How do Major Professors or PIs use SPA?
The most common way a Major Professor or PI will use SPA is via an email. When a progress assessment is initiated either by the coordinator or Graduate Advisor an email will go out to the Major Professor for that student. The email will contain a link to the assessment questionnaire. The assessment link will remain available to the graduate program indefinitely. Past assessments can also be accessed via https://spa.gradhub.ucdavis.edu or GradHub.
How do I get access to SPA?
Once the program coordinator for your student adds you as the Major Professor you will gain access to SPA and GradHub.
You will be expected to complete both the UC Davis Cyber Security and FERPA training.
Major professors will only be able to see their students' assessments.
What students will a major professor have access to in SPA?
A major professor will see a list of assessments for their graduate students / those assigned to them in PRM.
Can I view the questions before starting?
How do I save my answers?
Each answer is saved as it is completed.
How do I undo my Confirmation?
You can Unlock your confirmation up until the Graduate Advisor has confirmed. Unlocking opens up the entire questionnaire for the Student, you and the Graduate Advisor to make changes.
Inline-media-imageThe Graduate Advisor can unlock both confirmations up until the Student acknowledges the assessment.
The Graduate Studies SAA can unlock both confirmations after the Student has acknowledged.
How do I start an annual assessment?
Annual assessments can be started at anytime between July 1st and September 30th, but can only be submitted after April 1st. The confirm button to submit will only be available after April 1st.
Go to the Assessments page by clicking on the SPA header or the Assessments breadcrumb link.
If you have multiple programs, select the program you want to work with.
Under the Send Email column click Send.
The Send / Reminder button might be disabled for a couple reasons; either this is not your student or the student is missing a Major Professor* or Graduate Advisor. *1st or 2nd year students or Masters students not doing research may not need a MP.An email will be sent to the Student, Major Professor* and Graduate Advisor.
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How do I start an interim assessment?
Interim assessments can be started between July 1st and March 30th and must be completed before April 1st. Only one interim per student per program can be active at a time.
Find the student in SPA (see How do I view a student's previous assessments? below).
Click the down arrow on the Send / Reminder action button for the annual assessment row and select Start Interim Assessment.
Inline-media-imageAn email will be sent to the Major Professor*.
*Or the graduate advisor if the student does not have a major professor.The major professor will only have to fill out the Overall Assessment tab (3 questions).
Inline-media-imageThe workflow will continue as normal, ending with a letter sent to the Student, Major Professor*, Graduate Advisor and Program Coordinator, if the assessment is unsatisfactory.
What does the email look like?
How do I add a message to a student's assessment?
Go to the questionnaire by clicking on the Step link for that student.
The Student, their Program Coordinators, their Major Professor (MP), their Graduate Advisor (GA) and their GS Senior Academic Advisor can view the student's assessment and add comments.
On the right hand side enter your Message... and click Send.
You can uncheck the Notify checkbox to just save the message and not have it emailed to the student, MP and GA.
Do both the major professor and the graduate advisor have to approve the assessment?
Starting their third year, doctoral students must have a major professor and a graduate advisor approve the assessment. Note, these can be the same person. For master's students and first and second year PhD students, the graduate advisor can be the sole approver of the assessment, but only if there is no major professor assigned to the student. If a master's student or doctoral student has a major professor, then the major professor and graduate advisor will have to approve the assessment for that student.
Both the major professor and the graduate advisor have the ability to make comments on the assessment.
How do I view a student's previous assessments?
Search for the student in the top right corner
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orFrom the Assessments page, click the student's name.
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I am emeritus, do I still have to complete the assessment?
If you are still the major professor for a student, you need to complete the assessment for the student.