CAPS Advanced, Part 1, Editing Elements

For review, get to the CAPS area in SPIRE from the Main Menu and Course Maintenance and CAPS.  You’ll see seven links there, the top three of which are used for most editing and management tasks.  The rest are good for reports.

Here we will be going to Manage Classes, which brings us to the search screen.

Notice you can submit a course to the registrar right from this page using this Submit button. 

This might be the case if you knew no other changes or tweaks need to be made. But, most likely you will be going into a class to see more of the details before submitting.

I’m going to go into 66956. And here we are on the Main details tab

Term, Subject, Class, Session and Section Numbers, Course ID, and Class Status. It is Cancelled. More on that in a second.  Then there are details on this particular section in the CAPS Section Info box.  We’ll refer back to this as changes and edits are made.  Right now there are no Element Requests and no changes waiting.

Here are a row of buttons.

The Submit to Registrar button does the same as Submit button on the previous page.

In this particular example I need to make the class status something other than Cancelled before I can start demonstrating making other changes.  So I can do it right from this page by
clicking the Change button on the same row as Class Status and then I’ll select Active.

Then you have to Save it, which can be done all the way at the bottom or back at the top:

In general, you can use the Save button to save work if you go get some coffee or something…Never hesitate to Save! Notice the Class Status row now has a “Change Waiting” message in the Element Action/State column.  Almost all changes saved or submitted must get final approval and processed by the Registrar.

And note the Undo button. 

Note if you Submit to the Registrar you can take it back into your court by clicking Set to Pending.  It’s sort of like an Undo key.

The first section on the Main tab is Comms.  This box shows the most recent comment to or from the Registrar. You can’t edit anything here but must go to the Comms tab.

The Comms area is the main and preferred way to communicate back and forth with Registrar’s Office regarding CAPS-related questions.  Students don’t see anything, it doesn’t show anywhere but here.

Type your message into the empty box. For example, “Can you check on this requisite, there was a snafu last semester.” And Save.

And then below that, you can include whomever you want to be notified when the Comms page includes a new comment. 

This is generally only used in emergency situations.  Most people just use the search screen and keep tabs of course progress without notifications.   You can include yourself. And check the Registrar only if it’s an extreme emergency. Click Save.

Go back to Main tab and see that most recent comm; and only the first line of the most recent comment shows. 

Now, going back to Comm tab notice how the one we typed in and saved moved down into the grey box, freeing up the editable box for a new Comm. 

Back at the Main tab, scrolled down a bit under Class Details, are listed all of the Elements. We already tweaked the first one, Class Status.

 

You can change the Room Capacity.  Save and notice that this change is now Pending.

Room Capacity must be equal or more than the Enrollment Cap.  For example, if the Enrollment Cap is 60 the Room Cap must be 60 or more.  But it’s important to allow for instructor, guest lecuturers, TAs.  So you may want to change it to 65 to accommodate extra people.  After Save, you’ll see the Total Element Requests and Changes Waiting updated, 3 and 3 right now.

 

When an element is underlined it indicates a tool tip.  Clicking on any of these will give you more information on the web page but pop up blockers must be disabled.  For example, NSO Enrollment CAP is a special case when this class is offered during New Student Orientation.  The NSO version may have a different cap than the regular enrollment cap.

At the bottom of most tool tip webpages is a link to the CAPS glossary.

If you want a Waitlist just know that it can’t be more than 10% of the Enrollment CAP.  Here, I’ll put in a waitlist of 5.

Add Consent has three options Dept Consent, Instructor Consent, and No Consent.

If it’s a Department or Instructor Consent, the student will not be able to enroll without an override.

Instruction Mode. The options are Blended, in Person, Independent Study, Multimodal, Online, Online plus In Person. 

Online is when a class is fully hosted in Moodle or OWL and no in-person contact is involved.  Online plus in-person is online but there may be an in-person final exam or some other meeting on campus.  Blended is the case where students meet in classrooms in-person but also a large aspect of the course is in Moodle. 

Note: Instruction Mode is one of the areas in CAPS where you can make a change and it does not need to be run by the Registrar for approval and processing.  You are given the option to click the Accept button, which then sets the change in place.

Credits can be customized here. Note you can have a range of credits. 

Grading Basis has a bunch of options: Mandatory Pass/Fail, Student Option, Undergraduate Letter, Year Mandatory, Year Optional, Year/Letter and there’s a tool tip you can access for a detailed an extensive table defining these terms.

Instructor Edit options are Instructor Edit and No Choice and are only used for practicums and independent study.  For most classes it is No choice.

Note, there are 6 element requests and 5 changes waiting because one of the requests was already accepted by me.

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CAPS Advanced, Part 2, Manage Classes

Underneath Class Details is the Meeting Pattern which shows when and where the class happens.  But to edit these you need to go to the Meeting tab.

Note you can Submit to Registrar here at the Meeting tab using the Submit to Registrar button.  This is present on all pages, but its generally a good idea to go back to the Main Details page before submitting.

To add a Meeting pattern, click the Add Meeting Pattern button.

You can select the days, if it’s going to be online.  The options that say MWF for 50 minutes or 75 minutes…I’m going to pick MWF for 50 minutes, a start time of 8AM…those will have the end time automatically entered.  So 50 minutes from 8 AM is 8:50. If you just did MF, Monday and Friday, with a start time at 8:15, you would have to insert your own end times.

The Meeting Comment field is used when there is a a start time not listed. For example, starting at 8:52AM or something very odd.

Similarly, Facility Comment is a field where you can state a preference for the building to be used.  And Room Characteristics are like moveable chairs, IT equipment and such. And then the class topic refers to university without walls (?). Note it is underlined, indicating a tool tip.

If relevant, you can note the Class Topic.  That would be the case if this class fits into a particular topic area of an overall major.  For example, in a Sociology major, CJ would be a class topic indicating it fits in the criminal justice area for that major.

Click Save and return to the Main Tab.

Now see that there are 7 requests, 6 changes waiting. 

Further down on the Main Tab, the instructors are listed. If there is no instructor listed you make edits on the Instructor tab.

At the Instructor Tab click Add Instructor.  This triggers a lookup, where you can search by empl ID or name. 

The Subject OK? field is a prompt to show whether the instructor is authorized to teach this subject. Again, notice it is underlined so there’s a tool tip for it.

The Role is Primary Instructor, Section Assistant, or TA. If Primary Instructor is chosen, the next two fields automatically activate. Print means the name will show in the schedule of classes. Grade Access refers to access to posting grades or not. “None” – No access in SPIRE to grade roster; “Grade” – you can enter grades in SPIRE but not approve them for final processing; “Post *” – Can enter and approve grades in SPIRE.  Grade Access pertains to SPIRE only, not Moodle. TAs do not have access to grade or post final grades in SPIRE, but can work with grades in Moodle. Check the tool tip for more.

Click Save and lets go see our progress at the Main Details page. Now 8 requests, 7 waiting.

The Notes page is information for students.  This is in contrast to the comments on the Comms page which is, again, a dialog with the Registrar’s office pertaining to this CAPS process. A note might be something like “Satisfies Junior Year Writing Requirement”

Remember, you can’t really break anything.  Everything you do is just a proposal that eventually gets signed off on or not by the Registrar’s Office. If they see something awry will just send a comment back, visible in the Comms section.

On the Requisites tab you’ll see two main sections: Prerequisites and Eligibility.  To add a requisite, click the Change button.  In the Prerequisites box I’ll put “Freshman writing” and in the Eligibility box I’ll put in “Juniors and Seniors only.”

Click Save and return to Main Details tab.

See now we have 10 changes waiting.

So that leaves the Final Exam tab.  Here’s where you request an exam if needed, set the format – double seating – and if there are other special locations or other comments.

The Catalog tab holds all the information pertaining to the class that shows in the catalog and schedule of classes.  The Title, Long Title, Course Description and Topics. You can make changes using the Change buttons.

The History tab is interesting because you can see a record of all the changes made to the class, who made it, when and what it was.

Returning to the main Details page, if that is all of the changes you want to make just go back and click Save and then Submit to Registrar.  If not all of the required fields are done you will be given a helpful little message stating as such (for example “You must fill in a Final Exam Requested value. Enter Yes or No for Final Exam Requested”).

After you have submitted to the Registrar, you have successfully put it in the Registrar’s ‘court’ and are awaiting them to act on it. Remember, you can undo that by clicking Set to Pending. If we look at this in the Search Results by clicking Return to List, you can see that the CAPS Status has changed to Submitted.

One more thing while we’re here on the Main Details tab.  The Department Flag checkbox and Flag field, allow for more convenient searching.  If you had 50 classes you were working on and you wanted to note a subset of them for some reason, you could use these fields to make searching more efficient.  When the Flag box is checked in the Main Details tab, it appears as a yes or no on the search page. Selecting yes for Department Flag delivers only those classes that had their flag box checked in the Main Details area.  Similarly entering a three character code in Department Route can also be used.  Here I’m using my initials CMH. Both of these can be used at the same time for even more nuanced searching.

 

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CAPS Advanced, Part 3, Add a Section and Add New Course

The other two areas in CAPS where you edit and make changes are Add a Section and Add New Course. 

Add a Section is where you use  an existing class – offered in the past 3 years -- to add a new section.  If you want to create an entirely new section, requiring a new course, you need to go to Add New Course.

If you know of a section that already exists from the last few years that can be used as a template for a new section, use the Copy from Existing Section option. 

There is a Search lookup to find it.  The subject is required, and you can enter Term, Session and Catalog number if you know it.  Select the section from the search results. Notice you can select lectures, discussions, labs, whatever you want.

Then for your new section you need to update that selected section with new information.  In the New Section Info box, fill in the required information marked by asterisks.  For example the term and the type of component it will be: Lecture, lab, discussion, or colloquium.

Lectures are graded and will automatically be assigned a class number.  If you will be adding a non-graded section --lab, discussion, or colloquium for example-- you will need to pick a graded section that this new section will be linked with.  The “Select this Associated Class” button will activate when it is needed.  New sections that are associated with another class will be assigned a class association number.

At the bottom, this “9999 (all)” means this new section will be associated with all listed sections.

Click “Add New Section” button to submit. You could then replicate this process by clicking “Add Same Class Again” button or Return to Search.

If you go back to CAPS > Manage Classes and do a search, you will see “New” next to the new added sections. 

You’ll need to go in there and make more detailed changes and updates before submitting to the Registrar.  That’s all covered in the two prior videos for CAPS – Advanced.

Similarly is the Add New Course area.  Again, there’s a little reminder at the top here to use Add New Course when you have a course that has not been offered in the last 3 years.  If it has been offered in the last 3 years, all you need to do is use Add a Section.

At the top of the Add New Course page is a section devoted to searching for an existing course request.  In other words, if you have already started the new course you can find it with this search. If there is no existing request, continue to scroll to the bottom of this page and click the “Add New” button.

The General Comment box is for your eyes only, only for you. Again, the Comms tab is where you communicate with the Registrar.  The Notes tab is where you put in comments that the student can see. The Registrar can see what is in the Comment box here but will expect any communication for them to be in the Comms tab.

In general, when adding a new class, you don’t have to have all the information.  Just the asterisked fields are required.  The reason you may not want to do everything is to just get it going, get it in Registrar’s court. So you’ll need the Term, Subject, something in the Catalog Number (could be N/A), Course Title, number of Credits, Grading Basis, whether or not the Instructor can edit.  Notice the Course Description doesn’t have an asterisk, so you can wait and get that done later if you just want to get this class started now.

And then you need to add just one Enrollment Section of the New Course. 

Additional sections to the course would be added using the Add a Section page discussed earlier.

Again, just the asterisked fields: Session, Component, Section, Consent, and Instruction Mode.  None of the other fields are required at this time and can be input later.

At the bottom of this page is the Email Recipients section. 

This is another place where you can check off who you want to be email notified when changes are made.

Must click Submit to Register.  They’ll process it and then you will be able to finish it up by adding more detail as discussed in previous videos.