Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
How to Run and Read a DARS Audit. Presented by Texas Woman’s University
This video is designed to help you learn about DARS by discovering what DARS is and why it’s
important. By the conclusion of this video you’ll know what you need before using DARS,
how to access it, how to run and read a DARS audit, what to do if DARS reports something
wrong, and how often you should run a DARS audit.
So what is DARS anyway? DARS is an acronym for Degree Audit Reporting System. DARS is
used to track your academic progress while in your undergraduate program at TWU. It can
show you how changing your major will affect your courses already taken, and DARS is used
to help you select courses to take each semester. DARS is important because it is used by the
TWU Registrar’s Office to verify your graduation eligibility. DARS is also used by your advisor
to give you sound, accurate guidance in staying on track and on time to graduation. DARS empowers
you to select and subsequently enroll in the courses you need each semester, and it shows
potential problems with your courses, thereby giving you and your advisor an opportunity
to correct them prior to graduation. Your advisor or other faculty or staff member
can run a DARS audit for you. You can run one as well, but you should know what you
need before you can properly use DARS. First, you need to know what college your department
and major falls under, which includes the College of Arts and Sciences, the College
of Professional Education, the College of Health Sciences, and the College of Nursing.
The abbreviation for you college that DARS uses is shown here.
Additionally, you need to know your catalog year, which is based on the semester and year
you began attending TWU, and your Pioneer Portal login and password.
You should know that your catalog year is determined based on the semester and year
you began taking courses at TWU. The exception to this is if you begin taking courses during
the summer. In that case, your catalog year is the following FALL term and current year.
If advantageous, you and your advisor may select a later catalog year than your own,
but never an earlier one. You may access DARS in several ways, but the
most common way is by clicking the DARS link on the TWU home page, as indicated here.
When you are ready to launch the DARS program, select this link as shown.
You will be taken to the Pioneer Portal login screen where you will need to enter your login
and password. After successfully logging in, the first screen
you will see is the Course List entry screen. For this video we will use the fictitious
student, Jill Pioneer, as we use DARS. As you look at the courses you have completed
and are currently taking, you should note that grades starting with a T mean the course
was transferred in to TWU, otherwise the course was taken at TWU, and will not have a leading
T. A grade of TCR means that credit was given for the course, but with no letter grade.
Courses with no grades listed are currently in progress at TWU. You can also verify this
by checking the term and year to the left of the course.
So how do you run a DARS audit? It’s actually easy, now that you know that you need your
major and any focus area (i.e. emphasis, track, etc.), your college discussed earlier, and
your catalog year as previously explained. To run a fresh DARS audit, from the menu bar
select “Audits”, then “Request New Audit”, as shown here.
Now this is important - bubble in “Run Selected Program” then complete the boxes below for
your college, major (i.e. a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, etc.), the degree program
(i.e. the focus, emphasis, or track), and catalog year, then click the “Submit a New
Audit” button to proceed. Note that if the default program listed is correct for your
audit, then you may omit the above steps and simply click the “Submit a New Audit”
button to proceed. For this example, our fictitious student Jill
Pioneer is a child development to pre-occupational therapy major, so we’ll set up DARS to run
that audit. Jill’s major falls under the Department of Family Sciences, which falls
under COPE, or the College of Professional Education, so we select that from the drop-down
list of options. We know that Jill’s major is Child Development, so we select that. Her
degree is a BS, or Bachelor of Science. Her degree program is the pre-occupational therapy
track, so we select that. Jill’s catalog year is fall 2013, so we select “13/FA”
from the drop-down list. Now we are ready to click the “Submit a New Audit” button.
In just a few moments the Audits screen will appear showing all requested audits, including
the one we just requested. Click the “Details” button to the left to view an audit, as shown
here. We now have an audit to read, so let’s learn how to read it.
If you are familiar with the actual degree plan for your major, then know that DARS takes
your degree plan and breaks it down into sub-groups, like state core, major, electives, and so
on. Each sub-group shows all completed courses that apply to it, courses currently in progress
that satisfy it, hours still needed to complete it, and courses you can take that will satisfy
the needed hours. It’s important to remember that DARS audits are not interactive. They
are accurate as of the date and time of the audit, so it’s important to run a fresh
audit each time you use DARS, especially if grades or courses have changed since the previous
audit was run. Note the header section and graphs for a summary
view of your progress as of the date and time of the requested audit.You can hover your
mouse pointer over sections of the graphs to see what they represent.
It is a good practice to begin your review by clicking the “Open All Sections” link.
To print a graphics free, larger print version of your audit, click the “Printer Friendly”
link as shown here. On page one of your audit you can see your
total hours earned which appear to the right of “IP EARNED”. Hours currently in progress
appear to the right of “IN PROGRESS”. For the sub-group shown here, Jill doesn’t
have any courses taken that apply to it (if she had, they would appear in blue text above
the hours needed entry). DARS indicates that she needs 6 hours to complete this sub-group.
All TWU courses that will satisfy this sub-group appear after the words “SELECT FROM”,
which are quite a few in this example. Only course numbers are listed on DARS reports.
Please consult your degree plan or a current undergraduate catalog for complete course
titles and descriptions. Further down the report DARS shows that a
minimum of 120 credit hours are required to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from TWU.
With few exceptions, this is the number to strive for.
Jill has exceeded 120 hours by 14 hours as shown next to IP EARNED, with 5 more still
IN PROGRESS. You need at least a 2.0 grade point average
for the state core in order to graduate with a bachelor’s from TWU. As you can see, Jill
has a 3.428 GPA, but that’s not why the header is red. (Note that a GPA will appear
only if you have grades posted with TWU) Until all state core requirements are completed,
this sub-group will remain red. When a sub-group is complete, or in the process of being completed,
the header will appear in green. This sub-group is part of the state core and
is in green. The completed course shown in blue satisfies this part of the core.
History is another part of the state core. Jill has no courses taken that satisfy this
part of the core, or they would appear here in blue text. DARS shows that 6 hours are
still needed to complete this sub-group. The courses Jill may take to satisfy this part
of the core (HIST 1013 and 1023) are shown to the right of “SELECT FROM”, which total
6 hours. At TWU, the last digit of the course number
indicates how many credit hours the course is worth.
Moving on down the report, we come to the major area, in this case, Child Development.
Here, Jill needs to complete 38 hours in the major core area (32 + 6 = 38). The courses
listed after SELECT FROM in both sections total 38 hours, so Jill needs all of these
courses to complete this sub-group. This sub-group has two sections as indicated
by the leading minus (-). If a section in a sub-group is complete, or in the process
of being completed, a plus (+) will be shown. Jill’s major has tracks, of which pre-occupational
therapy is one. This is the pre-OT track section of her degree plan. As shown here, Jill needs
12 hours of major courses in addition to the previous 38 hours to complete her degree.
The 4 major track courses that total 12 hours is listed after “SELECT FROM”.
This sub-group in the pre-OT track is complete since it is green. The courses are listed
and the grades earned meet the minimum grades indicated on the degree plan.
The OT department requirements are listed in this sub-group. Jill has not taken any
of the needed courses, since none are shown in this example. Therefore, she needs 17 hours,
and in order to fulfill these hours, she must select from all courses listed after “SELECT
FROM”, also shown here. Note that a grade of B or higher is required for each course
in order to satisfy this sub-group. These are elective courses. If you need elective
hours, your degree plan will indicate how many / minimum hours you will need to fulfill
your plan and reach, in most cases, 120 hours to graduate.
When considering state core sub-groups, keep in mind that some state core sub-groups have
specific courses to take, like Communication (aka English) requires both ENG 1013 and 1023,
but other sub-groups allow you the choice of which course or courses to take, as with
humanities, fine arts, and multicultural - women’s studies.
Also, the math, natural science, and social - behavioral science parts of the core may
require specific courses to satisfy your track, emphasis, or focus area.
Your degree plan will show, and your advisor will know, what courses to suggest in these
core areas if you are not certain. Note these things to keep in mind about your
major sub-group(s): Be aware of prerequisite courses and take
those early or as directed by your advisor. Some courses may need to be taken before others,
but are not prerequisite courses, per se. Your advisor will know, so ask if unsure.
Be aware of minimum grade requirements as posted on your degree plan or provided by
your advisor. When considering elective hours:
Consult your degree plan or advisor if there are certain elective courses that should be
taken. Elective hours are needed to ensure you have,
in most cases, a minimum of 120 hours to graduate. And if not specified, elective hours may come
from any TWU program that has no restrictions, or they can come from other colleges or universities
as long as those hours count for actual college credit. In other words, don’t count on continuing
education, workforce, or other similar courses to satisfy elective hours.
OK, so I’ve run and read my DARS audit, but some items seem to be wrong. What do I
do? First, understand that your DARS audit is
designed to accurately reflect your degree plan, so if you do identify something that
is wrong or unclear, ask your advisor. If you find a course that is missing or inappropriately
applied to a sub-group, a grade that is incorrectly posted, or a course substitution or waiver
that doesn’t appear after an appropriate wait time, contact your advisor as soon as
you discover the problem so that the issue may be addressed.
However, some perceived problems may not actually be problems, so consult with your advisor
if you suspect an error. Sh(e) can identify valid issues and make necessary adjustments.
You should run an audit prior to each registration period to help you select courses to enroll
in. Advisors sometimes want students to use DARS to select and enroll in their own classes,
and DARS will make that task easy. Also, keep in mind that faculty and staff
cannot see the audits you run, and vice versa. However, your audits will read exactly like
those faculty and staff run on your behalf. When you call or e-mail your advisor to discuss
something on your DARS report, your advisor will likely need to run a fresh audit since
they cannot see the audits you run. Finally, there is no harm in running an audit
as often as you feel necessary. So now that you know how to run and read your DARs audit,
try it out! Thank you for watching this video. We hope
you have found the time spent worthwhile and helpful as you continue your academic program
at Texas Woman’s University.