You know what you did last summer

May 21, 2009

By admin

Faculty have always been able to view upcoming quarters’ schedules through the “Teaching” tab on MyUW. A recent enhancement to MyUW now allows faculty to review schedules from previous quarters. This additional functionality changed the interface, so the Office of the University Registrar has put together these brief instructions.

To view teaching schedules from previous or future quarters

  1. Log into MyUW and click the “Teaching” tab.
  2. Locate the “My Class Resources” panel (see Fig. 1). The current quarter’s schedule is displayed by default.
  3. Click the Quarter button. Note the tip displaying instructions when the mouse is hovered over the button (see Fig. 2). A list of previous and future quarters is shown (see Fig. 3). (Only quarters in which you taught or will teach are displayed, and only those within one year from current quarter.)
  4. Click the name of the quarter for which you wish to see your teaching schedule. A new window will open displaying your schedule for that quarter.

Administrative staff can now be all EARS

May 20, 2009

By admin

Campus administrators who need to view student academic records have a new tool at their fingertips. The Electronic Academic Records System (EARS) is a web-based system initially developed for UW academic advisers. After years of waiting, this resource has been enhanced by the Office of Information Management to allow campus administrative staff access as well.

Available now, the new version of EARS offers several improvements over current terminal-based views of student data. It’s much easier to use, providing on-screen cues and information unavailable in a terminal display. Users can also generate and print unofficial transcripts in PDF format, a long-requested feature. And allowing non-advisers access to student records (with a legitimate purpose) will benefit students by expediting their requests.

Because the system displays student information subject to FERPA regulation, access to EARS must be granted through the OUR’s Data Management Office (including the use of a SecurID or Entrust token). Once access is granted, users can log into EARS here. Information on what functionality is available to administrative users is available here.

New law grants residency to some visa holders

May 20, 2009

By admin

The Washington legislature passed HB 1487 this past legislative session.  The bill, signed into law April 25 by Governor Gregoire, allows E(3), H(1)B and L visa holders (including their spouse and dependents) to be considered residents of Washington State for tuition purposes once the visa holder has lived in the state for 12 months. The effective date of the bill is July 1, 2009, and will take effect at the University beginning Autumn Quarter 2009.

More residency information can be found in the University’s Student Guide, and details are available on HB 1487 at the Washington legislature’s website.

UPDATE: the Seattle Times ran an article on the bill.

Another web services milestone

May 19, 2009

By admin

Our colleagues in the Office of Information Management (OIM), in coordination with UW Marketing and UW Technology, have achieved another milestone in their efforts to bring a comprehensive set of web services to the UW campus: the release of the third version of the Student Web Service (SWS).

Last Friday, the third iteration “v3″ of the SWS was released to the University community. Chief among the features of this version is the inclusion of “public APIs which require no client authentication.” For those who don’t speak programmer-ese, this means the service contains information that’s publicly available. The Office of the University Registrar and OIM worked together to determine what course data could be made available to anyone, not just members of the University community. More details can be found in this post at the UW’s Web Services blog.

Keep up with Kuali

May 15, 2009

By admin

Kuali, a project whose scope is so big a full definition should be left to their website, is already an important topic on campus and will only become more so in the coming years. Keeping informed of Kuali developments could be a full-time job. The Kuali Foundation understood this and created the position of Member Liaison to help the higher education community stay on top of Kuali-related news.

Zachary Naiman stepped into the position this week and launched a blog to facilitate communication among the open-source software-development group and its members (including the UW and other higher-education institutions). In Naiman’s words:

When people hear “Kuali,” I want them to think about a supportive community where it is easy to find the information you need, get your questions answered, and encounter reliable partners to assist you in evaluating, implementing and maintaining Kuali software. I want Kuali to be the pudding that proves that open-source software does not come at the expense of support, that a community can provide far better assistance than a 1-800 number.

Read the rest of his first post (and many others to follow) to learn and contribute to the conversation about the software products that the UW is helping to shape and will use for years to come. Of course, the OUR will blog about Kuali news relevant to the UW community.