About UM Tracker


On this page:

 

Use SPIRE's UM Tracker to keep track of groups of people such as students in a minor, a special program, or a particular situation. Tracker Groups feature customizable headings for up to six columns of information and an unlimited number of checklist items. The customizations enable you to create your own place to store data within SPIRE.

UM Tracker’s link to SPIRE’s centralized and current data is its greatest strength. Students’ academic records and contact information change quickly, making it hard to keep downloaded records up to date. UM Tracker offers a powerful compromise; you can have flexibility in organizing information that you want to track (similar to a spreadsheet) and you can have reliable related information almost instantly using Tracker Queries.

Essential information

* Navigation: Navigator icon > Campus Profiles > UM Tracker
The UM Tracker folder includes three menu options:
> Tracker Queries - Get contact or academic information for Group members using this page.
> Track People - Add people to your Group. Instructions for managing membership are on this page.
> Manage Tracker Groups - Category Owners use this page to create and maintain Groups.

* Get started: The first step is to have a Tracker Category assigned for your department. Email spire-support@it.umass.edu to see if one exists or to request a new Category. When a Category is in place, the Category Owner can set up your Tracker Group, and you can start adding people and tracking information right away. 

* Key concepts: Gain a better understanding of UM Tracker by familiarizing yourself with the following terms:

Tracker Categories vs. Tracker Groups

UM Tracker uses two levels of organization to store customized lists of people. 

The Tracker Category is the higher level of organization, and an unlimited number of Tracker Groups can be collected under it. Tracker Categories often represent departments or offices, such as Music or Undergraduate Advising, but they can represent other kinds of associations just as well. Consider using a Tracker Category and one or more Groups if you need to keep track of information about people who are involved in interdepartmental projects or committees, for example.

The Tracker Group is a list of people who do not already have a connection within SPIRE based on their data. Staff with Undergraduate Query access can run a query to get a list of their majors because all of those students’ records already share the same major code. They do not need to create a Tracker Group for department majors. By contrast, students who are minors in a subject do not have a code in SPIRE to signify that status until just before they graduate. UM Tracker is an ideal solution to help departments keep track of their minors as those students complete courses over time to satisfy the minor program’s requirements. 

Tracker Groups also provide a way for you to store information that is not stored anywhere else in SPIRE. You decide how to customize your Group’s information to best suit your needs. If you need to track students who are minors in your department, for example, you can set up each minor program requirement as a Checklist item, which you will use to note for each student which class they took to satisfy the requirement. Read more about using Extra Info Items or the Checklist feature to customize your list.

Category Owners vs. Group Users

UM Tracker has security controls to limit who has access to individual Tracker Groups. Just as Tracker information is organized at two levels (Category and Group), so are the security controls organized at two levels, Category Owners and Group Users. People at either level can update Tracker data for only those categories or groups that they have permission to access. 

A Category Owner sets up and maintains Tracker Groups under their Category code on behalf of anyone who needs to establish a Group within that Category. See UM Tracker for Category Ownersfor details about setting up Groups. Each department, program, or organization should designate at least one Category Owner to manage its Tracker Groups and to serve as a resource for Group Users. People who want to be Category Owners may request a new Tracker Category to represent their department by emailing SPIRE User Support at spire-support@it.umass.edu.

Group Users are simply people who need to keep track of details about a group of people. They work with their department’s Category Owner to set up any customizations (see Extra Info & Checklists in UM Tracker). Group Users are the people who add or remove people from the Tracker Group and who update the tracking information over time.

A Tracker Category may have unlimited Category Owners, although one or two people should be sufficient to manage most departments’ Group management needs. Similarly, a Tracker Group can have unlimited Group Users who share the ability and responsibility to update Tracker information. Note that Category Owners automatically gain Group User permission to all Groups in their Categories.

Contact spire-support@it.umass.edu with any questions or comments.