Advising Alterations
This page is a list of all the alterations that have been made to student aims. Use the page to review and approve alterations. The alterations are listed according to date and time, with the most recent first. You can also sort the list by the column headings, and you can use the Alterations Filter to narrow down the list.
Tip
Alterations are sometimes called waivers, overrides, or substitutions.
An advising alteration is an adjustment made to an advising requirement for an individual student. Alterations are necessary anytime an advising requirement won't be met through registration and successful completion of coursework. (And sometimes the coursework really is done, but it isn't being counted for all the requirements it satisfies.) Alterations help you ensure that degree audits accurately reflect a student's progress towards program completion.
The two most common types of alterations are course substitutions and requirement waivers. However, you can use an override alteration to adjust requirement details such as Hours Needed, Count Needed, Priority and Reuse (double-counting), Grade Needed, etc. (For more information on double-counting, see the Reuse and Priority in Advising Trees topic.
Alteration types are defined on the Requirement Met By Type Definitions page. These are the types available when you create an alteration.
Administrators view and approve alterations on the Advising Alterations page. They can also download the list of alterations to an Excel spreadsheet.
Alterations are notated on the Student Aims page, and administrators create them on that page, too.
After you enter an alteration, the student's aims are updated the next time the Compute Student Progress process runs. You can wait till it runs automatically, or you can run it manually. See the Compute Student Progress topic for details.
An information alert at the top of the page tells you whether the Use Approval Track for Alterations setting is set to On. It provides a link to that setting so you can turn it on or off.
When the setting is on, unapproved alterations are marked as unapproved. When the setting is off, unapproved alterations look just like approved alterations.
On the Student Aims pages, altered aims have a tag labeled "Alteration".
When the Use Approval Track for Alterations setting is set to On, the alteration tag for an aim with unapproved alterations is amber with a caution triangle, and the tag for an approved alteration is blue. When the Use Approval Track for Alterations setting is set to Off, the alteration tag is always blue."
Advisee / ID: Each advisee's name and ID is a link to their Summary page.
Requirement Being Altered: This is the altered advising requirement (ARC). It includes the requirement's Code, Description, and ARC Type.
Met By: These are the types of alterations. They're defined on the Requirement Met By Type Definitions page.
Submitted Date: The date the alteration was created.
Substitution Requirement: The requirement that substitutes for the requirement being altered. This field appears only if the Met By type is a substitution.
Aim Label / Requirement: The aim label (such as CORE, GENED, or MAJOR) listed with its Code, its tree ARC Code, and its tree ARC Description.
Parent Requirement: The immediate parent ARC for the requirement being altered. It includes the parent ARC Code and the parent ARC Description.
Expiration Date: An optional date for the alteration to expire.
Applied Date: The date the alteration takes effect. In Desktop, this is called Alteration Date.
Submitted By: The advisor who submitted the request.
Approved By: The admin who approved the request. Visible only when the Approval Track for Alterations setting is set to On.
Approved Date: Date an admin approved the request. Visible only when the Approval Track for Alterations setting is set to On.
Note: Note left by the advisor when they created the alteration. Up to 30 characters. (In Desktop, this is the Comment field.)
Status: Approved or Pending.
Each alteration has an Actions drop-down. These are the actions available:
Advising team: View a list of the student's advisors. You can send a communication to the advisors you select.
Approve: If the alteration isn't already approved, you can approve it and add optional Approval Date and Expiration Date.
View Details: See all the details of the alteration including the needed hours, quality points, grade scale, credit type, and grade.
When you select one or more alterations, the Options drop-down becomes available. The options operate on all the selected alterations. These are the options:
Download to Excel: Download the selected alterations to a spreadsheet.
Delete: Permanently delete the selected alterations.
Caution
If students have met requirements because of the alteration, the requirements will no longer be met when the alteration is deleted.
The Create alteration button opens the Student Aims page. From there, administrators can select a requirement and create an alteration for it.
You can manage advising alterations in Desktop, too, on the Student Advising Alterations Report window.
Information is stored on the Student Advising Alterations table (stud_adv_alter). The Met By field value is stored in the stud_adv_alter.req_met_by_cde column.
The permission needed is "Can manage alterations." It's available in the Academic Advising Module Manager role and in roles copied from it.
From the Advising Administration hub, click the Hub options drop-down.
Click Advisees, and select Alterations. The Advising Alterations page opens.
Use the Alterations Filter to find the alterations you're looking for. To find alterations awaiting approval, select Status and Pending. Click Apply.
Click a column heading to sort the list by that column.
Each row is an alteration. Click the Expand icon
on a row to see all the fields for that alteration.To approve an alteration, click Actions, and select Approve. The Approve Alteration? pop-up opens.
In the Approver Name / ID field, begin typing a name or ID, and select from the list.
You can click in the optional Approval Date and Expiration Date fields to select dates with the date picker.
Click Yes, approve.
To view the student's list of advisors, click Actions, and select Advising team. The list of the student's advisors pops up.
To send a communication, select any or all of the student's advisors.
Click Options, and select Send communication. The Create New Communication pop-up opens.
Fill in the fields, and click Send.
To view all the details of the alteration, click Actions, and select View details.
From the Advising Administration hub, click the Hub options drop-down.
Click Admin options, and select Advising alterations. The Advising Alterations page opens.
Click the Create alteration button. The Student Aims page opens in a new tab.
In Student / ID, begin typing a name or ID number, and select from the list. The student's name and ID appears.
Next to the student's name, click Apply. The student's aims appear.
On any aim, click the Expand icon
to drill down to a requirement.Select a requirement, and click Actions.
Select Create alteration. The Create alteration panel opens.
In Met By, select a Requirement Met By Type.
If your Met By selection is a substitution, then in the Substitution Requirement, select a requirement.
For substitutions, the Show all course requirements checkbox is enabled. Select it to display all possible course and cumulative ARCs in the drop-down.
If you leave Approved By blank, an administrator can approve your alteration on the Advising Alterations page. To approve it now, start typing a name or ID, and select from the list.
In the optional Applied Date, Expiration Date, and Approved Date fields, you can click to open the date picker.
In the Note field, you can enter up to 30 characters.
In the Overrides section, select values for each of the fields as needed.
Click Save.
Select the checkboxes next to the rows you want to export.
From the Options drop-down, select Download to Excel. The Download to Excel pop-up opens.
Select options for the Excel format and data columns.
Click Download. Your .xlsx or .zip file is saved in the file location that you have set in your browser settings.
Select one or more alterations.
In the Options drop-down, click Delete.
The Delete Alterations? pop-up opens and lists the selected alterations.
If there are any definitions listed that you decide you don't want to delete, click their Remove icon
to remove them from the list of items to delete.When you're sure you want to delete all the rows listed, click Yes, delete.