Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add an instructor to a class?
How do I set/change maximum class size?
How do I set meeting days/meeting times?
How do I schedule a room for a class?
How do I change a room type preference?
How do I use section clusters?
How do I cluster and cross-list classes?
How do I download information to an Excel spreadsheet?
What are some quick tips to using Astra?
Adding a Section
To add a new section of a class, click the “Add Section” button on the lower toolbar on the main window. Note that to add a section to a particular campus for a particular quarter, you must currently be viewing records for that campus for that quarter (i.e. to add a section for Spring 2006 to the Eastern campus, you must be viewing records for the Spring Quarter on the Eastern campus). The “Select Subject & Course” window will appear. You must first select the subject (i.e. course prefix) from the drop-down menu and then select the course number for the section you want to add. Next, select the title of the course, and assign it a section (A01, A02, F04, H03, etc.). Make sure to select an appropriate section for the campus on which the course will be offered. Also, make sure to assign a section that has not already been assigned (i.e. if there is already PHIL 120 A01-A05, assign section A06 when you add a new section). The meeting type for the class will automatically default to the correct type based on the course preferences, so you do not need to do anything to set this. Click on the OK button to open the “Edit Section Information” window.
For a section to be added it must have certain fields complete, otherwise, it will not be able to be scheduled. In the Edit Section Information window, the required fields are room type preference, class start and end times, days met, and maximum enrollment greater than zero. You can add other information at this time as well, but these are the required fields. The other fields that may be updated are class meeting dates, building and room assignment or arranged, instructor, instructor permission required, class notes, class status, and if the class is online.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Deleting a Section
To delete a section in Astra, you must simply select the record you wish to delete and click on the “Delete Section” button in the lower toolbar on the main window. The system will ask if you are sure. To confirm your deletion, select “yes” and to cancel the deletion, select “no.” Please remember that this function deletes the record of the class completely and does not back it up anywhere in Astra. This function should not be used to cancel a section. Completely deleting a section can only be done before call numbers are assigned.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Adding an Instructor
To add or change the instructor(s) of a class, you must open the “Edit Section Information” window by double-clicking on the record you want to edit or by selecting the record, and clicking the “Edit Record” shortcut button near the top center of the window. In the lower portion of the window, there is an area titled “Instructor.” To add an instructor, click the blue “+” button on the right side of the Instructor area. The “Section Instructor” window will appear with a box and drop-down menu for the instructor. Click the drop-down menu and select the instructor (listed alphabetically by last name) you would like to assign to the class.
To remove an instructor from a class, select the instructor you wish to remove, and click the red “-” button on the right side of the instructor area in the “Edit Section Information” window.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Maximum Class Size
To change the maximum class size (max enrollment) of a class, you must open the “Edit Section Information” window by double-clicking on the record you want to edit or by selecting the record, and clicking the “Edit Record” shortcut button near the top center of the window. On the left side of the window, above the area for Schedule Preferences, there is a box titled “Max Enrollment.” To edit the max enrollment, you can either type the desired maximum in the box directly or use the up and down arrows to increase and decrease it. Note that you cannot change the actual enrollment of a class, so make sure, when editing, you only attempt to change the max enrollment. Max Enrollment must be set to a value greater than zero.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Meeting Days/Meeting Times
To set/change the meeting days and meeting times of a section, you must open the “Edit Section Information” window by double-clicking on the record you want to edit or by selecting the record, and clicking the “Edit Record” shortcut button near the top center of the window. To set the days and time, you can either select from a list of standard days and times or set your own times. To use the standard times feature, click on the “Select standard times” button to the left of the OK button in the top right corner of the window. The “Standard Date/Time Block” window will appear. Use the drop-down menus to first select the days the class will meet, and then the time it will meet those days. To complete your selection, click the OK button.
Not all possible day/time combinations are available, so your desired selection may not be in the drop down menu. In this case, you can set the days and times manually. To set the days, you will use the area for “Days Met” near the top right of the window. There is a drop-down menu for each day of the week. To edit the days the class meets, select the arrow on the menu for the day you want to edit. For each day the class meets, select the appropriate letter from the menu as follows: Sunday, “U”; Monday, “M”; Tuesday, “T”; Wednesday, “W”; Thursday, “R”; Friday, “F”; Saturday, “S.” If the class does not meet on a day of the week, make sure the drop-down menu is set blank for that day. DO NOT use “O” or “E” for any days met.
To set the times, you will use the boxes labeled “Start Time” and “End Time” in the top right section of the window. To edit these times, click the arrow on the drop-down menu you wish to change, and the “Select Time(s)” window will appear. Select the hour and minutes of the time the class will start/end and click the OK button. Be sure the days the class will meet are indicated as well; otherwise, the times will not be saved.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Room Type Preferences
Before a class can have a building and room assigned to it, it must first have a room type preference. Room type preferences will be preloaded on imported sections, but if you create a new section, you will need to apply default preferences. To do this, click on the "Apply Default Preferences" button next to the Scheduling Preferences area. When the Apply Section Defaults window appears, check the box labeled “Apply All Defaults.” Click OK to apply the changes.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Building/Room Assignment
After a room type preference is set, you can assign a building and room by clicking the blue “+” button next to the building box, on the right side of the “Edit Section Information” window, under the Days Met area. Note that is a section will be cross-listed, it should be cross-listed before any room assignments are made. The “Available Rooms” window will appear with rooms meeting your preferences for the class. Rooms listed in the box meet your preferences and are ordered from top to bottom by best fit. You can sort this list in other ways by clicking on the heading of the field by which you wish to sort (building, room type, capacity, etc.).
The far left column of the grid indicates if the room is available or if there is a conflict. Sections should only be assigned to the same room at the same time if they will be meeting together; in this case, the classes need to be cross-listed prior to room assignment. To select a room, click on the room and choose the select button at the bottom right of the window.
If you have already made a room assignment for a class, you can change it in the same way you added it. Click the blue “+” button next to the building box, on the right side of the window, under the Days Met area and follow the procedure you did to assign the room initially. The new assignment will replace the old one, and free up the space it utilized. To remove a room selection, click the red “-” button next to the building box, on the right side of the window, under the Days Met area.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Section Clusters
Section clusters are generally used to group meeting times of sections that meet irregularly as compared to the standard time. This could mean it meets in a different room certain days of the week, at a different time certain days of the week, or both. For example, you may have a class that meets regularly Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, but meets on Friday mornings for discussion or lab. Section clusters are helpful because they can be easily grouped together and viewed in the “Edit Section Information” window. They also allow for easy scheduling of multiple clusters in the same room. Sections clusters can also be used in conjunction with cross-listed courses. This might be done if you have several sections of a class meeting together for lecture and then breaking up for lab. In this case, the lecture meetings would be cross-listed, and the lab times would be clustered with the appropriate section of lecture. For ease, in this case you should add all section clusters before cross-listing any classes.
To add a section cluster, you must open the “Edit Section Information” window by double-clicking on the record you want to edit, or by selecting the record, and clicking the “Edit Record” shortcut button near the top center of the window. Near the bottom of the window, in the “Additional Meting Info.” area, click on the box labeled “Section Clusters.” Please note that you cannot use the section clusters feature until you have set a meeting pattern for the section you are editing. A box will appear asking if you want to create multiple section clusters. If you select “no” a window will appear allowing you to pick from already-existing sections to cluster. The window will have all classes with the same course prefix and course number for the quarter. To cluster these sections, check the boxes beside the class(es) you wish to cluster and click the OK button in the top right corner.
If you select “yes” you will be able to create a unique meeting time and pattern for a new section to cluster. The “Multiple Meetings” window will appear. You must first select if the cluster will have a repeating or irregular meeting pattern in the “Type of Meeting” area. If it is repeating, choose the start and end times for the cluster on the left middle of the window similarly to the way you scheduled the meeting times for the original section. Next, select the start and end dates for this cluster's meeting pattern in the “Repeating Meetings” area. You can do this by typing the date directly or by using the calendar in the drop-down menu. The dates default to the start and end dates of the section you are editing. You can then set what days of the week the occurrences will be, and which occurrences it will be under the start and end dates. Day and time selection must be done before setting the occurrences. To finalize the cluster, click the “Create Meeting” button at the lower right of the window.
To create irregular meetings for a cluster click in the “Irregular Days” area under “Type of Meeting.” You must still set the start and end times of the meeting in the same way. Next, set the date this meeting will occur by typing directly in the “Irregular Meetings” area, or by choosing a date in the drop-down menu. To add this meeting, click on the “Add Meeting” button next to the date. You can continue adding new meetings in the same way until you are finished. To finalize the meetings, click the “Create Meeting” button at the lower right of the window.
You should note that Astra will automatically cross-list newly created clusters with already cross-listed sections. This may cause problems when attempting to schedule rooms for these sections. When looking for available rooms, Astra will use the entire max enrollment for all cross-listed classes. For example, if you have five sections of a chemistry class with 20 students each that all meet together for lecture, but meet separately for lab, you can schedule the lecture class in a room of 100 or more capacity. However, when attempting to schedule smaller rooms for the labs, Astra will try to look for rooms of 100 or more capacity as well. To avoid this, you should create all section clusters before cross-listing classes . If you do not, you must manually undo the cross-listing of regular classes with clusters with which they should not be cross-listed (i.e. a course should only be cross-listed with its own cluster, not others). This problem only occurs when classes are cross-listed and clustered.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Cross-Listing
A cross-listed section is any section that meets in the same room at the same time as any one or more other sections. There are typically three main situations in which this happens. First, different sections of the same course can meet together (e.g. ENG 101 A01, A02, and A03). Also, different departments offer credit for the same course, and they meet together (e.g. BIOS 352 and PESS 302). Another example is if graduate and undergraduate classes meet together for the same class (e.g. JOUR 314 and JOUR 514).
To cross-list one section with another, you must open the “Edit Section Information” window by double-clicking on the record you want to edit, or by selecting the record, and clicking the “Edit Record” shortcut button near the top center of the window. Near the bottom of the screen, in the “Additional Meeting Info.” area, click on the box labeled “CrossListed.” A window appears to select which classes you would like to cross-list together. Astra automatically selects the class you are editing, but a list of all classes appears, sorted by subject with navigation tabs at the bottom of the window (note that all classes you may edit are listed, including all sections for clustered classes). Select the class(es) you wish to cross-list by checking the box next to the class(es), under the heading “Select.” Classes from other subjects can be selected by using the tabs at the bottom of the window to navigate to a different subject. Confirm your selections by clicking the OK button. This will return you to the “Edit Section Information” window.
To finalize your edits, click the OK button. Do this before you attempt to assign the class to a room. You will be asked if you would like to apply the meeting pattern and room assignment to all sections in the cross-list group. Saying yes will apply the meeting times and room assignments for this section to all sections you have cross-listed together, including all section clusters. Saying no will only change the section with which you are working directly.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Clustering and Cross-Listing
You will use cross-listing and clustering if your sections meet both of these conditions:
- Multiple sections meet at the same time/same day(s)/same room.
- One or more of those sections has an additional meeting time.
THE ORDER IN WHICH YOU EDIT THE SECTIONS IS CRITICAL. Please follow the step-by-step instructions below. Typical examples of sections that are both cross-listed and clustered are: HIST 102, HIST 121, HIST 122, HIST 123, BIOS 170, E E 101, E E 102, C S 120, GEOG 101, HCRM 315, PESS 327
- Open the section edit window by double-clicking on the section in the grid.
- Uncheck “Do Not Schedule” flag.
- Put in meeting time and days for the regular section (make sure Max-Enrollment is greater than zero).
- Click on Section Clusters icon to add additional meeting time
- Answer Yes to question about creating multiple clusters.
- Typically select Repeating.
- Select day and time.
- Typically select Every Occurrence.
- Click Create Meeting.
- Schedule room for the additional meeting time. Please note that when
you create an additional meeting time an additional “section” is created
for that time.
- Double click on the cluster row at the bottom of the screen.
- Message “The selected section is not part of the current tab being displayed on the main screen.” Click OK.
- Now the section cluster appears as the main screen.
- Schedule a room by clicking on the + by Building as you normally schedule a room.
- Click OK to finalize the room assignment.
- Repeat 1-5 for each section that will be in the cross-list group.
- Cross-list the initial section with each other section by clicking
on CrossListed icon. (Be careful to select only the sections that are
meeting at the same time/same days. Do not select the sections that
appear for the additional times/days.)
- Click OK to finalize the edits in the cross-listing window.
- Click OK in the Edit Section Information window to save the cross-listing.
- Schedule the room.
- Reopen the Edit Section Information window for the initial section.
- Click + by Building as you would normally schedule a room. Click OK.
- Answer Yes to apply meeting pattern and room assignment to the cross-list group.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Exporting to Excel
Any information viewable on the main window can be automatically exported to an Excel spreadsheet by using the “Export Grid” button in the lower toolbar, located under the “Sections,” “Events,” and “Rooms” tabs. After clicking the button, you will be prompted to save the file. Remember, only the information you have viewable will be exported, so if you have grouped the data, only the group displayed will be exported.
For step by step instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
Quick Tips
In Astra, there are several simple, but very helpful shortcuts and options that can help you in making navigation and viewing easier. A few of the most helpful ones are described below.
- View dates: The “View Dates” option manages the date range of section information you are viewing on the main window. The date range can be viewed near the top center of the window. View dates can be changed by choosing the “Select Dates” option in the File menu or simply by clicking the shortcut directly below the File menu. You can select either a specific term or a date range to view. By choosing to view by date range, if the end date selected is after the start of a specific quarter, you will be able to view that quarter. Similarly, if the begin date you select is before the end of a specific quarter, you will be able to view that quarter. However, if sections do not meet the entire quarter, you will only be able to view sections within the date range given. For example, if you select a begin date in Summer Quarter during second summer session, you will be able to view sections that meet for the full quarter or the second session, but not those that meet first session.
- Grouping: Section information can be further organized by using the “Group By” drop-down menu, located to the right of the lower toolbar. This menu allows you to view the data in different ways by creating a second set of tabs at the bottom of the main window to group information. To use this feature, from the drop-down menu, select the field by which you would like to organize the data. This will create the second set of tabs, which are the entries from the field by which you grouped. (If you group by subject, the tabs will be the course prefixes.) You can select to view sections from each entry by choosing the tab you would like to view. If there are too many tabs to be viewed on screen, you can navigate the tabs using the arrow keys on the right side of the tabs, or by selecting an entry from the “Jump To” drop-down menu, located next to the “Group By” menu.
- Jump to: To access information more quickly, the “Jump To” drop-down can be used if data has been grouped by field. The Jump To menu is located next to the “Group By” menu, to the right of the lower toolbar. This menu allows you to go directly to viewing a certain tab in the field by which the data is grouped. You can also do this manually by clicking the tab you would like to view. However, if there are too many tabs to be viewed on the screen, the Jump To feature can take you quickly to the tab you want to view. For example, if sections are grouped by subject, and you are viewing BIOS classes, you can “jump to” viewing all TCOM classes by using this menu, rather than using the arrow keys to get to the TCOM tab.
- Sort by a field: To make records easier to view and follow, you can sort the records you are viewing by any of the fields in the main window. To sort by a specific field, simply click on the heading of the field by which you wish to sort. After clicking, an arrow will appear in the field heading pointing up, indicating the records are sorted in ascending order by that field. If you click again, the arrow will point down, indicating they are sorted in descending order. Records will remain sorted this way until you change the sorting method, even when switching subjects, terms, etc.
- Sort by more than one field: Similar to sorting by one field, you can sort records by more than one field at the same time. To do so, you must hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard while selecting the fields. For instance, if you want to sort records first by their course number and then by their section, hold down the shift key and click on the “Course” heading then the “Section” heading. You can also change any of these sorts to descending order by continuing to hold the shift key and clicking on the field again. Note that the order in which you click on the field headings is the order in which the sorts will be applied. So, if you click on “Section” first, then “Course,” the records will be sorted so that all A01 sections appear first, then A02, etc.; within the sections, the classes will be sorted by course number.
For more detailed instructions and screen shots, view our user's guide here.
