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Starting with summer 2020 classes, instructors use Google Groups to manage class email lists. The process for requesting a new class email list through SPIRE will not change. Log in with your NetID and password at groups.google.com to manage your class lists.
Google Groups documentation & support articles
Essential information
- Navigation: From the Faculty Center, click the Class Roster icon for the desired class.
- Check the term: The Faculty Center displays your class schedule for only one term at a time. The default term to display changes without warning, particularly near the end of the current term. Locate term information near the top of the Faculty Center and click change term to display a different term's schedule, if desired.
- Timeliness of information: SPIRE class rosters are updated in real time. Until the end of add/drop, the rosters change without delay as students add and drop classes.
- Student privacy law: Class rosters include FERPA-protected information. FERPA (the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act) is a federal law that protects the confidentiality of student records. To learn more about FERPA and how to handle student information securely, click View FERPA Quick Reference on either your Faculty Center or on the Class Roster page itself, then click Return to go back to your roster.
- Roster availability: SPIRE displays rosters only for those class sections for which you were, are, or will be an Instructor, Section Assistant, or Teaching Assistant, i.e., if you are a TA for a large class, you may not see rosters for related Discussion sections led by other TAs. Rosters for enrollment sections are available for any term since Spring 1986, but rosters for associated sections, such as discussions or labs, may not be available for past semesters.
- Missing roster: If a class roster is missing from your teaching schedule, there might be a data error in the class's instructor assignment. First, confirm that you are viewing the correct term on your Faculty Center, then contact the Scheduling Representative for the department offering the class. Ask that person to confirm that your SPIRE ID is listed as an Instructor ID for the class.
- Adding a student: To add a student to a class roster who does not meet the enrollment restrictions for your class, contact a "SPIRE B" staff member for the department offering the class. Staff with SPIRE B access can override certain restrictions and add students to classes.
View a Class Roster
Work with a class roster
Class information
The top of the Class Roster page displays some identifying information for the class.
Meeting information
The Meeting Information section displays information about the class meeting times, location, and other information as applicable. Click the green arrow if you want to collapse this section and hide it from view. Once the section is hidden, click the green arrow if you want to expand the section and display the meeting information.
Enrollment information
The class capacity and number of students enrolled, dropped, and waiting (if any) display.
Use the Enrollment Status drop-down list to change whether the class roster shows enrolled, dropped, waiting (if any), or all students.
- The default setting for class rosters shows only enrolled students. To confirm that a roster is showing enrolled students, select Enrolled from the Enrollment Status drop-down list. Also, the heading Enrolled Students shows at the top of the class roster table in the blue bar.
- To see dropped students, select Dropped from the Enrollment Status drop-down list. The Class Roster refreshes to show only dropped students. The heading for the class roster table changes to Dropped Students.
- To see students waiting to add your class, select Waiting from the Enrollment Status drop-down list. The Class Roster refreshes to show only waiting students. The heading for the class roster table changes to Waiting Students.
Note: The Waiting option appears in the Enrollment Status drop-down list only if your class uses a SPIRE waitlist and there are students on the SPIRE waitlist for the class. For any class with a SPIRE waitlist, a record of waitlist information remains available via the class roster even after the first day of classes when the SPIRE waitlists expire.
- To see a listing for the class of all students (enrolled, dropped, and waiting if any), select All from the Enrollment Status drop-down list. The Class Roster refreshes to show all students. The heading for the class roster table changes to All Students. For each student, the Status indication shows whether the student is enrolled, dropped or waiting.
Select display option
The default display option for class rosters is Hide Photos; with this selection, the roster does not show student photos. Select the display option Show Photos to see student photos included in the class roster. If the selection options are grayed out and not clickable, complete the Security Certificate for Instructors to get access to photo rosters. Learn more about the Security Certificate for Instructors and Photo Rosters.
Download the class roster to Excel
To download a copy of the class roster as an Excel file, click the download icon to the right of the class roster table heading in the blue bar. For the download to work, your browser security settings must allow file downloads for SPIRE. Check with your department UMass Amherst IT contact or use your browser Help index to find out how to adjust browser security settings to allow downloads for specific websites if you want to use this feature.
Alternately, use the Download Class Rosters page to download class rosters for use with Excel. From the SPIRE Menu, navigate to Faculty Home > Download Class Rosters. See Download Class Rosters as Excel Files.
Student details
The Enrolled Students table lists the students alphabetically by last name. Details for each student include:
- Notify: Use the check boxes to select students to contact via email, if you want to communicate with one or more students in a class.
- Photo: The class roster includes student photos when the Select display option is set to Show Photos. When Hide Photos is the selected display option, click the photo icon for any student or select the display option Show Photos to display student photos.
- ID: The student's 8-digit SPIRE ID.
- Name: The student's first and last name. Click the student's name to open an email window with the student's email address in the To: field. Note: Your roster will list a student's preferred first name (e.g., Mike instead of Michael) if the student added a Preferred Name in SPIRE.
- Grade Basis: Values might include UG Letter - undergraduate letter; GR Letter - graduate letter; *W Drop, etc. Note: For classes that allow students a choice of grade basis, check the Grade Basis information on the class roster to see students' grade basis choices.
- Units: The number of credits that your class carries. Note: For variable-credit classes, check the Units information on the class roster to see the units value for the class for each student.
- Program and Plan: The student’s current degree and major. Additional details include secondary majors, minors, honors information, etc.
- Level: The student’s academic level (e.g., Sophomore, Junior, Doctorate, Masters, etc.).
- Status: Indicates whether a student is enrolled in the class, dropped it, or is on a SPIRE waiting list for the class. Status information shows for each student when viewing a Photo Roster. For the Hide Photos display option, the Status column appears as the last column of the table only for the Dropped, Waiting, or All Students tables. Note: The Status column does not display in the Enrolled Students table.
Print roster
At the bottom of the Class Roster page, click the Printer Friendly Version link to open a window with a version of the class roster formatted for printing.
Communicate with students in a class
To communicate with your students, you can:
- Click a student's name to open an email window with the student's email address in the To: field.
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Use the notify all students or notify selected students options at the bottom of the Class Roster page.
To email all students in the class, click notify all students. To email only selected students in the class, use the check boxes to identify the students to receive the email. Click notify selected students.
An email page opens within SPIRE with the students' email addresses in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field and your email address in the To field (so that you receive a copy of the email). Protect student confidentiality by keeping student email addresses in the BCC field. Edit the text of email as you want. When you are satisfied with the email, click Send Notification at the bottom of the email page to send the email.
- Create a class email list that reaches your entire class. Class email lists can be set up as an announcement tool (where only the instructor can post to the list) or as a discussion board (where everyone can participate). Learn more about Class Email Lists.
- Use the Download Class Rosters page to download a copy of the class roster (the class roster information will include the students' email addresses) as an Excel file. From the SPIRE Menu, navigate to Faculty Home > Download Class Rosters. Learn more about downloading class rosters as Excel files.