TIPS & TRICKS Laurie Tralle Lori Kirkeby Marla Delaney September 30, 2014

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Troubleshooting for beginners • The Listall audit is my friend • Many requirements report a GPA or a course or credit amount, but do not display the courses that are contributing to that reported GPA or number of courses or credits • Often the first question that needs to be answered is what courses

ARE going into a requirement or a sub-requirement? • What is a Listall audit? • Shows values that would normally be surpressed from printing or

sometimes surpresses from printing values that would normally show • Values may be L (most common), M, P, S, V

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LISTALL (COM) • When you need to see what’s going on behind the scenes

• Named LISTA on most already - This field aids in

"debugging" problem situations, or simply by abbreviating the report for mailing - by controlling which information is reported. • ' ' (blank) = Normal printing

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LISTALL settings •

‘L’ - Any field which would otherwise be suppressed as a result of requirement or sub-requirement control values (like NOLIST options) will be ignored and "everything" will print, including subrequirement course $ pseudos, requirement pseudo names and the catalog year/term of the requirement  could show “hidden” requirements or details that are not complete and

why

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• 'M' = the requirement and sub-requirements pseudo

names (RNAME and PSNAME values) will print  could be handy for checking pseudos or getting pseudos for use in

exceptions

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• 'P' = only shows requirement titles and their completion

status indicator  could be used for a quick review of status)

Also called “Post Card” Audit

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Other LISTALL COM settings • S - “Shrinks" the audit report by eliminating all

accept/reject course strings from the report. • V - Causes the audit to report the A/R course lines as if

the sub-requirement's NOLIST value were 'V‘ where the accept/reject lines no longer print when a subrequirement is satisfied.

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Lowest common denominator approach • Problem: A course is not going into or is not staying in a

requirement that it should be in • Determine first if it’s that requirement/sub-requirement that is the problem 1. 2. 3.

Create a TEST program In that program, first just put in only the ‘problem’ requirement Run the audit (with LISTALL = L if needed) a) If the course does not go into the requirement, check the list of

acceptable courses carefully plus any condition codes or limits that are encoded in the requirement or sub-requirement(s), like C or better, home, transfer, effective dates, max hours, max count, etc.

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Find the offender • If the course does go into the requirement, go back to

your TEST program and continue to add requirements from the original program one-by-one. Run an audit forcing your TEST program after you add each requirement Once you figure out which requirement causes the course to move out of the desired requirement, troubleshoot the possible scenarios that could cause that.

1. 2.

a)

Most often, the desired requirement doesn’t need the course to be satisfied and the non-desired requirement does need the course (watch out for Hungry Electives that want 999 credits!)

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Changing audit appearance • Use COM settings • Dates on the Audit • ‘Select from’ Course Lists • Always use the COM wizard to change COM settings

• Be sure to change settings in ALL relevant COMs • MNSCU • WEB • Others?

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Course List Appearance • COM field is REPTDEPT • Default is Y – repeats the department on next line if course list wraps

• Set to a space, will not repeat the department

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Course Appearance • COM is NOCRSCOMPR • Set to space, no space between dept & course number

• Set to C, Adds a space between dept & course number

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NOCRSCOMPR • Set to X, dept & course number print every time with no

space

• Set to V, same as X, except with space

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Date-ranged Courses on the Audit • COM = THROUGH and COM = ORAFTER defaults

• THROUGH = Or Later, ORAFTER = BY

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Cleaning up the Clutter • Set CURYT to a current term, beginning date and ‘Or

After’ text is removed

• CURYTSKIP set to default shows courses no longer

offered

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Cleanest of all – CURYTSKIP = Y • From this:

• To this:

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Course Appearance - USECRSLNG • Set to a space (default) will suppress the trailing asterisks

• Set to ‘C’ will allow trailing asterisks to show

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GPA mismatch – Audit & Transcript • Usually 3 things that will make the GPA different: 1.

Repeated courses that are not repeatable • DARS automatically catches those; ISRS does not

2.

Transfer courses that are a better grade and repeat a home course • GPA of home course is forgiven in DARS, not in ISRS

3.

Remedial classes • Most often not included in the total GPA on the audit, but cannot be

excluded on the transcript

#EM# – Miscellaneous Note Exception • Allows the set up of an Exception Rule in order to

post a message to a student in their Degree Audit in the INCLTOP area at the beginning of the audit. • Action of M – Miscellaneous Note has been in

DARS all along, but we didn’t have the magic happening behind the scenes for it to work until October 2010.

• With an entry of #EM in INCLTOP requirements, in

combination with the building of this new Exception Rule, this exception can be added to the student in Joe Cool. The ‘Memo’ field allows the entry of up to 255 characters.

#EM# - Considerations • This is a display item, so will need a leading and an

ending # symbol. • Posted on project website under Documentation • Program Encoding • Audit Customizing via INCLTOP and FULLDEMO Option • #EM# INCLTOP and Exception set up is found here: http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/documents/p df/PoundEM.pdf

#EM# - Audit Appearance Example

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Advisor information • Give your students more than just the name of

their advisor(s). In addition to the name, you can display: • Phone Number • Office Location • Institutional E-mail Address

• 26 schools currently have #AV • 8 show more than just advisor name in all INCLTOPs • 2 show more than just advisor, but NOT in the student WEB audit.

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How to make this change • The entry codes are: • p = Work telephone number • o = Office location • e = Institutional email address One, two or all three of these codes may be used depending on your display choices. #AV(p,o,e)Advisor: # to show all three, plus the advisor name. • The documentation is found at:

http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/documen ts/pdf/Pound_AV.pdf

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Updating Programs in Transferology • Programs must be manually kept up-to-date in

Transferology • Still done in transfer.org/legacy • Documentation is in Updating Programs Using Legacy link in Transferology documentation at: http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/documents/pdf/Up dating_Programs_Legacy.pdf • Be sure to Re-index programs when done, in order to have changes reflected in Transferology

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LK

• After conducting a search (Find Course under Utilities),

you may open up to 10 rows of results. • First, highlight desired rows (Shift or Ctrl key + mouse pointer)

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• With the rows still highlighted, double-click anywhere in the gray

header:

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• Results!

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• When executing a series of changes within discipline

groups, especially adding rules or updating new curriculum inserts, it is less cumbersome to begin at the bottom entry in each group and move upward. (The more lengthy the group, the more helpful this becomes.)  Shout-out to Gwen, Itasca CC

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• For those with dual monitors in your workspace, the Print

Screen key will copy/paste the display of one or both monitors. • To copy/paste both screens: • Hit Print Screen key • Execute copy/paste function in desired document (email, Word, etc.)

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• To copy/paste a single monitor display: • Click mouse in display of desired monitor • Hold Alt key while hitting Print Screen key

• Execute copy/paste function in desired document (email, Word, etc.)

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• The Drag and Drop function works in and between

Transfer tables, in addition to courses and requirements:

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MD

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Best Practices/Self “Health Check” • General list of maintenance items • Can be used by encoders and transfer specialists • Can be used when training new staff – to remind you of

things to cover in your training • Can be the start of a longer list to track duties • Can be hung on your wall, as a reminder “TO DO” • Can be used to shoot rubber bands at…

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REFY and CURYT/CURYTSKIP These affect date ranges on courses and what appears on the ‘Select From’ lists • REFY (COM field and value) • Set year for which Darwin is to go forward or back from • In sub-requirement or TA rule that contain course(s) of concern • Example: Effective dates set to R-05 3 – 9999 99 = course(s) have

to be within the last 5 years of the reference year

• CURYT & CURYTSKIP (Laurie covered earlier) • Affects the date range/courses appearing in ‘Select From:’ lists • Notify the DARS Team when you update these so we can

update the COM used for Transferology as the same time

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TRANSCRIP Requirement • Needs to be updated annually to include next academic

year, so courses are graphed by term on the Course History/Term Summary on the Interactive/Web audit

http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/updates/documents/pdf/IA_TRANSCRIP_Maintenance.pdf

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• Maximum # of Sub-requirements = 30

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• Don’t forget the alternate view, Reporting tab, NoList

settings

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Update new curriculum/MNTC courses • Allot/devote necessary time to keep up-to-date annually

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• Add Alternates even if direct equivalent, so Goals show in

Transferology

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Transferology maintenance • Programs should be up-to-date • Schools should be unhidden in DARS to show as many

transfer option as possible • Run an audit on a few students in DARS, then run a plan in Transferology…compare results • There are new roles/responsibilities now. Note the breakout session this afternoon with John Panzica for more information. Bookmarks and posters are available upon request.

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Small steps to big impact • If we keep up on these tasks, they don’t become so

overwhelming and difficult to deal with • Request that you have designated time to work on maintenance items • Don’t be afraid to ask for help • Opportunities: • 3rd Wed/Thur Open Labs are available to come and work

(uninterrupted) and have help available when/if needed • Central Open Lab at Quarry Center, Waite Park • On-site Campus Assistance as requested http://www.dars.mntransfer.org/training/training_dates.html

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Questions? Contact information: Submit a campus support Help Desk ticket at: http://dars.custhelp.com/ DARS/Transferology Team - general email address: [email protected] Laurie Tralle DARS/Transferology Project Director [email protected] (651) 201-1446 Marla Delaney DARS/Transferology Services & Support Analyst [email protected] (651) 201-1771 Lori Kirkeby DARS/Transferology Services & Support Analyst [email protected] (651) 201-1653