UNIVERSITY PROFILE SYSTEM

The University Profile System (UPS) is an on-line database-driven application, which provides information about academic units, the programs they deliver, the courses offered by programs, and the instructors of those course. The UPS serves multiple purposes. It facilitates:

public disclosure
accountability
institutional assessment
the demonstration of institutional effectiveness

The UPS can be accessed for viewing or data entry from the Academic Assessment web page: http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/Academicassessment/univ_profile.htm

There is also a link to this web site on the Faculty/Staff menu of the MyCats Favorite Links page.

VIEWING

There are five categories of information in the UPS.

Administrative Information

Profiles all the administrative, service, and support units in the university, including those not engaged in academic degree programs, by providing

contact information
unit mission
goals and outcomes
current improvement plan

Academic Information

Profiles each college by providing

contact information for the dean's office
college mission
college goals and outcomes
current college improvement plan
electronic links to each department in the college

Profiles each department by providing

contact information for chair's office and electronic links to the college information
departmental mission
departmental goals and outcomes
current departmental improvement plan
electronic links to each major degree program offered by the department

Degree Information

Profiles each degree program by providing

contact information for the program director's office and electronic links to the college and department information
mission of degree program
goals and student learning outcomes for degree program
description and requirements of degree program
electronic links to each course required for the degree program

Course Information

Profiles each course by providing

electronic links to the college and department offering the course
catalog information about the course (hours, credits, prerequisites)
function of the course in terms of the degree(s) requiring it
range of topics covered in the course
student learning outcomes for the course
grading criteria for the course
electronic links to each instructor teaching the degree

Faculty Information

Profiles each instructor by providing

contact information for the instructor, including electronic links to the college and department
list of degrees and disciplines with degree-granting institutions
for each course taught by the instructor, an explanation of whether the instructor is qualified by advanced degree or by some other professional experience.

Note that the Academic, Degree, Course, and Faculty data sets are interlinked.

DATA ENTRY

Administrators are empowered with the ability to keep information in the UPS accurate and up to date. Changes are easily made and instantly visible. To see changes, just hit the "refresh" button of the browser.

For security purposes, administrators must enter the data-entry side of the program with a password, provided by Web Enabled Resources. The password enables the administrator to make changes to information in that administrator's domain. An administrator may choose to allow someone else to use the password for date entry, such as a secretary or a program director, but responsibility for keeping the UPS information accurate resides with the unit administrator who has been given the password.

Data Input Schedule

June-August:

Course and faculty information should be reviewed for accuracy and updated as necessary, so that this information is correct at the start of the academic year.

Course Information

Check to assure UPS reflects all course additions, deletions, or modifications approved during the previous year.

Faculty Information

Remove departed faculty
Add newly hired instructors and indicate credentialing of qualifications
Update changes in status and or degree

September-October

Unit and degree information should be revised as necessary to reflect decisions made at the end of the annual assessment cycle.

Not all the UPS information needs to be entered by the administrator. Information that exists elsewhere is imported into the UPS. Similarly, some information that is entered by administrators into the UPS is exported to other systems.

Imported Data:

Course information: The UPS pulls course ID, title, semester hours, prerequisites & description from the catalog (the Registrar's Office updates this data).

Degree information: The UPS pulls degree name, description and degree requirements from the catalog (the Registrar's Office updates this data).

Class taught: The UPS pulls "classes taught by faculty" data from the BANNER class schedule (electronic Instructional Services updates this data).

Academic Department information: The UPS pulls the department names from the catalog (the Registrar's Office can add new dept only; deletion or modification of department name is handled by Web Enabled Resources).

Discipline information: The UPS pulls the discipline names from the catalog (the Registrar's Office can add, update & delete discipline name).

Exported Data:

Faculty information: The online catalog pulls faculty data (name, education, and all other information) from the UPS (this information is maintained by department chairs).

GCSU Administration: The online catalog pulls administrative data from the UPS. (This information is maintained by the unit heads).

GCSU Administration: The online catalog pulls administrative data from the UPS. (This information is maintained by the unit heads.)

FACULTY REPORTING TO WORK

ADMINISTRATIVE AND ACADEMIC UNIT INFORMATION (UPS)