Purpose of the PDC Forms Site
The Program Development Committee (PDC) Forms site in an Approval Workflow. For Approvers, it addresses concerns about an approval stage having been missed because the proposals are automatically sent through the appropriate approval workflow; removing the reliance on proposers knowing where and to whom to send their proposals. Approvers are responsible for reviewing the aspects of the Forms that relate to their Unit ONLY. For example, the “Budgets” approval group will review resource implications and assist with completing the budget information. The Approval Workflow will result in stronger proposals; having ensured proposals are reviewed through all required review/approval stages.
Table of Contents
In order to access the site, open up a browser and use the following URL link:
https://uwin365.sharepoint.com/sites/senate
Upon navigating to the URL you will be presented with a Microsoft Sign-in screen. Use your UWin email address (UWINID@uwindsor.ca) and password to log in. (The same password you would use if you were to login to your UWin email)
If you have entered the right credentials, you will be presented with the following screen.
If you receive an error message saying that you do not have permission (image below), then it means you have not been added to the site and would need access granted to you by either Renée Wintermute (reneew@uwindsor; x3347), Alison Zilli (alisonz@uwindsor.ca; x3325).
As an Approver, you have access to the “Members” view of the site. There are two types of navigation available to you. The navigation menu on the “left” and the larger tiles on the home page.
The Left Navigation menu will be available to you regardless of what page you are on, while navigating through the website. The only exception is the Task Completion stage.
Directs you to your home screen.
Directs you to view your current or past PDC Submissions
Directs you to your current or past tasks assigned
- Workflow Comments (unavailable to Proposers)
Directs you to see the comments made to a submission from the different approval groups
Produces a list of the pages you have visited recently
- Recycle Bin (unavailable to Proposers)
Works like the Recycle Bin on your computer. It contains any Submissions or items that have been deleted from the site. If you have accidentally deleted a submission, it is moved to the Recycle Bin and has a chance to be restored if necessary.
This menu is available to you on the Home Page and contains the following tiles to direct you to various pages on the site that you will be using.
This will direct you to the “program and Course Changes” website found at http://www.uwindsor.ca/qualityassurance/810/program-and-course-changes
It includes all the steps to take in order to obtain approval for program and course changes.
Clicking this will open the “PDC E-Aproval Workflow Chart” in a new tab, which outlines the various stages your submission will go through in order to be approved.
Directs you to the Submission Form page. Here proposers provide general information about their submission, i.e Program Name, form selection, Faculty, etc. This is to ensure that the submission is directed to the right approval groups. Once submitted, proposals are no longer available to proposers for editing. Only approvers and administrators will be able to do this, unless the proposal is re-routed back to the proposer for revisions.
Note: Proposers can submit more than one form with one proposal. This is not only allowed, but encouraged.
Approval groups have the option of making proposers’ submissions available to them for revision purposes. Please make sure to make copies of the submission prior to giving them “edit” access for comparison purposes. This allows you to verify that only the revisions requested were made.
The first row contains links to the forms that you need to download, fill and attach to your PDC submission. Clicking on PDC Learning Outcomes Forms on the second row will redirect you to the CuMA Database website for the creation and revision of program or course learning outcomes, which you will then submit through the PDC Approval Workflow. Instructions on how to use this website can be found by reviewing the documentation on:
http://www.uwindsor.ca/qualityassurance/810/program-and-course-changes
Directs you to the page with all the proposals you have approved. From this page you can access all submissions, including those that have already gone through the Approval process. However, you will have “edit” access only when the submissions are at your stage of approval. The page looks similar to this:
This directs you to a task list of all the tasks that have been assigned to groups of which you are a member. From here, you can see all tasks that have been completed and those that have not been started yet. However, you only will have access to the task when the submission is at your stage of approval. (Please review the section on Approving a Proposal for more information.) The page looks a little like this:
From here you can review responses to completed tasks and respond to tasks at your stage of approval that have not been reviewed or forwarded to the next stage.
Comments entered by approvers are stored in a table that can be seen on this page. There are two types of comments an approver can make, “Comments to the Proposer” and “Comments to other approval groups”. All comments appear on this page, which is accessible to other approval groups only. While only those comments that are intended for the proposers are sent to them via email and are also made available to them on their “My Submissions” page.
Here is what the Workflow Comments page looks like:
As an approver, you are assigned to a particular group to make decisions on a proposal from your group’s perspective as well as make comments on said proposals. When a proposal reaches your group, the group receives a task that pauses the workflow process and is only resumed when the task is completed.
The task page currently has 3 views. “Assigned to me” is reserved for proposers who will get tasks assigned to them in the event that an approver has requested them to make revisions and re-submit their proposal. “All Tasks” displays all the tasks that have been created on the site and “My Group Tasks” displays all the tasks that have been assigned to the group(s) to which you belong.
Here is what the task list looks like:
When you click on a task that is awaiting approval from your group, you get the following page:
The first two fields are reserved for you to include your comments on the submission. The first field will contain your comments to the proposer and the second field will contain your comments to the other approval groups, should you need to include some information that needs to be passed on. The third field contains a drop-down menu with the following options:
Sends an email to proposer and moves on to the next approval group
Sends an email to the proposer and stops the workflow process
Sends an email to the proposer and moves on to the next approval group
Moves on to the next approval group without sending any emails
Gives the proposer access to review their submission. This gives proposers “Edit” access to their proposal, allowing them to make the changes you requested. After they have re-submitted their proposal, the approval group (that requested the re-submission) will be notified and given the chance to make additional comments before deciding to either Approve, Reject, or confirm the relevant section of the proposal has been sufficiently Reviewed.
Note: Each approval group gets one chance at giving the proposer a chance to re-submit their proposal.
IMPORTANT NOTE: While the option to send a proposal back for revisions is embedded in the Workflow, there is always the option for the approver to go “off-line” and meet with the proposer or make revisions via email correspondence, for example. Once satisfied, the approver would then simply upload the latest version of the proposal and complete the task by Approving, Rejecting, or confirming the relevant section of the proposal has been sufficiently Reviewed.
You can always view the proposals that have been submitted by proposers by using the navigation options in the Left Navigation menu and the Tiles Menu on the Home page. Clicking on either of these items will take you to this page which displays all the proposals you (or your group) have approved to date.
This is what the page looks like:
Clicking on a specific submission, will look similar to this:
Approvers have access to edit submissions, when the proposal is at their stage of approval. Approvers are to notify proposers of any changes they made; enabling proposers track any changes and to contact Approvers if clarification is sought.
Clicking on this will allow the submission to go in an “Edit” state, which looks similar to this:
From here you can edit the “PDC Forms New Application” form, download the proposal and make revisions, and re-upload the revised forms. Please be sure to notify and seek agreement from the proposer of any changes you are making to the proposal. Include this in the Comments box when forwarding the proposal to the next approval stage.
Clicking on the ‘Save’ icon, submits the form as does the ‘Submit’ button.
Then, go to “PDC Workflow Task”>”My Group Tasks”
Click on the appropriate task/proposal
Add your comments and make your “decision”. See pages 9-10 above.
Please contact Renée Wintermute at (3347; reneew@uwindsor.ca) or Alison Zilli at (3325; alisonz@uwindsor.ca) if you have any questions regarding using the site.
Please contact ITS Helpdesk at ext. 4440 for any technical issues that arise.