On Friday, May 29, at 11:00am in the Library Building Room 620, we are going to hold another training session for Query Managers (or aspiring query managers) on the basics of using the CUNYfirst Reporting Instance for query development and the running of queries. Query Viewers are welcome to attend the session to increase your knowledge and understanding of the Reporting Instance environment. Note that this session will cover the same material as the training session that was held on May 1. Please click the link for Training topic and discussion detail The Basics of the Reporting Instance training session will cover:
- Production Reporting vs Reporting Instance
- Locating the Reporting Instance
- Permissions and access for the Reporting Instance - roles and SACR (reference the form)
- Public query versus private query
- Viewing public and private queries and using prompts (term, admit from, admit to, degree, academic plans, etc.)
- Planning a query. What user information is needed?
- What is a student?
- Basic records in CS - ACAD_PROG, ACAD_PLAN, STDNT_CAR_TERM, CLASS_TBL_SE_VW (STDNT_ENRL and CLASS_TBL)
- Table key structure
- Effective dating
- Intro to Joins and Use
- Selection Criteria for a query
- Saving a Query
- Copying a Query to Another User
On the data side we will focus on student records, but the overall training is applicable to other areas.
The session will be recorded and made accessible to query managers following the training.
Please email me back if you are interested in attending this session on May 29, so we can confirm seat count.
We will be offering a Level II course for query managers on June 9. This Level II course will be a hands-on format and include a more depth look at joins (standard and left outer), expressions, sub-queries, and unions. Save the date and a follow-up email will be sent with details shortly.
On Friday, May 1, at 11:00am in the Library Building Rm 620 we are going to hold a training session for Query Managers (or aspiring query managers) on the basics of using the CUNYfirst Reporting Instance for query development and the running of queries. Query Viewers are welcome to attend the session to increase your knowledge and understanding of the Reporting Instance environment. The session will cover:
- Production Reporting vs Reporting Instance
- Permissions and access for the Reporting Instance - roles and SACR (reference the form)
- Locating the Reporting Instance
- Public query versus private query
- Viewing public and private queries
- How to use prompts (finding terms (admit from, admit to, degree, academic plans, etc.)
- Planning a query. What user information is needed?
- What is a student?
- Basic records in CS - ACAD_PROG, ACAD_PLAN, STDNT_CAR_TERM, CLASS_TBL_SE_VW (STDNT_ENRL and CLASS_TBL)
- Table key structure
- Effective dating
- Saving a Query
- Copying a Query to Another User
- Joining tables in a query
- Selection criteria for a query
On the data side we will focus on student records, but the overall training is applicable to other areas. The session will be recorded and made accessible to query managers following the training. Please email Patrick Ackerman if you are interested in attending the session so we can confirm seat count. We will confirm back with the training location and any other details.
Preparation or Review for the Training
If you are new to Reporting Instance and would like a primer ahead of the training you can take a look at the CUNYfirst Reporting training resources on their site, specifically the “Using PS Query in the Reporting Instances” PDF and Video (approx 70 mins). You can also review the “Intro to CUNYfirst for Query Developers” PDF and the “CF Data Structures 1 – Student Records” PDF and Video.
Training Session on May 1st:
Highlights:
- 12 Attendees
- BCTC – Frank, Barbara, George
- Undergraduate Admissions – Tom Nesdill, Musa Elbulok, Millie Figueroa-Rodriguez
- Zicklin – Sarah Loebis
- IR – Cynthia Wach
- Honors Program – Jody Vaisman
- WSAS – Stephanie Govan
- International Students – Rosa Kelley, Harleen Kaur
- Michael and I learned to use Collaborate for remote session presentation along with the dial-in bridge
- This is going to allow for a repository of video recordings to be created and accessible to the organization
- There were some good questions from Cynthia, Jody, George and Rosa
- Topics and pace, while review for some, appeared to be appropriate level for most.
- Duration of 1 ½ hours seemed a good amount of time for this training where users are simply listening and watching vs hands-on (only a few pairs of eyes closed during the session)
- Perhaps coffee/tea at the next session (if we are not at PCs)
To improve/resolve:
- Session audio recording didn’t work with the bridge call in. This worked in testing but I think that the audio for the bridge just wasn’t configured at the time we began recording.
- We ended up progressing from the very basics to getting into some more advanced topics, generally in response to user questions, and so some of the more advanced topics may have gotten lost on some of the attendees. This is bound to happen and not a huge issue. This has given us topics for additional documentation and for future training sessions
Next Steps:
- Create additional documentation – both in written form with screen shots, as well as topic segments as recorded video sessions
- Build Prompt via Criteria and via Prompt (set up ahead)
- Expression for a substring (middle initial example)
- Enrollment versus Active
- Acad_prog statuses - Active, Discontinued, Cancelled, Dismissed Completed
- Identification of enrollment for credits and status=”E” – when to use one or the other, UNT_TKN_PRGRSS
- Finding a record and looking at fields
- Useful/commonly used records
- Update documentation with examples of fields included in each record
- Standard join versus left outer join – description and examples of when to use each – default option
- Simple join example/exercise
- Criteria – use with examples – simple exercise
- What is a student? Update this documentation with examples of records and fields highlighted for quick reference
- Intended vs Accepted in a program/plan – indicator
- Plan for an additional training session – will discuss topics and attendees to focus on, hands-on and preparation to bring “assignments”, and assessment opportunities
Issue with CU_BIO_VW Resolved
The issue with CU_BIO_VW has been resolved as of 4/29/15. Name of type Primary will be displayed for user even if other name types exist for record.
We recently identified an issue with a table/record used in some private queries which results in people being excluded from reports. The issue affects queries which used the record CU_BIO_VW for names (first, middle, last) when a name of name type Primary isn’t the latest added/modified name in their record. Currently this applies to over 890 records at Baruch.
To determine if this issue could be affecting your query results you can check if the CU_BIO_VW record is used in your query. Within the Baruch Query Manager wiki space you can view the private queries we've created and documented at Baruch and check to see if the CU_BIO_VW record is listed among the records used in the query – see screen shot below for reference.
Query Managers can also check the query via Reporting Instance by looking at the “Query” tab to see if the record is included.
We have made a request to CUNY CIS to modify the CU_BIO_VW to reflect the latest effective dated Primary name regardless of other name types which may be included in the record. If this change is made this issue will be resolved. If it can’t be made we will likely need to modify the existing private queries using the CU_BIO_VW record.
We will follow up with updates on this issue.
Please follow up with any questions.