITS. Add an additional field in ST1104UG, after the first year of enrollment, establishing the catalog (program and date) in which the student is working. The catalog should have a valid program check and a valid major table. Additional discussion included the need to identify catalogs that do not exist in ISRS, and to accommodate campus needs for identifying majors beyond the current catalog. Advisors need to identify pre-majors for AA students. While campuses can force audits for pre-programs, they won’t be available for web audits, as these audits are from the approved program inventory list. The User Group recommends that more discussion (additional work groups) by brought into the discussion to find a way to identify pre-programs in ISRS.
