Generating Audits Using the Student Records System

DARS audits can be produced using ISRS in the same way that departments run other student records reports.

Virtually every department on campus has some staff that use the MnSCU Student Records System (ISRS). Every day these people look up information, change student's majors, enter registration permissions, generate transcripts, etc.

ISRS can also be used to generate DARS reports (audits).

Of course, in order to order audits via ISRS, you have to have access to ISRS and access to the DARS Report screen.

For information on obtaining student records access, if you do not have it, click here.

(In your request , also ask for access to the DARS Report ordering screen, DA0001CP.)

If you currently have access to ISRS, but not the DARS Report screen, contact David Reinen to request this report access.

The reasons that a department (faculty and/or departmental secretary) or other offices (Campus HUB, Advising Centers, etc.) might wish to generate audits using ISRS are:

• Audits for multiple students can be produced at one time.
• There is no need to be a student's direct advisor in order to produce an audit.
• Audits can be generated on the basis of different degree program information than the student has on file, making it possible to investigate "what if" situations with students.

 

The following sequence of screen pictures walk through the steps necessary to produce an audit from within ISRS.

After you have signed into the student records system, you should see the main ISRS screen.

By double-clicking on the MnSCU Reports Menu entry in the lower right column the report list should appear.

You can either enter the number of the report (DA0001CP) in the report number field and retrieve or you can scroll down the list to find the report and press the select button on the right side of the screen. The DARS report ordering screen should appear.

There are at most four fields you will need to fill in on this screen.

• Tech ID of Student
• Degree Program
  • a sequence of symbols representing degree, major, concentration, minor
• Use COM table
  • always set to MNSCU
• Force Catalog YRTR
  • fall term of the catalog to be used, expressed as a MnSCU term

In addition, the printer information area will need to be filled in. The printer queue value is something you will have gotten from MnSCU when you obtained access to ISRS so that you can print reports. The form ID should be filled in as HP16P.

Not all of the above four items always need to be filled in.

If you only fill in the student's tech ID and the COM table value, the audit produced will be the same as what the student would obtain on their own via the web.

By filling in the catalog year field you can determine what catalog will be used for the audit. For example, to use the 2002-2003 catalog, you would enter 20033. Sometimes the MnSCU representation of terms seems non-intuitive. For example, the 2002-2003 academic year would be as follows:

20031 represents summer in the calendar year 2002
20033 represents fall in the calendar year 2002
20035 represents spring in the calendar year 2003

The degree program field is the most difficult to fill in. The difficulty arises from the fact that numbers must be used to represent majors and minors, rather than names. Every major, minor, and concentration has a unique four-digit number assigned to it in the records system. A Management major is assigned the value of 0451, its Human Resource concentration is assigned 0457, and a Mathematics minor is assigned 0025. The list of codes changes slightly from year to year as programs are added, deleted, or modified on campus. A list of all of these codes is available here.

All degree program values begin with the code for the degree itself (BS, BA, BFA, etc.) expressed as four characters. For example (the underscore used here is meant to show that spaces are typed to make the value four characters long):

BS__
BA__
BFA_
BSME

These four characters are followed by four digits representing the major.

BS__0451 (a BS in Management)

These four digits are followed (if applicable) by four digits representing the concentration for the major.

BS__04510457 (a BS in Management with the Human Resources concentration)

Finally, to represent a minor you add a "/" followed by the four digits for that minor.

BS__04510457/0025 (a BS in Management with the Human Resources concentration and a minor in Mathematics)

Of course, you do not have to enter the value for the minor, if you are only concerned with investigating a particular major. However, many majors require a concentration and would have to be represented by the full eight digits. In other words, you could not simply enter BS__0451 and get an audit.

Once you have filled in the information you wish and the necessary printer information, simply store or save. The audit should be produced and printed.

General Education audits

General Education audits are special DARS audits that contain no reference to any major or minor, but are often helpful early in a student's career. To run a general education audit you use either:

• GEBS (general education for a BS degree)
• GEBA (general education for a BA degree)

for the value in the degree program area of the ordering screen. 

Questions concerning DARS should be directed to

DARS-Advisors-Questions@mnsu.edu