September 19, 2017

To the campus community,

Hundreds of us are in the process of writing and editing APASP reports that are due in a little under two weeks’ time. Many thanks to all who attended training sessions over the past couple of weeks. The Task Force is appreciative of the extra effort and care so many of you are putting into preparing thoughtful APASP reports.

We encourage you to review a new set of Frequently Asked Questions that we developed to answer questions that have emerged during the training sessions. As unanticipated questions have come up, trainers and members of the Task Force have conferred to make sure report authors are getting consistent guidance to develop their reports. Sample FAQs include:

  • What are the "FTE detail sheets" and "Academic Program Datasheets" everyone is talking about, and how do I find mine?
  • I thought we had to create a table for administrative functions. Now I see a checklist. What do I do?, and
  • I’m authoring an Academic Program report. How am I supposed to differentiate Productivity and Quality in the program responses?

An important hiccup the FAQs address relates to whether report authors should create and upload tables or charts as part of their reports or not. While some authors were encouraged to do this at the first set of training sessions, the Task Force later learned that the report submission software (X-CD) may not support tables and charts as well as initially thought. As a result, the APASP Task Force recommends that authors not use the table functionality in X-CD to present information, as we do not trust that it will be presented in the final report. The Task Force apologizes for leading authors to believe that the functionality would work and we encourage authors to present information in a non-table format.

If you have not yet started writing your APASP report, the good news is everything authors need to start writing their reports is live:

Finally, please don’t overlook the following resources before you submit your reports:

  • Delaware data: A link to the 2016 Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity is available on the APASP Data Resources webpage. Use this information to learn more about national benchmarks for academic programs.
  • Terms and definitions: Please review the list of APASP terms and definitions posted on the About APASP webpage.
  • Data glossary: Please review the data glossary developed by the UM DATA Office to gain a better understanding of the terms in the FTE detail sheet and Academic Program Datasheets.
  • Author training session resources: Training materials and training session videos are available on the APASP Author Training webpage.
  • Polishing sessions: Final polishing sessions will be held early next week as follows:
    • For Administrative Service report authors, from 2-3:30 p.m. on Monday, September 25 in GBB 123.
    • For Academic Program report authors, from 3:30-5 p.m. on Wednesday, September 27 in the UC South Ballroom

We realize this is a lot of information, and if you are a report author, we urge you to take time to review it carefully. Again, please email apasp@umontana.edu if you still have questions after reviewing the FAQs, FTE detail sheet, Academic Program Datasheets, X-CD platform, terms and definitions, data glossary, and author training materials.

Thank you for your hard work and for your patience as we work to make the process as clear as possible. All further questions about the report submission process are welcome.

Sincerely,

The APASP Task Force