DARS User Group Meeting Minutes
Sept. 26, 2000
Present: Sue Bayerl, Melanie Callister, Dave Carlson, Pat Carmody, Mary D’Andrea, Fred Forseman, Gin Forseman, Michelle Frenzel, Kay Fritz, Daryl Johnson, Gary Langer, Donna Marzolf, Ann Nelson, Dave Reinen, Laurie Tralle, Larry Uhlir, DiAnn Valento
- The meeting was called to order at 10:05 am.
- Laurie summarized
transfer articulation progress. Future TA training is scheduled for
11/29 – 12/1/00 (some concern about conflict with registration
on the campuses, but about the only time to get Margo, training labs,
etc.), and 1/24-1/26/00. Margo Mueller will be conducting the training
instead of Don. Margo and Laurie will be attending the advanced TA
training in Miami in November.
We will also be investigating more advanced training here in Minnesota.
Melanie may be attending our TA training in November, and Sue indicated
that she will likely have someone attend.
Home to home transfer articulation is basically working, but only the “A” bar option
(audit & evaluation). We plan to set up a process to run all quarter students through a home to home evaluation, then have Fred lock the evaluation. Because the courses are “coming in” from ISRS and are not in DARwin the way other TA courses would be/are, the option does not work to use the “E” run bar option (evaluate courses), then check and lock. Laurie included a sample audit with the quarter articulated courses shown on it.
- Laurie summarized
CAS progress. A Project Plan was submitted August
21, 2000 so that IT can allow staff to work on this project.
The CAS Work Group has met twice so far. The group includes Gary, Laurie,
Larry, Mike Jahnke and Fred from MnSCU and several U of MN people from
Registrars, Admissions and Computer services offices. The first meeting
was attended by Jason Elwood from Miami
U. He helped with the big
picture decisions. We are doing a test setup for CAS on an ISEEK server
available for us to use temporarily. Fred updated the group on his
progress in installing CAS. Once CAS is set up, the DARS data can be
installed, but that will be a more time-consuming process.
Nine people will be going to the CAS Conference at Miami U on Oct. 22-24, 2000. Fred, Gary, Laurie and Mary D’Andrea from MnSCU and five from the U of MN will be attending. Hopefully some of our actual CAS setup can be done while there at the conference.
- Laurie indicated that work was done on a Service Level Agreement for DARS, CAS, SPEEDE, ISEEK/MnVU. Larry Simmons will be the Project Manager. Renee Thompson will probably be assigned to us as our Business Analyst.
- Two new websites are now available. www.dars.mntransfer.org provides a variety of information relating to DARS/Minnesota transfer. www.cas.mntranfer.org serves a similar purpose for CAS/Minnesota transfer.
- It was decided to eliminate any “hour” (or CEU) based courses from the audits.
- Regarding catalog year/term to appear on the audits, it was decided that ultimately the best approach was to add a catalog year/term field to ST1104UG for each major. The long description of the year/term would be pulled from the validation table (ST3601) that is used for ST3602. In a similar manner, ST1105UG would also need to have a field added for catalog year/term for each minor. For the above to work properly, ST3601 must be set up correctly. Fred will begin paperwork submission for such an upgrade. In the meantime, Fred will create three additional pound (#) symbols that can be added to INCLTOP that would allow colleges to specify in uniface (ISRS print screen) which screen(s) (ST1102, ST1104, ST3602) to use for catalog year term, and in which order of priority.
- A review of the
6 updates to DARS (available at www.dars.mntransfer.org) contributed
to much discussion. Items of note are:
1. The condition code T for transfer courses is not currently being used. However, it was decided to keep it in reserve in case we do need to use it in the future to address future transfer course issues.
2. DiAnn, Donna & Michelle will look at Miami’s approach to identifying how test scores could be used in conjunction with subrequirements to determine which subrequirement courses should appear on the audit. As they locate information, they will copy via email both Fred and Larry.
3. The exception code table that is in Metro State DARS will be used as a template for all colleges. Fred indicated that he would roll it out to all regions.
4. Larry will double check a few of the items on DARS Update #2 as to Their use with FULLDEMO1 or FULLDEMO2. He will give results to Fred.
5. #QL will need to be added to INCLTOP as colleges began to work on transfer articulation. This will prevent quarter courses being continually being sent to DARS if they are already in DARS and have been locked.
- DiAnn, Pat and Larry will propose an approach to DARS security whereby access to features in DARS can be selected depending on the needs of the user. Larry will then send a draft to the DARS User Group for review before the next meeting.
- Next meeting date will be coordinated with the Registration User Group meeting date, if at all possible. (Larry verified that the next Registration User Group meeting is on Thursday, Nov. 2 . Based on that date, and room availability, that would mean our next DARS User Group meeting would be on Friday, Nov. 3 at the ETC Building in St. Paul in Room 321.) There is also a SPEEDE meeting on Nov. 3, so we may need to shift our DARS meeting time somewhat from our usual start time of 10:00am.)
