Undergraduate Programs

Office of the Provost

Advisement Database News

September 2009
New Advisement Database Committee
At the CAA general meeting and in a subsequent listserv email in March, it was announced
that a new Advisement Database Committee would be convened.

“As we continue to use and develop the system, it is important to continue the campus-wide
discussions that were instrumental in building and implementing the system over the past
few years.

This new committee will:

 Provide communication between CAA and the Office of the Provost about the Advisement
Database
 Determine the priority of future items for development from the existing list of suggested
The Advisement
items collected since the launch of the system
Database Committee
is dedicated to  Provide guidance to the CAA membership regarding Advisement Database best practices”
making a difference
The new committee has 17 members from across campus and has met regularly since May.
in advising on Inside this issue:
The committee has conscientiously and methodically reviewed the lengthy list of feature and
campus through enhancement requests collected over the past two years, and through discussions and
enhancements in the brainstorming, have prioritized the items to concentrate on.
system. Updates to
Significant progress has been made throughout the summer and we hope to continue Mid-Term Grades
2
working through the many requests for features and changes over the coming year. The
committee has been instrumental in determining the allocation of available development Graduate
funds towards the most critical and desirable enhancements to the system. Programs
2

Recent system updates, such as the new Advising Content Filter, are a direct result of the
Email
committee’s input and recommendations. If you are interested in participating, please send 2
Categories
an email to either Michael Kurland (mkurland@college.usc.edu) or Heather Cartagena at
(hmj@usc.edu).
Updated Student
Categories
3
Read on to learn about the important changes made over the last several months…
Honors and
Scholars
3

Advisement Database Blog Advisement

Content Filter
4
One of the initial recommendations of the Advisement Database Committee that has been
STARS Data &
implemented is the creation of a bulletin/blog for updates related to the Advisement 4
Major GPA
Database. The new blog is available at http://uscadb.blogspot.com/ and will supplement this
newsletter by providing quick updates about system changes and developments as well as
NREG
keeping an archive of system announcements and tips. 5
Update

Access for
Special Programs
5
The Database Turns Two...
The Advisement Database was officially launched / born on August 7, 2007 and is now a Coming soon... 6
little more than two years old. We have made progress in further development of the system
during that time, and there are still important milestones to come, but it’s hard to imagine
how we used to advise and connect with our students without this powerful tool! Upcoming Training 6
 Page 2 Advisement Database News

Updates to Mid-Term Grades

We are now in the third semester
of receiving midterm grade
information through the Registrar’s
Grading and Roster System (GRS)
for faculty and teaching assistants.
Instructors are prompted to input a
mark of “At-Risk” or “Not-At-Risk”
for most students, with special
Midterm grade
populations (such as student
information can
athletes) requiring input of a letter
help you identify
grade. The instructor is required to
students who
enter a comment for any student
need focused
with a low mid-term grade (At-Risk
advisement and
and D+ or lower). Mid-Term grades
interventions such
can be entered by the instructor
as tutoring or
beginning in the sixth week of the
withdrawal
semester until the end of the tenth
week of the semester. For Fall
2009 this will be September 28 -
October 30.
Additional data and filters for mid-
term grades were added to the
Advisement Database this past
Spring. Here is a summary of the
changes:
New Fields in Courses Page
You may have noticed additional
columns on the Courses page.
Originally the columns included
only the Midterm Grade and the
Midterm Comments. The columns
for each term now include Midterm
Date, which shows the date that
the faculty submitted the midterm
grade, as well as Midterm Percent,
which indicates what percentage of
the total coursework is represented
by the midterm grade.
New Filter Fields
Search filters in the Student List for
Midterm Date and Midterm Percent
were added to accompany the new
data fields. If you would like to
track the daily or weekly updates to
your student’s midterm grades, use
“>=“ with the previous day’s date
in the Midterm Date filter to see
the most recent updates.
Also, if used together with the
Midterm Grade, Section Number, or
Course Number filter(s), the
Midterm Date and Percent filters
will return only those students who
have the midterm grade or percent
in the course/section specified and/
or entered during the date range
specified.
Low Midterm Grade Icon
With these changes to midterm
grade data and based on the
recommendation of the Advisement
Database Committee, the “less
than” icon has been updated to
show when a student has a low
midterm grade for the current term.
The icon is currently “off” for all
students and will begin to show up
on student records once the
midterm grade reporting begins on
September 28. The icon will be
reset each semester based on
current data for the term.

Graduate Programs
A new category of programs has been created to Advisement Database is still limited to undergraduate
identify students with declared graduate programs. records only and graduate programs will only appear
Previously, there were three categories of programs for students who are pursuing a Progressive Degree
within the Advisement Database – majors, minors, and program or for students who have been admitted to a
special programs. The “majors” category formerly graduate program at USC in the final semester of their
showed both undergraduate and graduate programs undergraduate studies.
of study, creating some confusion in situations where
the undergraduate and graduate degrees have the You can search/filter for graduate programs using the
“Graduate program” search field (enter major code
same name and/or major code.
such as PSYC), the “Post code” search field, or the
Graduate programs are now separate and will not “Program” search field (enter “grad-###”, where ###
General training appear in searches for “Majors”. Unfortunately, the is the post code).
sessions are
available monthly.
See page 6 for the
date and time of the
Email Categories
next session
In an effort to sort out important Emails that invite students to audit should be labeled as “3rd
advising content emails from the programs and events, or remind Semester Audit” and “5th Semester
group announcement emails, each students of deadlines, etc. should Audit” emails, respectively.
new email sent from the system be labeled as “Announcement”
must be assigned to a category. Emails sent through the Advisement
emails.
The categories of email can then be Database system prior to the
filtered in the item types of the new Emails that alert a student to issues implementation of these new
filter on the student’s record (see in their degree progress, document categories will not be categorized
Advisement Content Filter). The discussions regarding important and will appear in the filters for any
advising contact (i.e., course email type. Emails forwarded to
new categories for email are:
scheduling and registration, the system through advise@usc.edu
 Announcement petitions, substitutions, exceptions, will be categorized as “Advising”
satisfying requirements, etc.) should emails. By categorizing emails, we
 Advising
be labeled as “Advising” emails. hope that you will be able to find
 3rd Semester Audit important advising emails with
 5th Semester Audit The emails accompanying the
greater ease.
course plan for a 3rd or 5th semester
 September 2009 Page 3

Updated Student Categories — Enrolled, Unenrolled, & Graduated

Prior to the Spring 2009 semester, there were just two
categories of students – Active and Inactive. Active
included those students enrolled in classes for the
current or next term, whereas Inactive included all
other students who were not enrolled, even those
students who may have earned an undergraduate
degree and graduated from USC. In the spring
semester, the Advisement Database began importing
data related to degrees awarded that allowed the
system to distinguish between “inactive” students who
were not enrolled but still have an open post and
students who have graduated. The system was
updated to accommodate the new data with
programming that created the new classifications of
student records. These new categories are:
 Enrolled — Student with an active undergraduate
post who is registered for the current or next term
 Unenrolled (Open Post) — Student with an active
undergraduate post who is not registered for the
current or next term
 Graduated — Student who has completed at least
one undergraduate degree at USC
For students with multiple majors, you may notice
some overlap between Graduated and Enrolled
students, or Graduated and Unenrolled (Open Post)
students if one program has been completed/awarded
while the other program remains open.
Finding Graduated Students:
Graduated students who no longer have any open
posts are now separated in the system from students
who still have an open program. To search/filter for
students who have graduated in your programs, add
the “Graduated” checkbox search field with the box
checked to your regular search for your programs. You
can also add the “Degree Date” field to search for
students who have graduated in a particular term. The
Degree Date field will accept date formats of MM/DD/
YYYY or MM/YYYY. Remember: the Advisement
Database will only include records of those students
who have earned a degree since the system was
launched (August 2007 or later).
Finding Enrolled Students:
The Student List defaults to show only those students
who are enrolled in the current and/or next semester,
so you do not have to insert any additional fields into
your search filter to locate your currently enrolled
students. Each term is given a 30-day buffer so that
the term is still considered the “current” term for 30
days after the end of the term (the last day of finals or
commencement). This means that the default list is Now you can
usually showing enrolled students for at least two easily identified
terms and sometimes all three terms. For this your recently
academic year, the Enrolled category of students will graduated
change to show students registered as follows: students
September 7 to October 31 – Fall
November 1 to January 15 – Fall and Spring
January 16 to February 25 - Spring
February 26 to May 14 – Spring and Summer
May 15 to June 14 – Spring, Summer, and Fall
Finding Unenrolled (Open Post) Students:
To search/filter for your students who have an open
post but are not registered for the current or next
term, add the “Enrolled” field to your search filter and
select the “Unenrolled (Open Post)” option from the
drop-down list. This will show you all of the students
in your programs who are not currently enrolled. You
may want to keep track of these students due to leaves
of absence, completing final coursework outside USC,
etc.
Finding All Open Post Students
You can also search/filter for all students with an open
post in your programs whether registered or not by
selecting the “Enrolled + Unenrolled (Open Post)”
option under the “Enrolled” search field. This can be
especially useful in identifying incoming students
during the orientation process when some are already
enrolled and others have yet to attend an orientation
session.
PLEASE NOTE: We are working to resolve some cases
where expired posts may incorrectly appear as “open”
for unenrolled students in the system.

Honors and Scholars Notations

With the addition of information
related to degrees earned, the
Advisement Database now also
shows honors received by a student
with the awarding of his or her
degree(s). The honors information
appears in the University Honors
box on the right side of the
Student Profile page.
These notations include University
honors (cum laude, etc.) and
Departmental honors. Information
related to the three Scholar
programs (Renaissance, Discovery,
or Global) are also listed. And,
notation for students who have
graduated with the Honors in
Multimedia Scholarship from the
Institute of Multimedia Literacy
(IML) will appear as well.
For a student who has graduated,
the notations for each of these
honors refer to the official honors
received at the time of degree
completion / awarding of the
diploma and will appear on the
student’s final transcript.
For a continuing student with a
Scholar program (Renaissance,
Discovery, Global) on his/her record,
this indicates that the student has
met the preliminary certification for
the Scholar designation, but the
student will not officially earn the
honor until graduation / degree
completion and verification of
program requirements. For
Renaissance Scholars, this will
include students from all class
standings. However, for Discovery
and Global Scholars, this will likely
Use the Advisement
include only current seniors.
Database to find
Continuing students with the your honors
Honors in Multimedia Scholarship
graduates
notation will most likely also have
the IML special program on their
record.
 Page 4 Advisement Database News

Advisement Content Filter

A major change which was
reviewed and initiated by the
Advisement Database Committee
was added to the system in late
July. With this change, you are
now able to filter for specific items
(such as Advisement Sheets,
Comments, or Advising Emails) in
the advising history of an individual
student. This should assist you in
Find the specific
sorting through the numerous
item you need on
announcement emails to find
a student’s record advising content specific to the
with the new current student.
Advisement
Content Filter Filter by Item, Advisor, and/or
Program
Regardless of the current program
tab being accessed, you can
search / filter through a student’s
record for advising content using
three combined groups of criteria:
 Item — Course Plans, Forms,
Comments, etc.
 Advisor — Items created by a
specific person
 Program — items attached to a
specific program tab.
Only those advisors who have
created content for the student and
those programs pertaining to the
student are listed as search options.
View Content from Multiple
Programs in a Single Tab
You can also use the checkbox at
the top of each filter area to see all
items, all advisors, and/or all
programs. Now you are able to see
the advising history from all
programs for a student together in
one tab!
When viewing content filtered from
multiple programs, the program for
each item will be listed in brackets
(i.e., [BISC], [BUAD], [COMM], etc.).
Remember though that any new
items created while viewing content
from more than one program will
be attached / saved to the current
highlighted program tab.
Create New Items from Content
in Another Program
While looking at content from
multiple programs, you can even
use the “Create New” function to
update an item that was created
under a different program and save
the new item to your program.
For example, you can update and
work from an Academic Review
form created under the student’s
second major or you can update a
course plan created under the
student’s old major after they have
changed programs (BS to BA, etc.).
Be sure you are viewing items from
within your own program tab so
that the new items created will be
attached / saved to the appropriate
program.
Lock Item Type Selections
The new filter also allows you to
“lock” your choice of item types to
remember your selection when
scrolling through a list of students.
This can be useful in looking for
specific items (like Course Plans) for
a current list of students.
For example, if you have a list of 50
students who need a 3rd semester
progress audit, starting with the
first student, you can “lock” the
selection to filter for Course Plans.
Then after completing the updated
course plan for the current student,
when you click “Next” to view the
next student in the list, the filter for
Course Plans will be remembered
and applied to the next student
record. Selections for Advisor and
Program filters cannot be locked
from record to record.

STARS Data & Major GPA

As you may know, the STARS report is a complex
document based on numerous tables, rules, and
programming within SIS. Unfortunately, since STARS is
a text-based report it cannot be used as a data source
for import of individual course and requirement
information into the Advisement Database. However,
beginning in Spring 2009, the Advisement Database
With STARS began receiving some basic data related to important
STARS report markers.
requirement area
information you can You should be familiar with these markers as the “OK”
search for students or “NO” at the top of a each requirement section in
with a deficiency in the STARS report. The new STARS data is being
a specific area such imported for all currently enrolled students, and
as GE or Foreign includes the following areas:
Language  Writing — appears as OK when both 130/140 and
340 are completed or in-progress
 Diversity — appears as OK when the Diversity
requirement is completed or in-progress
 General Education — appears as OK when all six
categories are completed or in-progress
 Foreign Language — appears as OK when the third
level of language is completed or in-progress; is
blank for students who do not have the foreign
language requirement
 Upper Division Major GPA — instead of an “OK”,
this field actually shows the current major GPA for
the student! For students with multiple majors, the
lower GPA is shown. And, for students with multiple
major GPA requirements, only the GPA for all upper
division courses in the major (rather than in a specific
department) is shown.
This new information is displayed at the top of the
Courses page along with the completed unit and
placement exam information. You are able to filter the
Student List for any one of these items, such as locating
juniors without foreign language completed or seniors
who have a major GPA below 2.0.
In addition to the University requirement categories, the
Advisement Database will also import information from
the overall degree tracking message on the STARS
report. There will be two indicators related to the
message regarding the completion of all requirements.
The first will be labeled “All Requirements Satisfied?”
and will appear as “YES” when all degree requirements
are complete on the STARS report. The second will be
labeled “In-Progress Courses Used?” and will appear as
“YES” if the all requirements satisfied is also “YES” and
the student’s current registration will complete the
remaining degree requirements. These will also appear
on the Courses page and will have a Student List filter.
 September 2009 Page 5

Not Registered for Next Term (NREG) Update

Thanks to the diligent efforts of advisors across
campus, the University has met targets for the
enrollment of continuing students this fall. The new
NREG process for contacting and documenting
communication with students not registered for the
next term is a success! The NREG tag was originally
added to 1324 records of students who were enrolled
in 20091 and had not enrolled for 20093 as of April
28. Students with an expected graduation date of
20091 or 20092 were excluded, as were students who
withdrew from all classes in 20091. Continuing
students who were previously registered but later
dropped enrollment for Fall 2009 were also added to
the NREG list throughout the summer.
A total of 1536 students were tagged with NREG for
the Fall 2009 semester. Here is a summary of the
current status for each student:
 1101 students are now registered for 20093
 190 students have declared (or will declare) a Leave
of Absence for 20093
 58 students have since completed their degree(s) or
will complete the degree with coursework outside
USC
 34 students were academically disqualified from the
university, and 3 others were suspended
 81 students have confirmed their transfer to another
institution and 5 others have left USC for
professional sports
 17 students had hoped to register for fall, but
experienced financial or other difficulties. It is
expected that these students will petition for late
adds or declare a leave of absence.
 47 students did not respond to outreach from their
department or Undergraduate Programs according to
comments (or the lack thereof) in the Advisement
Database, so their status is unknown. Many have
likely transferred out or are taking an undeclared
leave of absence.
Advisors reported that most students who responded
expressed gratitude for being contacted and
appreciated that someone at the university noticed they
were not enrolled.
After two rounds of contacts by academic advisors in
May and June/July, a third round of contacts was
initiated by Undergraduate Programs. As the semester
was about to begin and advisors were engaged in
International Orientation and welcoming their new
students to campus, Undergraduate Programs made
one final attempt to contact those students who had
not responded to the department over the summer or
who had recently cancelled their enrollment for fall.
These combined efforts produced encouraging results
in the number of students enrolled, but also revealed
the need for increased collaboration with non-academic
departments that can affect a student’s ability to
register. Additional follow-up will continue for students
needing to declare a leave of absence and to evaluate
any adjustments needed in the NREG process.
The process will be repeated beginning in late
November for Fall 2009 students who do not enroll in
Spring 2010.

Access for Special Programs

A significant advantage of the
Advisement Database is the ability
to track students in academic and
non-academic programs that do
not have a SIS post code. These are
known as “Special Programs” in
the system.
Some special programs are
automatically added to the
student’s record based on available
data, such as activity restrictions.
For these programs, the advisors in
the special program are then
automatically given full access to
the advising content history for the
student.
However, for the advisors in more
than 20 other special programs, the
special program must be manually
added into the student’s record for
tracking purposes and to create
content (by clicking the Add Pgrm
tab in the student’s record).
Advisors in these programs may
request a referral from any of the
student’s major or minor
departments in order to gain full Here are the special programs given
access and view the complete automatic access:
advising content for all other  Academic Recognition Programs
programs of the student. (Trustee & Presidential Scholars)
 Academic Review
For the departments of these  American Language Institute
special programs to effectively serve (ALI)
their students by sharing  Structured Curriculum Program
information and collaborating with (SCP)
the major and minor departments,  Student-Athlete Academic Link up with
a referral to the special program in Services (SAAS) special programs
the Advisement Database is to get the
Here is a list of some of the special
necessary. Making a referral is complete picture
programs that may require a
easy. Simply open the Advise of a student’s
referral:
button in the student’s record and
select “Refer” from the list of
 Academic Support progress.
 BAC/MD Program
options.
 Honors in Multimedia Scholarship
Next, choose the special program  International Services (OIS)
(scroll towards the bottom of the  Learning Communities
program list to “Special  Norman Topping Student Aid
Programs”), and select “Other-See Fund
Comments” as your referral  Overseas Studies
reason. In the comments section,  Pre-Health Areas
include a note that says “Referral to  Pre-Law
grant advising record access” and
 ROTC
then click “Save” to send the
 SCholars Program
 Thematic Option
referral.
 Undergraduate Success Program
(NAI)
 Page 6 Advisement Database News

Coming Soon...
The Advisement Database Committee has
reviewed a very long list (over 100 items) of
requests and ideas for updates that have
been collected over the past two years since
the system launch. The committee will
continue to make recommendations
regarding the most critical features and
changes needed to improve workflow for
advisors and will prioritize those revisions
according to the available funding provided
by the Advisement Database maintenance
and development budget. Here are a few
things under consideration:
Increased edit time
Currently the advisement sheet, course plan,
forms, and comments have a five-minute edit
rule that allows you to open and amend the
item within just five minutes after being
saved to the advising history. The
Advisement Database Committee is
considering a change that would increase
this time to 15 or 30 minutes.
Save as Draft
Aside from the short time (5 minutes)
allowed to open and edit forms and
comments, you are not able to edit in-
process or incomplete items that you may be
working on through the course of a day or
week. Once an item is saved and the 5-
minute editing window has passed, it
becomes a permanent part of the student’s
record.
The Advisement Database Committee is
considering an update that would allow you
to save certain items as a “draft” so that if
you are interrupted while creating the form,
you do not have to abandon and delete your
work or save a half-completed version.
Drafts would be available in the system for a
period of time (such as one week), during
which you would be able to continue to
work on the item without being finalized
into the student’s record. After the draft time
limit has passed, items that have not been
completed and finalized would be deleted
from the system. The advisor might receive
an email reminder regarding items that are
about to expire.
Various Changes for Course Plans and
Audits
Now that we are completing the fourth
round of 3rd and 5th semester progress
audits, the Advisement Database Committee
is proposing a variety of updates to the
Course Plan process to facilitate effective
planning for students and more efficient
workflow for advisors. There are some small
changes (updating labels, etc.), and some big
changes (adding more icons to show if an
audit is completed).
The continuing development budget for the
Advisement Database is limited and the
committee is working hard to allocate these
resources towards the most beneficial
modifications. However, departments are
welcome to support revisions critical to their
specific operations with their own funding
contributions to the project.

Upcoming Training
Are you a new advisor, or just need an Advisement Database review? Basic training sessions are
held monthly. An advanced training session is also held once each semester. The Fall 2009
training sessions are:
Wednesday, September 30, 2:00pm—4:00pm

Wednesday, October 7, 2:00pm—4:00pm (Advanced)

Thursday, October 22, 2:00pm—4:00pm

Undergraduate Programs Wednesday, November 18, 2:00pm—4:00pm

Office of the Provost Thursday, December 17, 10:00am—12:00pm
Gene Bickers, Vice Provost
David Glasgow, Director
All sessions are held in WPH B36.
Heather Cartagena, Assistant Director
GFS 227, MC 1695 New users must submit an access request form at least one week prior to the session.
213-821-3902
hmj@usc.edu If you already have access to the Advisement Database and would like to attend a session, the
access form is not required.
Please send an email confirmation to either Heather Cartagena (hmj@usc.edu) or David Glasgow
(dglasgow@usc.edu).