Coursedog launches August 21

Coursedog—the integrated course and program approval workflow system replacing ECAS, PCAS, and University catalogs—will launch Monday, August 21. All previous users of ECAS and PCAS will automatically have equivalent access in Coursedog and individual invitations to required training have been sent to them. Any new access will need to be requested after Coursedog launches. Post-launch information on requesting access, completing training, and support contact information can be found at z.umn.edu/coursedog-support.

ECAS and PCAS will be available as view-only for several months as a historical reference.

In addition to changes in the curriculum management workflow, there will be significant changes to the University catalog and the links to individual programs. The main page for catalogs will remain catalogs.umn.edu, but users will select which campus they want to view. The links for each program within the catalog (starting with https:/onestop2.umn.edu/pcas) will be different. Any website currently pointing to an individual program page in the catalog will need to manually update them to the new link. More information about this is on the Coursedog Project webpage.

If you have questions, please direct them to coursedog@umn.edu.

Coursedog update

The Coursedog project is moving towards our August 21, 2023 launch date. Thank you to all of our fabulous project team members and stakeholders who have provided their time & expertise throughout the project. Without campus support, this transition from ECAS & PCAS to Coursedog would not be possible.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

This month, 18.5% of current ECAS & PCAS users in the University community participated in UAT testing to validate that the Coursedog system fulfills business requirements. These participants represented almost every TC college and each campus. A post-test survey found that Coursedog scored better or about the same as ECAS & PCAS in all of the following: look & feel, intuitiveness, accuracy, time/number of steps required to complete a task, and help functions.

Upcoming milestones

• Coursedog "freeze": June 2, 2023
• The project team will be locked out of the Coursedog system as they work to copy over our Coursedog testing environment configurations and settings to a new production environment.
• ECAS & PCAS “freeze”: July 8, 2023
• The data transfer between current systems and Coursedog begins. Extensive data validation is completed, and ECAS and PCAS users of all levels will no longer be able to make any changes in current systems.
• Coursedog Training Modules available: July 2023
• Coursedog training modules will become available in Training Hub starting the end of July 2023. Current ECAS & PCAS users will receive an email invite as soon as they are ready.
• Coursedog go-live: August 21, 2023
• Coursedog will become available to previous users of ECAS and PCAS at equivalent access roles.

More information, including a project timeline and sneak peak videos, are available on the Coursedog project page.

PCAS access

In-person training is no longer required for initial update access to PCAS.

Access is now granted by submitting an Access Request Form for the programs which you would update. Once your access is approved, Academic Support Resources will email self-directed training materials and update your training record.

New users are encouraged to contact srhelp@umn.edu for support and individual training as needed.

New graduate education catalog

The new graduate education catalog is now available online. The PDF version of this catalog, with links to University policies and campus resources, will be available soon.

This is the first graduate education catalog to be generated from the Program and Curriculum Approval System (PCAS), as well as the first to include all graduate programs of the University. Users may now search for the most current program information using the search feature of the online catalog, including a search by keyword.

Current and archived catalogs are available as PDFs on the University catalog website. Catalogs for all campuses can also be found online.

University catalog will transition to ASR

In the near future, ASR will assume responsibility for the maintenance and production of the University catalog--work previously done by University Relations--for all campuses (undergraduate and graduate). Tasks will include review and editing of course and curriculum information in central systems (i.e., ECAS and PCAS) and the creation of a bi-yearly printable version of the catalog. Questions about this transition can be directed to Tina Falkner or Ingrid Nuttall.

Confirm Completion of College Review of Graduate Program Data in PCAS

The Grad PCAS project team is requesting that all colleges verify that they have completed the review of their program entries in PCAS. To confirm the review is complete, send an email to Vicki Field by February 1. If the review has not yet been completed, the email should include the names of the programs still under review and the expected completion date.

Vicki Field, on behalf of the Grad PCAS project team, sent an email to collegiate contacts on January 27 with detailed information about this request.

Reviewing graduate program data in PCAS

Entry of graduate program data in the Program and Curriculum Approval System (PCAS) is complete and ready for review by colleges. A Google site explaining the process is now available. Colleges have until February 1 to review and make changes to the information currently entered.