SIMS 8.9
Degree Progress Report (DPR)
User Guide
Prepared by
Mel Amber and Bing Lee
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Simon Fraser University SIMS 8.9 Training Guide
CONFIDENTIALITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
The information in this document is confidential and subject to the British Columbia's Freedom
of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, University Policy 110.04 - Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy, and the Registrar's Confidentiality Policy. As an employee of Simon
Fraser University, you have a legal obligation to protect personal information to which you have
access through SIMS and related University documents. Your legal obligation does not end with
your employment at Simon Fraser University but continues in perpetuity. Failure to keep
confidential the personal information of individuals is grounds for legal action.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Contact Information ................................................................................................................. 4
II. How to run a Degree Progress Report (DPR).......................................................................... 5
III. Student Exceptions ................................................................................................................ 15
IV. What-If Functionality ............................................................................................................ 18
Course List What-If .................................................................................................................. 19
Quick What-If ........................................................................................................................... 23
Stored What-If .......................................................................................................................... 27
V. Self Service Degree Progress Report..................................................................................... 32
VI. Batch Degree Progress Reports ............................................................................................. 37
VII. Graduation Application Download ........................................................................................ 43
VIII. Graduation Applicant with Future Term Enrollment........................................................... 48
IX. Things to be aware of ............................................................................................................ 50
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I.
Contact Information
For all questions and requests pertaining to the Degree Progress Report, please
contact Senate and Academic Services at:
dpr-users@sfu.ca
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II.
How to run a Degree Progress Report (DPR)
Navigation: Academic Advising >Student Advisement >Student
Advisement Report
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Report Format:
Standard Format is the default value – includes all requirements
Completed Only- indicates that the report contains only those requirements that
have been wholly completed
Incomplete Only- indicates that the report contains only those requirements that
have not been totally completed.
Analysis Database - indicates that the report is written to the analysis database.
This value normally wouldn’t be selected unless you intend to query the database.
Note: you can also run a Degree Progress Report (DPR) from the Transcript
Request page at: Records and Enrollment >Transcripts > Transcript Request
Go to Request Detail tab and enter the student ID (you can add multiple rows
if you want to request more than a single student)
Click on the ‘Process Request’ button:
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Which will immediately open the ‘Report Results’ tab. You can view the
results on this page, or click the ‘Print’ button to generate a PDF report:
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In order to print the PDF, click on the ‘Print’ button, which will open the Process
Scheduler Request page. Select the ‘Transcript’ checkbox and click ‘OK’.
Note: check that the Type = ‘WEB’ and the Format = ‘PDF’ and Server Name =
‘PSNT’
Note: if you have entered multiple student IDs on the Request Detail page, you
must click ‘Print All’ on the Request Detail page, and then select ‘Transcript Print
All’ (SR778M) on the Process Scheduler.
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This will return you to the Report Results (or Request Detail) page: click the
‘Report Manager’ link to access the PDF report:
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When the report has completed processing and the status is ‘Posted’, click the
‘Details’ link to access the PDF:
Select PDF link:
PDF will open in a new window:
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III. Student Exceptions
Course substitutions and overrides also appear on the Degree Progress Report. The
coding of Student Exceptions will be centralized in Student Services: see copy of
online form below for the types, and examples, of waivers/substitutions that can
be coded. The form for submitting override requests can be found at:
http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/36770570
Abbreviations used on form:
RG: Academic Requirement Group – these are the highest level parent records,
identifying the student population to be evaluated in the audit or advisement
process. Example: Requirement Groups can target all undergraduate students, or
only department majors, minors, etc.
R: Academic Requirements – these are rules that students need to follow to
successfully complete their academic objectives (e.g. a minimum CGPA or number
of units). Requirements are attached to Requirement Groups so that the audit
engine can apply it against a student’s academic record.
LN: Line Number – is included at the end of each line (under a Requirement) to
help locate the particular line detail to be changed when entering an override or
exception for a student
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IV. What-If Functionality
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Course List What-If
To enable this option, do not select the Enable Stored What-If check box. Click to select
an existing course from the course catalog to use during a what-if analysis
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Quick What-If
To enable this option, do not select the Enable Stored What-If check box. Click to run a simulated
academic advisement report that compares the student's transcript against a proposed academic career,
program, plan, and sub-plan that you input using the Quick What-If Analysis Report page.
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Stored What-If
IMPORTANT: The correct path to request a Stored What-If DPR is through Records
and Enrollment >Transcripts >Transcript Request
Select to enable the Stored What-If option. Click the Stored What-If link to create a new
stored what-if scenario or run the degree audit report based on previously stored what-if
information for the student.
Use the Enable Stored What-If check box to enable and disable the Stored What-If
option. The Quick What-If option becomes unavailable and the Stored What-If option
becomes available when you select the Enable Stored What-If check box.
Click on the ‘Stored What-If’ link to create the required scenario.
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You have the option of either using the ‘Copy’ function or entering all required fields
manually. If you use the copy function, all programs/plans/subplans for the student will
be copied over. You can then make changes as necessary.
Copy: Click to retrieve the student's existing record. Values are automatically supplied
in appropriate fields. The page must be in Add mode to create a new what-if program
scenario. You can use these field values to build what-if career and program data. You
can change field values and insert rows, as necessary.
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Program What-If:
Plan(s) What-If:
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Subplan(s) What-If:
Click ‘OK’ which will return you to the Request Detail tab. You should now see a
heading in blue called ‘Stored What-If Analysis’. If you see this heading, you can now hit
the yellow ‘Process Request’ button, which will generate the ‘What-If’ DPR. If you do not
see the blue heading, hit the Stored What-If link again and click ‘OK’ again. Note that a
What-If DPR will have text headers flagging the DPR as a simulated version.
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Header indicates that this is a What-If report:
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V.
Self Service Degree Progress Report
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VI. Batch Degree Progress Reports
Navigation: Records and Enrollment >Transcripts >Batch Transcripts >
Batch Degree Progress Reports
Report Format:
Standard Format is the default value – includes all requirements
Incomplete Only- indicates that the report contains only those requirements that have not been
totally completed
Enter request details and click Run:
Note: Career is a required field. In addition, you must enter at least one of Acad Group,
Acad Prog, Acad Plan or Student Group. However, if you run a large selection (e.g. an entire
Acad Group), the processing time can be quite long (more than an hour) and should, therefore,
be submitted to run during non-peak hours. Note also that running ‘Incomplete Only’ will
process for the same length of time as ‘Standard Report Format’: even though the final result
returns fewer students, the initial selection and generation is the same.
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IMPORTANT: Server Name on Process Scheduler must be left Blank
Click on ‘Batch Degree Progress Report’ – this contains the list of processes
performed by this jobset
Click OK
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Click OK again to return to the request page, then select the Process Monitor link.
On the Process Monitor page, select the Process Name (SFUAA01J) link, NOT the
Details link
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Click on View Log/Trace
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Reports will appear in a new window:
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VII. Graduation Application Download
Navigation: Records and Enrollment >Graduation >SFU Download GradApp
Enter required parameters and click ‘Run’ button
Note that download can be run:
i)
for an entire Faculty (Academic Group)
ii)
for an entire program (e.g. BSC)
iii)
by Field of Study (e.g. MATH) – may include additional plans (e.g. IMATHMAJ)
iv)
for all plans in a particular subject (e.g. MATH entered in Academic Plan)
v)
for a specific plan (e.g. MATHMAJ entered in Academic Plan)
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Click ‘OK’
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Excel file contains all program/plan/subplan information, in addition to GPA/Units/Hours
data, which can be sorted as required.
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VIII. Graduation Applicant with Future Term Enrollment
Navigation: Academic Advising >Student Advisement > SFU GradApp with Future Enroll
The DPR counts all in-progress courses in the degree audit evaluation, including those
in any future terms. This may result in the DPR appearing falsely 'Complete'. The
purpose of this report is to identify students who are enrolled in terms subsequent
to their expected grad term.
To run the report, you must enter the expected grad term and one, or more, of:
academic group (faculty), academic program and academic plan. The report includes
the student program/plan and graduation application status.
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Sample report:
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IX. Things to be aware of
1. DE Grades
The DPR evaluates DE grades as complete. DE grades are configured in SIMS
as ‘In Progress’, which means the course is going to be counted on the DPR like
any other in progress course.
2. Future Term IP courses satisfy requirements for graduands
If a student has applied to graduate in 1101 (for example) and then enrolls in a
course for 1104, that IP course is included in the degree audit evaluation and
may result in the DPR being incorrectly ‘Complete’. To assist advisors in
identifying these students, a new report is available at the following location:
Academic Advising >Student Advisement >SFU GradApp with Future Enroll
3. RDs on transfer credit with 0 units
Some courses transfer in as pairs (e.g. BISC 100 from a college may transfer in
as BISC 1XX -3 and BISC 100-0, where the B-SCI requirement designation is
attached to BISC 100-0). As such, the DPR does not recognize the RD because
the course to which it is attached has 0 units. Changing how these courses are
transferred is a business issue that needs to be reviewed by the relevant parties
in Student Services. If courses continue to be transferred in this fashion, a
Student Exception request must be processed so that the DPR will count the RD.
The outstanding question remains as to who should be responsible for submitting
the waiver request if the course with the RD is outside of the major department.
4. WQB courses with ‘P’ grades
There are some courses (e.g. EDUC 401W/402W) which have a WQB
requirement designation and receive a P grade. Since there is a minimum grade
of C- required for WQB courses, these courses will not be counted by the DPR.
This issue is being investigated by staff in Undergraduate Records and the VP
Academic offices.
5. FAL/FAN ‘Other Credit’ which should be removed
Students who were originally WQB-N and then changed to WQB-Y may still have
FAL/FAN entered as ‘Other’ transfer credit on their records. This ‘Other’ credit is
normally only entered as a ‘virtual’ FAL/FAN to permit WQB-N students to meet
requisite requirements and should be removed by Undergraduate Records staff if
a student changes to a WQB-Y. The FAL/FAN Requirement Group does not
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allow ‘Other’ credit to be used to satisfy this requirement: the student must have
either completed the courses at SFU or received regular transfer credit.
6. Cannot double count upper division units in multiple programs
The following text has been added to the DPR preamble. The current coding
permits double counting because there are more instances (e.g. lower division,
between certificates and honors/major/minor) where it is allowed, than not.
“Students registered in multiple programs (any combination of
Honors/Major/Minor) should check to make sure that credit for upper division
courses is assigned to one program or the other, but not both.”
“Units applied to one certificate may also be applied to Honours/Major/Minor
degree programs, but may not be applied to another SFU certificate or diploma.”
7. Co-op requirements
For non-standard combinations (e.g. a BSC student with an ARTSCOP subplan),
there will be no requirements configured or displayed on the DPR.
8. Stored What-If function
The correct path to request a Stored What-If DPR is through Records and
Enrollment >Transcripts >Transcript Request.
9. Attempting to run a DPR for programs prior to Fall 2006
If you request a DPR for a program/plan with a requirement term prior to Fall
2006, you will either:
a) see ‘No Requirements’ displayed on the DPR
b) get the following error message:
Error: AYRQ: SQL RQ GROUP = N (14600,340)
10. GPA Rounding Policy
The DPR displays rounded 2 decimal GPAs, in order to remain consistent with
the Advising Transcript and other reports. However, the advisement engine
program calculates GPAs internally when a DPR is requested and there is no
rounding done during this evaluation. Therefore, if a student, whose calculated
GPA has been rounded up (e.g. 1.9956 becomes 2.00), runs a DPR which has a
requirement of a minimum GPA of 2.00, they will fail that requirement.
This should only affect students who are on the borderline of a minimum GPA
requirement.
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