Acadia Colleague Enhancement

The process for managing waitlist is now automated.  Rules can be put in place to create priority levels for students based on various criteria. There will be further communication on this process.

Waitlists can also be managed via the User Interface.  If you want to manually manage waitlists here are the steps:

Once you type in your Acadia username and password the system will launch.   In the search box type CWLM.  Another search box will appear asking for the course name.  Type in the course code of the course that you wish to review such in this format: PSYC 1013.  A list will appear.  Choose the course with the appropriate term and click on it.  Once you are in the course screen the list of waitlisted students will be there.  In order to grant permission to the student to register in the class change the “A” to “P” in the “stat” category.  Now Save and Update when you have all of the updates that you want to make included.  You will be prompted to do both. Once completed click on Save All.  This completes the process.  The student will be sent an email that indicates that they have 2 days to register in order to secure their place.  They complete this registration in their Self Service portal.  Another way to access your waitlist is to use the SWLM screen.  Once you enter the course code you will be provided with a list of course sections.  Click on the appropriate section and you will see your waitlist.  Follow the same instructions as above to complete the process.

There is a distinction between Department Permission, Faculty Consent and Requisite Waiver, not just in the language in the Course description, but also how it is “approved” so that the student can register. If the course description from our Academic Calendar mentions “permission of the Instructor”, then we have set the Instructor Consent on the CRES screen for that course as “YES” and therefore, the faculty member would need to grant “Faculty Consent” via Self Service. If the course description states that permission of the department is required, then “Petition Required” field has been set to “YES” and the Department Head or faculty member with access to approve will need to grant a Petition, under Permissions in Self Service. If a faculty member or department is approving a Requisite Waiver, then the Faculty or whomever has approval access for a Requisite Waiver, will need to grant a Requisite Waiver under the Permission in Self Service. All three of the above approval methods are also able to be done in the User Interface. If faculty and/or departments are unsure of which they need to grant, please refer to the Academic Calendar of Courses and those stated course descriptions.

Individuals will have the appropriate permissions needed to carry out their duties.  The system will not change that.  The authority for course overrides sits with faculty and the registrar’s office.  Who takes the action for the override within the system is outside of the scope of this project and will be reviewed with those involved.

Academic advising will continue to be an important aspect of service to students. Self-service within Colleague is meant to allow students the ability to register in courses. Students will always have the option of seeking out help and there will be safeguards in the new system to avoid situations like duplication of course registrations. Students and advisors will be able to see degree progress in real-time as degree audit functions will be built directly into the system. The Colleague Student module will enable the advising to focus on what matters and remove the more straightforward aspects of degree planning. Overrides will be handled through electronic workflows within the system, for example students will be able to add themselves to waitlists, request permission to enroll in a course via permission of instructor, etc. These will be handled through workflows which will enable the faculty member to approve or deny through their portion of the self-serve module.

Academic advising is an ongoing process. A periodic review with the student should be done to ensure that repercussions are not left for 1- 2 years. Both the administrative assistants and the Registrar’s office will still be available to direct and assist students. Student planning is also meant to offer students the ability to scenario plan in a safe environment (student planning) then discuss options with their advisor. This functionality is meant to allow fruitful discussions with students to ensure that they are making choices aligned with their academic goals. The new system will catch more of the mistakes so that they are identified early and not discovered a year or 2 later when it is much more difficult to remedy. The degree audit module will show students and advisors where there are gaps in their degree plan and it will flag for them courses that don’t fit within their degree structure.

The system will flag many more of the problems that may come up.  It should be very rare that a student is able to register for a course for which they are ineligible – the system will check and verify that they are eligible. Perhaps the name of the user interface is confusing. Self-service is meant to allow people the ability to do things within the system on their own with a more appealing interface. However, it is an interface for the Colleague Student Information System. As a result, it functions based on the parameters and permissions within the Colleague system. This should not imply that when in self-service one can do anything they wish. This will be driven by permissions agreed upon. The new interface is meant to be more user friendly.

We strongly believe that Project ACE will support the mission of Acadia. Indeed a personalized education will continue to happen. The Colleague system will allow students to contribute to their academic experience. This will allow for more constructive advising sessions. There will always be room for personalized support to happen with the new system.

Every employee and student has an ID number associated with them.  This is different than an email address which gives you access to the system.

For students, their username is the first part of their email address before the @acadiau.ca. This, in combination with a password, is used to log into most systems, including Colleague Self Service. Their username may not contain components of their Identification number. For more information, please see:  What is my Acadia Identification and What is my Username and Password.

Degree Audit, as configured and set up in the Student Planning workshops, will be replacing the PACE.