The University of Arizona

What's New for Fall 2010: UAccess Student


When will departments be expected to use UAccess Student for their course offerings?

The University of Arizona’s new student information system, UAccess Student, is in the process of being implemented for the Course Catalog and Schedule of Classes. The system, which went live on October 12th, 2009, will be used to create the Schedule of Classes for the Fall 2010 semester. While the Fall 2010 semester is being created in UAccess Student, the University’s old system, SIS, will continue to be used for the Fall 2009, Spring 2010 and Summer 2010 semesters. UAccess Student will become the University of Arizona’s system of record in March of 2010. Until that point, departments will be working in SIS for any course adds, changes or cancels for the Fall 2009, Spring 2010, and Summer 2010 semesters, while using UAccess Student to record their course offerings for the Fall 2010 semester. Once UAccess Student becomes the system of record in March 2010, departments will use only UAccess Student for all course adds, changes and cancels for all semesters.

Fall 2009 (094) will take place completely in SIS. This semester will continue to be business as usual. Spring 2010 (101/2101) was created using the old greenbar process, and is currently in SIS. The semester will take place in SIS until the switchover slated for March 22nd. By March almost all courses will have settled into their permanent homes for the semester, so departments won’t need to deal with many course adds, changes or cancels in the new system for the Spring semester. On March 22nd all semesters will be converted into UAccess Student and SIS will no longer be the system of record. Grading for the 101 semester will be handled using UAccess Student. Summer 2010 (102 and 103/2102 and 2103) is currently being created using the old greenbar process. On March 22nd, the Summer semesters will be converted from SIS to UAccess Student, in time for student registration to occur for that semester. Registration, start of term, end of term and grading will all take place in UAccess Student for Summer. Fall 2010 (2104) will be the first semester that will go through the entire semester lifespan (from schedule creation to grading) wholly in UAccess Student. Departments will have open access to the UAccess Student system to create their course offerings for Fall 2010 from the day after attending a training session through December 11th. Please see the Workshops and Training Team’s website for more information on training sessions scheduled for departments to learn how to work in the new system to create the semester’s course offerings. As always, Room and Course Scheduling is here to help make this process go as smoothly as possible.

How will UAccess Student change the process of submitting course offerings for departments?

In SIS, the current process for creating the Schedule of Classes includes many steps: a copy of the previous like semester is created, from which excel spreadsheets (Greenbars) are made available to departments. The department makes any necessary changes to the course offerings, submits the revised spreadsheet, and waits for the information to appear in SIS. In the meantime, Room and Course Scheduling receives the spreadsheets, reviews and revises them for formatting and content errors, uploads the information into scheduling software to assign rooms to those sections needing rooms, and finally uploads that information into SIS.

In UAccess Student, the process will involve fewer steps: departments will be given access to the system itself with a copy of the previous like semester pre-loaded. Rather than making changes to a spreadsheet, the department will be able to add, change and delete sections directly in the system for a period of time. After that open scheduling period is complete, Room and Course Scheduling will do preliminary reviews for content, then run the scheduling software to assign rooms and insert those room assignments into UAccess Student. This process will cut down on unnecessary work for both the academic departments and Room and Course Scheduling, resulting in a quicker, more efficient scheduling process. After the original open scheduling period has ended, departments will continue to have access to fields pertaining to enrollments and other incidental fields, a rough equivalent of the information on SIS’s screen 131. Room and Course Scheduling will continue to utilize online forms for adding, changing and cancelling sections after the open scheduling period has ended.

When can department representatives get one-on-one help with scheduling their Fall 2010 classes?

Room and Course Scheduling has set aside open lab times in which department representatives can work with RCS staff to schedule classes and ask questions regarding scheduling in UAccess Student. Please drop by with your questions and join us on the following days:

November 30 - December 4 (MTWRF) : Computer Center (C CTR) 311 from 8:00am - 10:00am

December 7, 9, and 11 (MWF) : Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) 229 from 3:00pm - 5:00pm

December 8 and 10 (TR) : Electrical and Computer Engineering 229 (ECE) from 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Useful Links:

  • UITS Workshops
    • - Training schedules, registration pages, training documents and online tutorials can be found here.
  • Mosaic Community
    • - Forums for UA employees to ask and answer questions about the different systems encompassed in the Mosaic Project. Please join the UAccess Student: Course Scheduling and Catalog group for up to date information on Course Scheduling issues.
  • Frequently Asked Questions
    • - The FAQ will be updated as RCS and the Mosaic team receive feedback from departments. (downloadable version)
  • SIS/UAccess Student Glossary
    • - A brief explanation of new terms in UAccess Student, and what they correlate to in SIS. (downloadable version)

Useful Downloads:

  • Access Request Form Please submit this form if you do not have a UAccess Student account created yet. This will be used mainly for new department representatives; representatives with SIS and Online Form access will have their access transferred to UAccess Student automatically, and should not need to submit a form.