Overview

Each semester, Curricular Services creates the Departmental Instructional Report (DIR) and asks departments to review their course listings and instructor assignments for accuracy. In the beginning of each term, Curricular Services sends out the DIR call, along with two other reports: Active Sections with Zero Enrollment, and the Missing Principal Instructor Report. With continuing legislative interest in university instructional staff workload, it is important that you identify all instructors involved with each course section. Instructors are defined as all persons directly involved in, or responsible for, formal instruction of students.

For more information on instructor roles and qualifications, see: SIS - Instructor Assignments: Guidelines and Considerations.

Any sections with zero enrollment will be canceled by the Office of the Registrar, so be sure that none of these sections for your subject are supposed to have enrollment.

After departments have reviewed and updated all of their courses, the Final DIR Report will be produced. The Final DIR contains curricular, instructor, facility, and enrollment data, and will be submitted to UW System Administration and Madison campus for analysis of the number of course sections, student credit hours, instructional staff workload averages, classroom utilization, etc.

Departmental Instructional Report

Active Sections with Zero Enrollment Report

Missing Principal Instructor Report

Departmental Instructional Report (DIR)

The DIR lists all a department's active sections for the term, with the exception of IND sections with zero enrollment. Every department with active sections for a term will appear on this posted report. The report posted in the Curricular Build and Planning Documents Box folder can be downloaded, and then you can utilize the bookmarks to find individual subjects. Review your course listings for accuracy.

Step 1:

Review the DIR to be sure that no sections are missing and the instructors and meeting patterns listed are correct. The report lists SIS ID for instructors to help confirm that an instructor with a similar name has not been entered by mistake. 

Step 2: 

Update and save any information in SIS. 

Active Sections with Zero Enrollment Report

The Zero Enrollment Report lists all group instruction and field sections in your department with no enrollment. It does not include independent study sections. You do not need to cancel zero-enrolled independent sections at this time unless you do not intend to offer them this term or next summer term. All sections with zero enrollment will be automatically canceled by Curricular Services. Review the report to determine if any sections SHOULD have enrollment and do not. 

Combined Sections: If a section has a number in the combined enrollment column, it is a combined section.  If you are not the primary department, do not cancel the section unless instructed to do so by the primary department.  If you are the primary department, remember to notify your secondaries to cancel their sections.

See also: SIS/Building Your Schedule of Classes - Deleting vs. Canceling Sections

Notes

Missing Principal Instructor Report

This report includes all sections and subsections (with enrollment) where no principal instructor is listed. Review the report and add a principal instructor to all meeting patterns of the class on the Meetings Page. Missing TA names should be entered at this time. All meeting patterns of a class MUST have a principal instructor listed.

Note: Please take special care when searching for an instructor. Curricular Services has seen instances of the WRONG instructor being assigned to classes. This occurs primarily when more than one instructor is returned from the search. Please verify that you select the correct instructor. Go to Curriculum Management > Instructor/Advisor Information > Instructor/Advisor Table and refer to the Instructor Type and/or the Academic Organization code for the instructor to verify that you’ve selected the right person. Please contact Curricular Services if you need assistance in accessing this page.

Step 1:

Open the report in the Curricular Build and Planning Documents Box Folder, or search for and run the report U_CU_NO_PRIN in Query Report Viewer. See also: SIS/Building Your Schedule of Classes - Curricular Reports

Step 2:

Review each subject listing for courses that may have missing principal instructor information. Pay attention the the MTG PAT (meeting pattern), as it may appear that an instructor is listed on the first meeting pattern in SIS but not on sequential meeting patterns. 

Step 3:

Open a new window in SIS and navigate to Maintain Schedule of Classes. Use the "Find" page to search for a course with a missing principal instructor and add the relevant information on the Meetings tab.

Note: If a section is combined, principal instructor information will need to be added on the Schedule Class Meetings page instead. See also: Updating Combined Sections

Note: If you need assistance adding instructors in SIS, contact Sherrán Pak at sherran.pak@wisc.edu or 608-262-4411.

Step 4:

Be sure to check for multiple meeting patterns, using the row counter arrows. Each meeting pattern of a course MUST have a principal instructor listed.

Select Save. Repeat for any courses missing Principal Instructors.