FERPA Q&A

Q: May I email my class list a list of everyone’s grades on a recent exam if I use student ID numbers instead of student names?

A: No, this is not permitted by FERPA. Even when you do not use students’ names, distributing grades using personally identifiable information such as a student ID number is prohibited. The best practice is to only distribute grades to individual students rather than using a list.

Working with University Data Self-Help Guide

One of the key recommendations from the Analytics and Data Integration fCoP was to help improve general understanding of enterprise data; what is available, where it comes from, how it is defined, how it is organized, how to use it, and where to go for help.

In response, EDMR partnered with OIT to develop an Overview to Working with University Data Self-Help Guide. This guide contains information on how to get access to data, how to use data and reports, how to improve understanding of existing data, and where to go for help. Keep in mind that this is the initial launch of the site, and that additional content will be added throughout the year based on your feedback.

You can share your feedback by using the “Give feedback” button located in the upper right corner of the Self-Help Guide. Also, for ServiceNow articles you can add your feedback directly into the page by selecting one of the options under the “Was this page helpful?” section (see this example).

Changes to ECAS and key links added to MyU

On October 23, the following changes were implemented in ECAS:

• Remove the CCE Catalog Description field for all system campuses.
• Remove 'Additional Course Information (for catalog production)' field for Morris campus.
• Remove the Student Learning Objectives, Writing Intensive, and Strategic Objectives & Consultation sections for Rochester.
• Improve functionality and text description of the Instructor Contact Hours field.
• Add functionality for the Community-Engaged Learning course attribute (all campuses except for Morris).
• Adjust which courses are routed to the Twin Cities’ Graduate School approval level.

Additionally, editors and approvers for ECAS and PCAS proposals will now see key links to log in to these systems in MyU.

ARFs moving to ServiceNow workflows

The Provisioning & Request team has been working towards converting all of our Access Request Forms (ARFs) that are PDFs into ServiceNow workflows. View the current list of forms that are or will be updated. If you would like to see an example of a converted form, the "HR PeopleSoft" form in the central part of the page has been completed.

Search for online classes by Mode of Instruction

In an effort to reduce confusion on how to search for online classes, the "Online course" course attribute has been removed from both the class and course searches. Users should now use instruction mode, "Completely Online," in the Class Search to search for online classes. In the Course Catalog Search, the text "online sections may be available" will display in the results if the course has the ONL course attribute, but "Online course" is no longer a search option.

Students can order transcripts by career

A new feature was added to the Parchment storefront on Sunday, October 23 for transcript orders. Students now have the option to order an official transcript for an individual career level. They have been able to request this in person, but now have the option to do this online. If you have any questions, email otr@umn.edu.

Change to Reporting Center: preferred name

Beginning November 17 (by 1:00 p.m.), six reports in Reporting Center will reflect a student’s preferred name instead of their primary (legal) name. If a student has not listed a preferred name, their primary (legal) name will continue to be used. The six reports that will use preferred name include:

• Student selector (report ID 314)
• Major/minor roster (report ID 233)
• Student group roster (report ID 2) 
• Dean’s list (report ID 230)
• Degree applicant (report ID 195)
• Student addresses (report ID 88) (This is a drill-through report linked to the other reports.)

APAS reports will also include a student’s preferred name. Students can enter a preferred name via MyU > My Info. This change has been implemented to give students more control over how their personal information appears to others. In the future, additional reports will begin using preferred names instead of primary (legal) names.

Degree progress tool in MyU

On October 23, the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities and Rochester campuses launched a new tool within MyU to help undergraduate students better track their degree progress and plan for timely graduation. The tool utilizes data from APAS to calculate a student's progress within their degree program. Students will receive recommendations, based on their individual progress, to help guide them toward four-year degree completion (for fall NHS admits) and timely completion (for other admit types).

Undergraduate students can find this tool in MyU under Academics > Degree Progress. Additionally, an interpretation guide for this new tool is available in the Advisor Toolkit. If you have questions, contact the Student Degree Progress team at asr-sdp@umn.edu.