DARS User Group meeting minutes
Dec. 17, 2001
Present: Melanie Callister, Pat Carmody, Gloria Deick, Mary D’Andrea, Fred Forseman, Michelle Frenzel, Shawn Handwerk, Daryl Johnson, Kelli Kienitz, Gary Langer, Ann Nelson, Laurie Tralle, Larry Uhlir. Guests: Dave Carlson, Gin Forseman.
- The minutes of the May 31, 2001 meeting were reviewed and approved as written.
- Gloria Dieck, Shawn Handwerk and Kelli Kienitz were welcomed as new members.
- Fred had submitted to the ISRS developers the adding of catalog year/term to ST1104 and ST1105 . Fred will check on the status of this item. In the meantime, there will be exploration of using the “alt cat” fields. Daryl, Fred, Michelle and Pat will work together on this item.
- Larry reported that a breakdown of DARS security is still being worked on. This would involve certain screens being available primarily for encoders vs. other screens being available primarily for TA work.
- Laurie reported that a statewide MnSCU DARS progress survey was conducted earlier this year. A new survey or report was recently sent to the VP’s, and this one concentrates more on future plans for DARS encoding and TA.
- Larry indicated that the last DARS encoding training session was conducted in October with the followup in November. Another one is planned for Feb. or March 2002.
- Laurie reported that the last TA training session was conducted in November. Another one is planned for Feb. 6, 7 & 8, 2002.
- Laurie reported that the planned DARS “Fall Institute” had to be cancelled due to the strike. We are having difficulty finding adequate facilities that are available at a time when most people might be able to attend. Kelli will do some checking as to the possibility of lab space that might be used on the Wilmar campus of Ridgewater.
- Mary distributed examples of screens ST1111 and ST1112 in the lab. Fred demonstrated a method of exporting data transfer data from DARS to ISRS. It was suggested that on the DA0001CP report screen tha an additional item, “Export to ISRS” be added. The export currently happens by keying in “export” in the DARwin Report Options User ID field. Discussion then centered around which fields might be needed, and which ones might not be needed in ST1111. Due to the variety of data in many of the fields in ST1111, it is impossible to populate all of the fields from DARS. The group agreed that the “export” of data from DARS to ST1111 should include: yrtr of attendance, attendance dates (mapped to the year/term set up in the target institution’s ISRS), earned and attempted credits. The campus will populate the “transferred” field themselves. Transfer detail (ST1112) will be an option.
- Mary shared her research into the dept-course numbering systems for a number of MnSCU institutions as well as for many institutions in surrounding states. Pat indicated that she had more from institutions in Iowa, and would forward that information to Mary for purposes of publishing to TA encoders.
- Mary shared information regarding the interpretation of transfer within MnSCU as prompted by the transfer item in the Omnibus Education Bill of 2001. The Linda Baer memo of Interpretation of Transfer Legislation was distributed. There was a great deal of discussion relating to the need to have one common core of general education coursework across MnSCU for the Minnesota Transfer goals.
- Larry reported that the maximum number of characters in ISRS for test titles was 40 characters. Michelle asked about having a second INCLTOP line available for the #20 item to allow for the reporting of more test results. Fred will look into if and how this might be done. A request was also made to be able to shut off this option when students reached a specified “classification” level (ie sophomore, junior, etc.) as determined by the users.
- Gary & Larry indicated that the Chancellor’s office had an increased interest in transfer related issues, many of which have been issues for several years. DARS & CAS are vehicles that logically would be used to implement transfer coursework.
- Fred indicated that a “Q” could be put in front of the student id number on the DA0001CP screen as part of “home to home” transfer to get quarter courses articulate on a case-by-case basis. Home to home articulations are housed in DARS Select Students, and makes DARS cumbersome if all quarter students are articulated to semester courses. This program option allows specific students to articulate without articulating all quarter students.
- Currently, DARS searches on ST3602 for the catalog, then to ST1104, then to ST1102. However, if the institution wanted DARS to always look to ST1102, then #AD could be put into INCLTOP.
- Fred will explore the possible enhancement in INCLTOP to handle non-degree programs such as pre-professional, etc. This may be a coding starting with something such as #DM .
- Laurie did a CAS demo in the lab.
- Larry verified that on ST3602 that the “Appl Filed Date” field should be used for #04, rather than the “Plan Filed Date” field. Larry will do more testing, then work with Fred.
- Michelle presented a new approach to DPMask. This is to be used for transfer situations when a course is accepted differently for specific programs. This will be especially useful in addressing the Omnibus Education Bill.
- Larry will put together a memo of the known improvements needed in ISRS in order to provide for better DARS processing thereby increasing student satisfaction. Items included at this point will be the need for catalog yrtr on ST1104, ST1105; changing the attendance dates fields on ST1111 to first and last year/term of attendance; addition of an access to web audits in the web registration menu.
