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Enrolled for Fall 2009 term? Verify your class schedule in your iSIS Student Center

Oct 5: Columbus Day - Student Holiday.

Oct 26: Students may begin enrolling for Sprig 2010 classes once their enrollment appointment has passed.

Oct 30: Last date to drop a 16-week class.

Contacts

See the Contacts page for help on specific topics.

Need help signing in to iSIS? Contact the IT Help Desk, 785-532-7722.

iSIS faculty-centered FAQs


About iSIS

  1. Why are we implementing iSIS and how does it support teaching and learning at K-State?
  • The primary purpose of the iSIS implementation is to move from an outdated, unsupported mainframe student system.  
  • iSIS will be easier to get information that you want, when you want. 
  • iSIS will provide more real-time information, such as up to the minute class rosters.
  • iSIS will improve security of personal information.
  • iSIS empowers students to be proactive in managing their education; it provides them with more information than before. 
  • iSIS will provide for vast improvement in integration with other K-State systems such as K-State Online, to improve the instructor experience in attending to administrative details.
  1. What is the relationship between iSIS, K-State Online, and DARS?  For what purposes do faculty and students use each one of them?

The Faculty will utilize all of these systems to do their work.  iSIS will integrate with K-State Online to improve data availability.  It will also integrate with DARs for degree audit and transfer credit articulation. 

  • iSIS will be used for student information needs for advising of students.
  • iSIS will have up to the minute class rosters and provide for final and mid-term grade reporting.
  • Degree progress reports will be ran in iSIS by advisors or students on demand but it will utilize DARs integration to perform these audits.
  • K-State Online will continue to be used for learning management for instructors to conduct classes and engage students using a variety of customizable tools for communication, collaboration and assessment.
  1. What is the timeline for the iSIS implementation?  When will students and faculty begin using it?

iSIS is being implemented in a phased approach targeting university business associated with the Fall 2008 semester.  The overall implementation schedule:

  • Jun 2007 - Admissions module
  • Aug 2007- Scholarship part of Financial Aid
  • Oct 2007 - Fall ’08 Class Schedule Preparation Begin
  • Feb 2008 - Financial Aid module
  • Mar 2008 - Enrollment
  • Jun 2008 - Student Financials

Students and Faculty/Advisors will begin using iSIS:

  • Feb 1   Students will begin reviewing their “To Do” List for financial aid
  • Feb 22 Students & Faculty view 2008 Class Schedule and begin advising
  • Mar 1   Students view Holds
  • Mar 24 Students begin to enroll for Fall 2008
  1. What is the iSIS Task Force?

The iSIS Task Force is a subcommittee of the Council on Academic Policies and Procedures (CAPP) that began meeting in January 2006 to determine academic procedural guidelines for implementing iSIS, providing direction and guidance to the implementation project team.

The current task force membership is:

  • David Delker, Associate Dean, Technology & Aviation, Chair
  • Karen Pence, Assistant Dean, Human Ecology, Secretary
  • Doris Carroll, Academic Affairs
  • Al Cochran, Provost's Office
  • Mike Crow, LASER Project
  • Brad Cunningham, Business Administration
  • Gunile DeVault, Registrar's Office
  • Kevin Donnelly, Agriculture
  • Maureen Herspring, Architecture
  • Linda Morse, Continuing Education
  • Alice Niedfeldt, Business Administration
  • Monty Nielsen, Registrar
  • Mike Perl, Education
  • Shanna Pumphrey, Arts and Sciences
  • Larry Satzler, Engineering
  • Carol Shanklin, Graduate School
  • Marian Tilford, Agriculture
  • Alison Wheatley, Arts and Sciences

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Advising

  1. Who is authorized to override course prerequisites and how and by whom will that be recorded in iSIS?

Faculty may grant permission to override a requisite by signing a Permission Form and delivering it to the Faculty member's department office, where it will be entered into iSIS if the class capacity will not be exceeded by the enrollment of the student. Permissions will NOT override time conflicts, excess load or class links (i.e. lab-lecture associated sections). If permission has been granted but these conflicts exist, or if permission is given by the faculty member to override any of these conflicts, the student must go to the Dean's Office to process the enrollment through the 21st calendar day of the semester. After that, overrides will be done by Enrollment Services.

  1. How will advisors access academic history for their advisees?

Advisors will access a student’s academic history online through iSIS in the Faculty Center.  Paper distribution of end of semester transcripts from the Registrar’s Office will be discontinued.

  1. Can faculty or staff see a student’s academic history even if not an advisor of the student?

Yes, the advisement section of Faculty Center provides for viewing of any student academic history to accommodate walk-ins.

  1. How will advisor status be assigned and maintained in iSIS?

Deans or departmental offices will assign and maintain advisor status in iSIS following the conversion of such information from the legacy SIS.  iSIS advisor security access will be controlled within iSIS by the colleges or departments.

  1. How will advisors access information about their advisees?

In iSIS, advisees can see a list of advisees associated with him/her and will be able to access necessary student information.  Advisors will also be able to access necessary student information for any student to support walk-ins.

  1. Can an advisor add advisees to their advisee list? 

Only the designated official in the dean or department office may update advisor/advisee associations in iSIS.

  1. Who assigns advising service indicators in iSIS?

Advisors will be able to add or remove service indicators, as needed.  An automated process will add service indicators as appropriate prior to each enrollment period.

  1. How will advisors know who has put a hold on a student’s account?

The hold will be visible when viewing the student record as a “Negative Service Indicator” and will include the responsible department.

  1. Will advisors continue to have access to DARs reports?  If so, how?

Yes, via iSIS and also in K-State Online.

  1. How will waitlists be managed in iSIS? 

Each class in iSIS includes a default waitlist, which may be deactivated at the dean/departmental level. Waitlisted students will be automatically enrolled in classes through the 7th calendar day of the semester.  After the 7th day, waitlists will be automatically purged.

  1. If I deactivate the iSIS waitlist, will there be no waitlist for that class?

Yes, that is correct.  Only authorized individuals in the dean/department offices or Enrollment Services may deactivate a waitlist.

  1. Will the Graduate School continue to update milestone information as in the current SIS?

Yes.  Other colleges will have view capability.

  1. What is a service indicator?

A positive service indicator indicates that the student has been associated with a special student group for tracking purposes such as an Honors Student. Positive Service indicators are designated in iSIS with a star red STAR symbol.

A negative service indicator is a hold on the student's record and is designated with a universal "no" sign red NO symbol. This may be a financial hold or academic hold such as an advisor flag.

  1. Am I able to add advisor notes in iSIS?

No, not at this time.


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Class Rosters

  1. Will faculty be using two class rosters – one in iSIS and one in KSOL?  What is the difference? 

Class rosters will be available both in iSIS and in K-State Online (KSOL).  The iSIS roster will include only those students who are officially enrolled in the class, have waitlisted for the class, or have dropped.  The KSOL roster may be used in the same manner as has been used in the past in that students may be added manually to the roster, such as someone observing the class.  The KSOL roster and associated tools are more robust than iSIS.  However, for faculty not using KSOL, the iSIS roster is a simple method to use.

  1. Will paper rosters still be available?

No, paper rosters will no longer be distributed from the Registrar’s Office. 

  1. Will the SSN continue to be used as the Student ID on class rosters?

No.  The Wildcat ID # (or WID), which is found on all student and employee Wildcat ID cards, will be used as the student identifying number on class rosters.

  1. Will iSIS include photographs of students as there are in KSOL?

No, not at this time.

  1. How can faculty or staff view a class roster from past years?

Class rosters prior to Fall 2008 are available on paper as this detailed data will not be converted to iSIS.

  1. How will I know whether a student is taking the class as part of a graduate or undergraduate program or whether a student is enrolled as both a graduate and undergraduate student?

Each student’s program and plan, which includes an identifier of graduate or undergraduate, will be listed on your roster.  For example, “BA Undergraduate Degree - Mgmt Information Systems-B”, will be listed in the Program and Plan column.  When a student enrolls, he or she selects the “Career” of Graduate or Undergraduate for which the class is being enrolled under. 

  1. In the iSIS class roster, does the “notify listed students” select all?

Yes, it selects all students enrolled in the class for an e-mail notification.  This e-mail is then sent from within iSIS and does not use a separate e-mail client.

  1. How often are class rosters updated in iSIS?

Class rosters update real time as students add and drop classes.

  1. How will iSIS handle the dropping of students for no-shows the first day of classes per the University's Attendance Policy?

Faculty should send to the Enrollment Services Office, 210 Willard Hall (or to K-State Salina Registrar's Office, 20G College Center) a copy of the iSIS class roster with the appropriate names of the students crossed out who should be dropped for no-shows the first day of classes.


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Course/Class Prerequisites

  1. The iSIS system allows for automatic checking and enforcement of course or class prerequisites.  In order for iSIS to be useful for checking prerequisites, prerequisite information should be uniform across the University.  Is there general agreement among Colleges that all prerequisite information will be entered and tested prior to implementation?

The iSIS Task Force has agreed that it is impractical to require that all prerequisites be available for checking for the initial iSIS roll-out.  Rather than delay the automated prerequisite checking capability, the Task Force has decided that prerequisites will be entered on a college or departmental basis at their discretion.  Students and faculty will need to check in both iSIS and the University catalog to determine course prerequisites for at least the 2008-09 academic year.

  1. Assuming that prerequisites are entered into iSIS, there will be instances when a prerequisite will need to be over-ridden to provide appropriate student service. At what level of administration will this override authority be granted?

Faculty may grant permission to override a prerequisite by signing a Permission Form and delivering it to the Faculty member's department office, where it will be entered into iSIS if the class capacity will not be exceeded by the enrollment of the student. Permissions will NOT override time conflicts, excess load or class links (i.e. lab-lecture associated sections). If permission has been granted but these conflicts exist, or if permission is given by the faculty member to override any of these conflicts, the student must go to the Dean's Office to process the enrollment through the 21st calendar day of the semester. After that, overrides will be done by Enrollment Services.

  1. If a student is currently taking a course that is a pre-requisite for a course that the student is enrolling in for the next term (semester), will the current enrolled course be recognized as a pre-requisite?  What happens if the student fails the current course?

Current enrollments are considered as having been completed satisfactorily when a student enrolls for a subsequent term, so yes, the student will be able to enroll in the next course.  However, if the student then fails that current term pre-requisite course, iSIS has no provisions for automatically dropping the class from the student’s schedule.  Reports from iSIS will be available to monitor these situations and allow for manual intervention as necessary.

  1. What if the student took the prerequisite at another institution?

This course information is entered in iSIS from the official transcript from the other institution so iSIS should recognize the completion of the prerequisite course. In addition, the college must have determined and entered the transfer equivalency information for that course from the other institution.

  1. Why should I advise students to enroll in summer 2008 courses first in KATS?

Although iSIS will not automatically recognize the summer 2008 enrollments in order to meet prerequisites for fall 2008 classes, it will make it easier for administrators/faculty to grant permission to enter the class if the student has already enrolled for summer in the prerequisite course, and it is viewable in SIS.


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Curriculum Management

  1. How will I schedule technology classrooms for classes? 

If your course was scheduled in a technology classroom in Fall 2007 and did not change the days, times or dates, courses will be scheduled in the same rooms (this is providing that the capacity did not drastically change). If the days, times or dates have been changed, courses will be reassigned to different rooms, (if one is available). Contact your department/college administrative office to schedule a new class in a technology classroom.

  1. What is reserved capacity?

Reserved capacity for particular class offerings may be used to automate the reserving of seats for particular groups of students.  For example, a number of seats for a class may established to be reserved for seniors, majors, or some other category so only the students meeting the established criteria will be allowed to use those particular seats, if available, in the class even if the class has met capacity for non-reserved seats.


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Enrollment

  1. What changes will students experience in the enrollment process?

Total enrollment, including waitlisted classes, will be set at 21 hours per semester.  Students will be limited to enroll in only one class (section) of a course at the same time.

  1. How will students drop or add a course? 

Online in the iSIS Student Center.

  1. How will students and faculty know which courses are offered online, on campus, or both? 

The Class Search feature has several different search criteria available including the ability to search by Location (Manhattan, Salina, Manhattan DCE, or Salina DCE) and Mode of Instruction (In Person, Web, Telnet, Video, etc.)  These Class Details as well as the Class Meeting room will be available to view for each class.

  1. Can a student perform a class search in iSIS in advance of their enrollment timeslot?

Yes, the class search function is available approximately one month prior to the enrollment opening day.

  1. Can a student waitlist a class if they have a conflict at that time?

No, iSIS will prevent a student from enrolling or waitlisting for a class if there is a time conflict.

  1. How will the student and advisor be informed if the student is automatically enrolled from the waitlist?

The student will be notified via e-mail of the automated enrollment; the advisor will need to manually check the student's schedule if desired.


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Grading

  1. How will grading be done?

All grading will be completed online, using iSIS or iSIS and K-State Online (KSOL).  No paper grade rosters will be distributed by the Registrar’s Office.  iSIS will be the repository of record for mid-term and final grades.  Assignment and test grades throughout a semester may be managed in KSOL. 

For faculty using KSOL, final grades for a class may be entered into KSOL and then submitted to iSIS via an electronic interface.

For faculty not using grading in KSOL, final grades will be entered directly into iSIS by the faculty member or authorized designee.

Once a final grade is submitted to iSIS, whether through KSOL or directly, the faculty member must verify and approve the final grade.  Once the final grade has been approved in iSIS, the grade may no longer be altered electronically by the faculty member. A paper grade change form must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office for any grade changes after the final approval of grades by a faculty member.

  1. What is the difference between roster grades and official grades?

The roster grade is the grade that was originally submitted as a final grade by the instructor via the online grade roster.  The official grade is the current grade in iSIS and that would be included on the transcript.  In most cases, these will be the same, except for a grade change processed after the final online approval of the instructor.

More information on grading will be available during the fall 2008 semester.


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Training

  1. In order to ensure the accuracy of student records during the first year of implementation, dual entry of curriculum changes is being implemented.  Is there general agreement among the Colleges to do this and has adequate training been completed to accomplish this task?

Yes, staff in each college or department assigned this responsibility has been trained.

  1. What University-level training is required for faculty and staff prior to granting access to the system?  How and when will faculty and staff get the training appropriate to their level of access?

The training requirements vary by job responsibilities.  Faculty Advisors will begin training January 14, continuing through February 29.  Training will be offered by hands-on as well as through on-line tutorials.  Faculty who do not have advising responsibilities may use on-line tutorials only for viewing class rosters.  Training for submission of grades will be offered beginning in the fall 2008 semester.