Priority Departments: Overview & Management

This article provides an overview of Priority Departments and their management within TES®. Users assigned Priority Departments will see these Departments listed at the top of course data sets when evaluating tasks within the Evaluation Tracker workflow.

In this article:

Overview
Assign Priority Departments
Edit or Remove Priority Departments

Overview

Priority Departments is functionality within TES® that enables institutions to identify the Department or Departments whose courses individual faculty are approved to or frequently make equivalencies to for purposes of quicker, more efficient evaluation task completion. Use of this functionality is completely optional. TES Administrators can opt to assign no, one, or many Priority Departments to users.

While Priority Departments can be assigned to any user within TES, the functionality is used to expedite evaluation tasks within the Evaluation Tracker workflow. Use of the Evaluation Tracker workflow requires the assignment of specific rights and permissions. Users with the appropriate right(s) who are assigned Priority Departments will see these Departments listed at the top of course data sets when evaluating tasks within My Evaluations and/or All Open Evaluations.

Evaluation Tracker

In the example below, Professor Descartes was assigned the following Priority Department(s) by the institution's TES® Administrator:

MATHEMATICS (MATH)
MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE EDUCATION (MSE)
MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (MTHED)
PHILOSOPHY (PHIL)

When reviewing an evaluation task, the MATHEMATICS (MATH) Department is automatically selected from the most recent course data set at the evaluator's institution (Priority Departments appear in alphabetical order):

Professor Descartes can now select from the MATHEMATICS - MATH courses already presented; the Professor does not have to scroll through the other Departments at the institution (starting with ACCOUNTING - ACCTG) to find courses within MATHEMATICS - MATH.

The Priority Departments assigned to Professor Descartes will appear (in alphabetical order) at the top of the Department drop-down list within each evaluation task. Professor Descartes can still view all the Departments in the data set below (ALL DEPARTMENTS), if desired.

If the evaluator selects a different course data set, the Priority Department(s) corresponding to that data set will appear in similar fashion.

Assign Priority Departments

Before Priority Department(s) can be assigned, the users to which they will be assigned must be created in TES. See Creating a New User Account in TES for information about this process.

To assign a Priority Department(s):

1. Go to Manage.

2. Select User Management.

3. Select + Set Priority Depts.

4. The SET PRIORITY DEPARTMENTS screen will appear.

Field	Description/Actions
User	A listing of all users with an active TES® account Select the user to assign a Priority Department(s) to from the drop-down Reminder: While Priority Departments can be assigned to any user in TES, this functionality was made for use within the Evaluation Tracker workflow. If the selected user does not have SERVICE EVAL user rights, the individual will not have the permission necessary to receive or review evaluation.
Data Set	A listing of all course data sets from the institution Select the course data set from which to assign a Priority Department(s): A Department only needs to be selected from one data set. For example, if Accounting faculty are to be assigned Accountancy (ACCTG) as a Priority Department, this Department only needs to be selected once. It can be selected from any of the data sets that it is present in. If the TES Administrator attempts to add a Department multiple times, a message will appear noting the Department was previously added, and to see the list above. When reviewing an evaluation task, the evaluator will be able to see Accountancy (ACCTG) as a Priority Department within each data set that Department appears in when selecting an equivalency on the ADD/EDIT COURSE page. If a Department(s) does not exist within the most recent data set (selected by default), it will need to be selected from a previous data set. Evaluators can only see Priority Department(s) within the data set(s) the Departments are contained in.
Add Department(s)	A listing of all Departments within the selected course data set Select the + to the left of the Department name to add it to the User Priority Department(s) list If a data set contains more than 200 Departments, a page index will appear to assist with navigation:
User Priority Departments(s)	A listing of all Priority Departments for the selected user If no Priority Department(s) has been added, the following message will appear: There are no priority course department records found. When a Priority Department(s) is added, the Department name and abbreviation will appear in alphabetical order. Example If a Department was added in error, it can be removed by selecting the x to the left of the Department name.

When selections are complete, select the X a the top right of the screen to return to the User Management page. Selections are automatically saved.

Edit or Remove Priority Departments

If a user is de-activated, any Primary Departments assigned will remain associated with that individual's account. This means that these assignments will be applicable upon re-activation (assuming the user has the appropriate user rights to review evaluation tasks).

Given this, institutions will need to determine business processes for managing Priority Departments before de-activating or upon re-activating a user.

To modify a user's assigned Primary Department(s):

Go to Manage.
Select User Management.
Select + Set Priority Depts.
Select the User from the drop-down list.
- All users with an active TES® account will appear.
  - If a user is inactive, the individual's account will need to be re-activated in order to modify assigned Priority Department(s).
Review any Priority Department(s) already assigned within the User Priority Department(s) list.
To add a Priority Department(s):
1. Select the Data Set from which to add the Department(s).
2. Under Add Department(s), select the + to the left of the Department name to added to the User Priority Department(s) list.
  - If there are more than 200 Department names in the data set, a page index will be available and can be used to assist with selection.
To remove a Department from the User Priority Department(s) list:
- Under User Priority Department(s), select the x to the left of the Department name to be removed.

When selections are complete, select the X a the top right of the screen to return to the User Management page. Selections are automatically saved.