Graduate Catalog Editor: Introduction

TIP: Look in this space for 'breadcrumb' navigation, like this: Home > Section > Specific Page

Welcome to the GradCat Editor

TIP: Print this page. Then you can follow along with the instructions as you work through the process.

The Graduate School and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) are working to make the Graduate Catalog as useful, authoritative, and current as possible. To accomplish that goal, we are enlisting the help of the graduate programs to edit the information in the catalog each semester. We hope that this direct collaboration with the programs will result in a more current catalog and will make the application process smoother and less frustrating for prospective students. Wherever possible, the catalog will now provide ways for the programs to customize their information and link to their existing web sites. Please take some time to review your program's catalog entry and follow the process described below.

NOTE: Programs may edit their information AT ANY TIME, but the catalog is only published on the FIRST DAY OF THE FALL SEMESTER. This means edits made after the deadline (especially after the first day of classes) will appear in the following semester's edition.

NOTE: Contact information and faculty information are published continuously and immediately.

Most programs will be able to complete this process in about an hour. The process has five steps, which are described in the following introduction. You can print this introduction to use as a reference as you work. Additional online help will also be provided as you follow the process. If you get stuck or have a question, email the Graduate Schooll at grad-update@umd.edu; we will try to answer all requests within 24 hours.

Parts:

Part 1: Select Your Program and Log in to the System

Begin the editing process by following this link: http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/catalog/editor/unit_unitlist.cfm?class=15

You will see a list of all the graduate programs, including both degree and certificate programs. Select your program from the list by clicking edit next to the name. You will be asked to enter the login name and password sent to you by the Graduate School. If you have any problems logging in or did not receive a name/password, email The Graduate School at grad-update@umd.edu. When you have successfully logged in, Part 1 is complete - move to Part 2.

If you represent a brand-new program, you will need to select [ create a new unit ] and begin to enter your program's information. For more help on entering a new program, click here.

You may also want to review your program's present entry in the Graduate Catalog (this should match what is in the editor exactly).

Part 2: Editing the Program Description

You should now be on a page entitied Graduate Catalog Editor: Units. This page looks just like your final program description in the Graduate Catalog. Along the right side of the page are small buttons that allow you to edit any section of the program description. Simply click the [ edit ] button next to the section you wish to edit. For help on a section, click help.

Q: Why isn't there any information for my program?
A: Some programs do not yet have independent entries in the Graduate Catalog. Often, dual-degree programs were only entered as a appendix to one of the programs they contain. We would prefer to have independent entries for dual degree programs. The Graduate School would like to work with the graduate programs to develop complete independent descriptions for every program.

TIP: As you follow the instructions below, simply move down the control panel page. Each step in the process is right below the previous one.

Program Title and Classification

Please check that your program's name and program code (like HIST or BIOL) are correctly entered. If the name or code of your program has changed or is incorrect, please select [ edit ] next to your program's name and change them.

Warning

Some academic programs require warnings, especially programs in which the experimental use of animals is common.

Abstract

A brief abstract of the unit. Provide an overview of the unit's functions, services, or academic program. What degrees are offered? What tracks or specializations are possible? What are the unit's strong points? What college or department is the unit in?

Admissions Information

Describe the formal admissions requirements of the program. Describe the application process. Describe the type of prospective students sought.

Application Deadlines

TIP: You can enter as many deadlines for each semester as needed.

Three semesters of deadlines are provided: Fall, Spring, and Summer. For each semester, a regular and preferred deadline may be given.

NOTE: This information may be out of date for most programs. Please check closely.

Application Requirements

List the items required for the prospective student's application packet. GRE scores, letters of recommendation, and writing samples are common examples. This entry must be formatted in HTML. An example is provided to help you with the coding. If you need additional assistance, email the Graduate School at grad-update@umd.edu.

Degree Requirements

The graduate degree descriptions in the Graduate Catalog represent a contract between the student and the university. As such, they are subjected to an approval process before becoming official. As a result, any edits made to degree descriptions in the Catalog will not be posted until the following semester. The version of the degree description that students see on the web has been frozen until the end of each semester. The version that you can edit on this form will be hidden until it has been approved by the Graduate School. At the end of the semester, new (and approved) descriptions will replace the current public ones.

Changes to graduate degree descriptions will automatically be flagged and sent through the approval process. However, it is a good idea to make notify the Graduate School in advance if you are making drastic changes to your program - such changes can take longer to approve and may require additional lead-time.

NOTE: Several programs have incomplete or missing degree requirements - please formulate requirements and enter them as soon as possible so that the Graduate School can begin the approval process.

Facilities and Special Resources

Information about the special resources and facilities offered by the program, the campus, or the DC area. Good examples are special equipment, institutes, research centers, projects, libraries, laboratories, and so forth.

Financial Assistance

Information about financial aid opportunities offered by the program. Graduate or research assistantships, scholarships, fellowships, or other funding sources are all appropriate to mention here.

Contact Statement

You can edit the line of text that introduces the unit's contact information. For instance: For more information, please contact the program. You can also add sentences about available pamphlets, brochures, and videos. If the program has two or more contacts, you might want to say why (if it is not immediately obvious from their titles).

NOTE: Contact information and the contact statement will be 'live' on the web beginning September 3, 2001 - this means that you may edit it at any time during the academic year and it will be changed on the web instantly.

Contact Information

Please provide a complete mailing address, phone number, email, and web site address. If desired, enter a name and/or title for the contact (such as Graduate Director, Chair, or Dean).

You may enter more than one contact. Academic programs often have more than one contact because each contact is responsible for a certain degree or track. This is especially the case for dual-degree programs or programs that offer many different degrees.

It is important to label each contact with an appropriate title so that applicants and students know which contact is responsible for what. For instance, use Doctoral Applications Director or Certificate Program Chair.

Part 3: Adding and Updating Faculty Information

The faculty link on the Unit Control Panel will take you to a second control panel just for editing your program's faculty. Detailed help is provided within that area to walk you through that process. When you are finished editing your faculty, return to the program control panel - click Unit Control Panel at the top of the page.

The Graduate Catalog contains a complete listing of all graduate faculty on campus. To keep this database updated, we need help from the programs. Eventually, we would like to link this data to LDAP or ARES personnel records, but that linkage is still a year or so away. Until then, the catalog remains a central source for faculty appointments and academic credentials.

More information:

The faculty listings in the Catalog were radically changed last semester. The complete graduate faculty roster was pulled from the campus data warehouse and used to create a complete, current faculty listing. This was the first major update of the faculty listing in several years, and the programs put in a lot of work updating their information. However, the effort was certainly worth it.

Faculty listings are now consistent throughout the Catalog.
Faculty can now be listed by program or last name.
Faculty employment centers (such as campus institutes and centers) can be listed.
Faculty information can be searched in a useful way.

It is our long-term goal to make the Catalog into a central repository for graduate faculty information. Eventually, faculty listings in the Catalog will provide links to faculty web pages, projects, and curricula vitae. The first step is making sure every faculty member on campus is properly listed under the correct academic programs.

Part 4: Adding and Updating Course Information

NOTE on COURSES:
All changes to course descriptions (such as course abstract, credits, or prerequisites) must be handled through normal channels. The course information in the graduate catalog is taken directly from the Testudo database at the beginning of each semester.

Each program has one or more type of course that it offers to students. For instance, History offers HIST courses and Biology offers BIOL courses. Some programs recommend that their students take several types of courses. For instance, Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology (CONS) offers these courses: CONS, BIOL, ENTM, PUAF, AREC, PBIO, GEOG. Please use the [ add new course code ] and [ delete ] buttons to edit the list of courses relevant to your program. Please see the yellow note on the right about editing individual courses.

The course codes you enter will link directly to the course descriptions in the published catalog. From there, students will be able to link directly into Testudo and see what is being offered or register for courses.

Part 5: Adding and Updating Metadata and Related Units

This part of the process provides information that will help prospective students find your program description and related programs and research.

Metadata

One of the most important features of the new Graduate Catalog is improved searching on campus and in commercial search engines. Adding keywords (also called 'metadata') to a webpage is the best way to improve its searchability. We ask that you take time to consider all the possible terms students might use to search for your program. Here are some suggestions:

synonyms of the words in your program title
(e.g. Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics - microbiology)
professions and titles associated with your field
(e.g. law - lawyer, history - historian)
significant faculty's last names
(Einstein, Fermi, Oppenheimer)
important research topics and projects
(Human Genome Project, cancer research, Internet2)

We recommend entering 10-15 terms about your program. Do not enter more than 25 terms, as most search engines will ignore additional terms. The full text of your program description is also used by search engines, so do not worry if not all your terms fit in the metadata.

NOTE: All programs should have default metadata - this was entered by our office and basically includes a list of the sub-specialties and tracks within each program. These keywords may be out of date now, so please check them closely and add/delete as needed.

Related Units

To help prospective students understand and navigate the interconnectedness of UM's programs and research units, we are developing a database of relationships between and among units.

Q: Why is this important? Who cares?
A: To help 'sell' the university's graduate programs to prospective students, it is important to demonstrate the collaboration between programs and research units such as centers and institutes. The new catalog will allow students to navigate UM information in completely new ways, such as viewing all the graduate programs within a specific college or all the research centers associated with a given program. To make this new capability really useful, we need the programs' help.

Q: Why are alternate modes of navigation important?
A: There are several reasons why giving students several ways to navigate the catalog is crucial:

Many programs have unclear or non-obvious program titles - finding the right one can be tricky
The university often divides large academic fields into several programs - comparing them is useful
Students are unsure of personal educational goals - browsing related programs can spark ideas
Students sometimes seek a broader course of study - finding two or more allied fields of study can be a problem

More information on the specifics of related units can be found by clicking on [ edit this unit's relationships ] in the Relationships section of the editor.

Done!

You have successfully completed the editing process. Thank you very much for your help in keeping the Graduate Catalog up to date and making it more useful and powerful for the university's prospective students.

The Graduate School will be reviewing any substantive changes that you made in this editor before the Catalog is published.

If you know of any Centers, Institutes, or other research units that are missing from this list, please contact us at the email below. The Division of Research and Graduate Studies is working to develop a single, authoritative listing of all research centers on campus. Your help is appreciated.

If you have any questions or comments about this process (positive or negative), contact the designers at grad-update@umd.edu