(last updated: July 20, 2007) Overview
The Web site provides advisors access to their advisees' academic information over the Web, as well as giving links to general information such as course schedules and the College catalog. Specifically, an advisor has access to the EDR, unofficial transcript, student schedule, and student biographical information. We also use the Web to pre-enroll students for classes, and to submit midterm and final grades. The Web also provides access to class lists. All of your advisees already have access to their own information over the Web. They will not, however, be able to access the pre-enrollment (Advisee Registration) option. Access
The site consists of a public side and an internal side which is "behind the firewall." This means that any user can go to the URL www.knox.edu/registrar from anywhere and access the general information links shown below, but access to the internal side can only be done from a machine on the campus network, or a machine that has logged into Knox via a modem. Public Side Users visiting www.knox.edu/registrar can click on any of the links below, in addtion to viewing this instruction page. Academic Information for Students Academic Information for Faculty Related Links The Academic Information links require login and are protected by the firewall. Knox College Catalog - takes you to the table of contents of the on-line College catalog, which is a complete rendering of the print catalog except for the departmental sidebars, index, and cover material. Follow the links from the table of contents. Academic Calendars - leads you to a single page with the most recent calendars. Course Schedules - produces an index page in which you can select the particular term whose schedule of classes you want to view. Loading the schedule pages takes a few seconds. Final Exam Schedules - produces an index page where you click on the term for which you want to know the schedule. The current finals schedule is usually posted at about the end of the second week of the term. Course Descriptions - is a shortcut to the same material you can reach through the College catalog table of contents, namely a listing by department of catalog descriptions. Ordering Transcripts and Office Forms - are links that allow students to produce printable forms for ordering transcripts, dropping and adding courses, enrolling in music lessons, independent study, or honors courses, obtaining permission to take an overload, entering the honors program, declaring majors and minors, pre-evaluation of transfer courses, declaring intent for satisfaction of the advanced preceptorial requirement, and declaring whether to graduate under the renewed Knox requirements or not. The Transcript form is in Web page format, and the other forms are PDF files for which Adobe Acrobat is necessary. There are resources specially targeted at faculty here as well, including New and Special Topics course proposal forms, and W-, O-, and DV- course proposal forms. Guidelines for Graduation - is a link to several informative documents for educational planning. Archived Catalogs - leads you to past College catalogs, starting with the year 2002-2003 Seymour Library Home Page - is a quick navigational link back to that part of the College's Web site. College Source Catalogs On-line - is a link to a subscription service that allows you to search among thousands of on-line catalogs. This link should only function from computers on the campus network.
Internal Side You can access the internal academic information screens using Netscape Communicator, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. This resource is available only from a campus machine, or if you have dial-up modem access to Knox from an off-campus machine. (Consult the Computer Center to set up the latter.) Select the Academic Information for Faculty link and the system will ask for your username and password. Your user name matches your e-mail login. We initially set your password to the last 4 digits of your social security number. Please change your password. Changes in passwords do not become effective until the next day. If you forget your password, please contact the Office of the Registrar at extension 7205. Once the system has validated you as a user, you can follow any of the links below. First set the Term Options to the term appropriate for the job you are doing, by clicking on the Set Options button. Remember that if you are pre-enrolling a student for the next term, the Term options should be set to the next term. Some of the links are navigational links to other pages, and others call up CARS programs dynamically to do tasks. Navigational links - Knox home page
- Portfolios login
- Registrar home page
- Early warning form
- Library home page
- Faculty Resources
- Faculty Grants
- Encyclopedia Knoxensis
CARS Scripts The Navigational links are self-explanatory, except for three of them. The Portfolios Login links to a login page for viewing your advisee's electronic portfolios. Early Warning Form downloads the form for students in academic difficulty in Word format for submission to the Associate Dean. Encyclopedia Knoxensis takes you to an index page for an on-line Knox fact book about enrollment demographics, graduation statistics, course enrollments, grades, and other useful information. Student Advising - This is the most frequently accessed resource. If you click on the + sign to open, many options are presented to you, elaborated upon below. You should only have access to your advisees or to students with majors or concentrations in programs for which you are listed as a faculty member in the catalog. If you have access to another student or do not have access to a student for whom you think you should have access, please notify the Registrar's Office. Faculty Biographical Info - This link produces a page of current biographical information about you. Class Lists - An important resource that allows you to view a class list, e-mail members of your class, show their ID pictures, check their class schedules, and export the class list to an Excel file for use as a gradebook. Be sure to use the correct departmental abbreviation (MATH, SPAN, ENG, etc), course number and section number, and make sure that your term options are set correctly. A helpful hint: If you click on the question mark next to the section you get summary information about the section, including the total enrollment. The Format for Excel option gives your web browser the option to save the class list or open it immediately into Excel. If you choose the save option, save the file to your local computer with any name you wish. Open Excel and open your file. Your browser list will not include the file you downloaded unless you ask Excel to display all files. When you open your file, Excel will open the Text Import Wizard. In step 1, choose delimited text. In step 2, choose tab. In step 3, choose general. When you hit finish, you will have an Excel Spreadsheet. Remember to use the save as option to save your file as a spreadsheet. Faculty Schedules - This link gives you a page containing your teaching schedule. Course Catalog - By following this link you produce an index page from which you can click on a department to see the list of courses offered that term by that department. Clicking on a course also produces summary information about that course, which gives a quick way of examining enrollments in all departmental courses. Change Password - You can change your password here. Web Grade Entry - Using this CARS script you are taken to a screen where you select your course, then identify whether the grades are midterm or final grades, then enter the grades. Click the circle corresponding to the course you want to grade, and then click "Select Marked Course". CARS also provides the ability to enter the name and section of the course in a box below, but you should not have to do this. When entering grades, type in the boxes, or select the grade from the pull-down menu next to the student. There is a comment box at the bottom of the window for any comments on the grades, particularly to give dates of last attendance for students receiving F's. Press the "Submit Grades" button at the bottom to finish. Read the warnings that CARS prints at the top of the page, in particular CARS doesn't want you to back out of this screen with your browser "Back" feature. You must press the "Submit Grades" button to get back to the first screen. Up to the grading deadline, you may go back in and change grades and resubmit at will, so that you can change your mind or fix mistakes later. You may also hit the "Select Another Course" button to go back to the first screen and Web grade another course. Print Major list - This script lists students enrolled in the term set in your options who are declared majors in the department you choose from the drop down menu. Advising Loads - Clicking on this link produces summary counts of advisees by faculty member in your department. E-mail Advisees - This locally produced script lets you send e-mail to all of your academic advisees. Closed Classes Report - CARS dynamically produces an up-to-date list of closed and nearly closed courses if you click on this link. Open Classes Report - CARS dynamically produces an up-to-date list of open courses if you click on this link. Open Classes Report by Period - Also an up-to-date list of open courses, sorted by class period.
Student Advising LinkThe most common task that can be done under Student Advising is pre-enrollment of a student advisee. (The "Advisee Registration" link) This is detailed below. But there are a number of options presented at the bottom of the screen, as follows: Explanations follow. Select Student - click on this to change to a new student advisee. Biographical - This link provides basic information about the student. Student Schedule - The class schedule for the term specified in your Term Options is shown. You can print a copy from this screen. Be sure that you click on the window in which the schedule is displayed. Grades - The course grades for the term specified in your Term Options are shown for the selected student. Registration Clearance - Click here to check for or initialize clearance for the student to register. Placement Info - This link produces a page that gives the student's English, Mathematics, and foreign language placement recommendations. Academic Record - CARS displays the historical course and grade information for the student. EDR - The most recently updated Educational Development Record is presented. EDR's are only updated about once a term en masse, or individually at certain important points such as the declaration of a major. CARS loads a saved text report into your web browser. You can request an update by contacting the Office of the Registrar. GPA Projection - This is a tool that projects cumulative GPA's given assumed grades for the term. Advising Notes - Using this link you can insert or inspect advising notes about the selected student in a self-explanatory way. Advisee Registration (for pre-enrollment or close-out enrollment) - see below
Pre-enrolling adviseesThe "Advisee Registration" option should appear under "Student Advising". Make sure you set the current Term Options option to the desired term and session. The Office of the Registrar will clear all degree-seeking students currently enrolled and not expected to graduate for pre-enrollment. For other degree students (those returning from leave), you will first need to clear the student using the "Registration Clearance" link. Click on "Advisee Registration" to get to the course entry screen. Enter the correct departmental abbreviation (e.g. CHEM, EDUC, or PS), course number and section in the spaces indicated, then click on the "Add" button. In a few seconds, the course should appear on a list below, or a message as to why the system refused the entry. In some cases an "Override" button will appear to pre-enroll the student despite the system objections, but this should be used very judiciously. You should check with the instructor if there are any doubts. We place holds on students who need to declare a major, although they will still appear on your list of advisees. The system will prevent you from pre-enrolling these students. They need to come to the Office of the Registrar and declare a major. Web pre-enrollment is literal. While it doesn't care if you use lower or upper case, it expects you to enter a course exactly as it appears on the printed schedule. If you cannot find a course, enter part of the course (e.g. ECON) and hit the question mark. The system will respond with all of the offerings meeting the criterion. You must also enter section numbers. If you cannot find a section number, hit the question mark. The system will respond with the available sections and a course description. Pre-enrolling students for courses with labs or drill sections: Be aware of whether a course has a required laboratory, and do not forget to pre-enroll the student for this as well as the lecture section. This includes the PREC 100 common meeting on Tuesdays. Some courses may have system checks that force you to enter the lab section first. Pre-enrolling students for courses not on the Course Schedule (Honors, Independent Study, Music Lessons, Music Group Performance): If a student wants to sign up for an independent study or honors course, after consulting with the supervising faculty member, they must do so themselves by following the "Enroll Independent Study" link on the student side of the Registrar website, and filling in the simple form. (Independent study instructors will be notified after they do this.) For independent studies, students must also obtain a paper consent form from the Registrar's Office and get the signature of the project supervisor. Enrollment for MUS 180 group performance courses is done by the student in the same way, using the "Enroll Independent Study" option. Consult the College Catalog for course numbers (MUS 180A = Knox College Choir, for example). Registration for private music lessons MUS 181 or MUS 300 is now done by the advisor using the standard on-line procedures. Consult the College Catalog for course numbers (MUS 181A = Bassoon, for example). The Registrar's Office will instruct students to contact their private instructors. System Checks to Expect: Web pre-enrollment performs checks when you attempt to add a course for a student. Specifically, - Web pre-enrollment will not let you register a student for a course not offered in the term specified in Term Options.
- Web pre-enrollment will check specific course pre-requisites and time conflicts. You have the ability to override the conflicts using the Override button. You will get a pre-requisite warning even if the student is currently taking the pre-requisite course.
- Web pre-enrollment checks if a student has previously taken the course. The system will provide a warning and add the course. You will get the repeat warning even if the student did not previously earn credit for the course.
- Web pre-enrollment enforces the maximum number of hours a student can enroll in. A student on Academic Probation can only enroll in 3.0 credits without filling out an Overload Form. A student in Good Standing can only register for 3.5 credits without completing an Overload Form.
Close-out Enrollment and Change of Courses: We also use the web to handle close-out enrollment. We do this on a first-come, first-served basis. During closeout enrollment, the system will enforce class limits. You can see the number of students enrolled in a course by clicking the question mark on the section. The "Course Catalog" link is also an efficient way to check enrollments by department for the current session. The only students who will be able to change their schedules are students who were closed out of a course or who did not pre-enroll. Following current practice, holds are placed on all other students. After the beginning of the term, students will need to use Change of Course Forms to change their schedules, which requires the instructor's and advisor's signatures. You will no longer have access to the "Advisee Registration" menu option. If an instructor agrees to let a student into a closed course, the student will need to bring the form back to the Office of the Registrar. Questions and Problems
If you have any problems using the web products, please call the Office of the Registrar at ext. 7203, 7204, or 7205 before you call the help desk. We will help you decide whether you have a problem with Communicator or with the Web products.
|
