Departments and Courses

Departments are used to organize courses and employees. They can be added manually or imported using the Data import process.

Once the departments are entered, and employees have been associated with their appropriate departments, select View teachers to select the department chair. Managers can also define which blocks teachers are available.

This topic page covers the setup process for departments and courses. For more information about the course request process for students and advisors, see Course Request Settings and The Course Requests Guide.

Add or edit a department

Select Academics.
Select Scheduling.
Select Requests and schedules.
Select Departments & courses.
To add a department, select Add department.

To edit a department, select Edit in the row of the appropriate department.
Enter or modify, the:
- Name - Enter the name of the department (e.g. History, Science)
- Type - Choose whether the department is Academic or Non-Academic (e.g. administrative)
- Level - Choose one or more school levels to which the department should be associated
- Sort order - You can determine the order in which the departments will be listed in reports and on curriculum pages.
  - To sort everything alphabetically, do not manually enter any numbers for the sort order.
  - To manually sort them, for each item enter an integer number that is greater than or equal to zero. Items will be listed from lowest to highest. Items without a sort number will be listed last. If multiple items have the same number, those items will appear alphabetically (as a secondary sorting method).
- Schedule preference - Enter a number from 1-10 to determine that department's prioritization when being scheduled. Courses within departments with lower numbers (ex. 1) are prioritized, and thus scheduled, before departments with higher numbers (ex. 2). This preference impacts the Class scheduling order found under Generate master schedule.
- Publish to front end - This determines if the department is pulled into system reports by default
- Mark inactive - Select this if the Department should no longer be Active in the solution.
- Description - Enter a department description that will appear on curriculum pages
Select Save & add another or Save & close.

Add or edit a course

Courses can be added manually or imported using the Data import process after the departments are entered.

After courses have been created, they must be offered in order to associate them with a specific school year and term. Then sections can be created.

Use inline editing to change the status of a course to "Active" or "Inactive."

Select Academics.
Select Scheduling.
Select Requests and schedules.
Select Departments & courses.
To add a course, select Add course.

To modify a course, expand a department and select the pencil buttonbeside the appropriate course.
Enter, or modify, the following General information:
- Title
- Length - Enter the number of consecutive terms the course will run (e.g. a year-long course in a school year with two semesters will have a length of 2)
- School level - Choose the school level to which the course should be associated
- Sort order - Enter a number to determine the order in which the course will appear (within its departmental area). If multiple items have the same number, those items will appear alphabetically.
- Course code - This is typically used to cross-reference the course with other databases
- Publish to website
- Status - Select "Inactive" if the course should not be offered
- Description - Enter the course description that will display on the curriculum pages
- Departments
  Select the department(s) to which the course should be associated
- Grade levels - Select the grade level(s) to which the course should be associated
- Record attendance - Select "Yes" if attendance should be taken for the course
If Grading is used, enter the following information in the Grading tab:
- How is this course graded?
  Choose a standard or assessment grade plan group
  
  Select Print on report card if grades for this course should appear on printed report cards .
- How is credit awarded for this course?
  Enter the total credits, which will be divided evenly per term, or choose if credits will be specified per term
  
  If you choose to Specify Credits per Term, you will need to manually enter the credits to be awarded per term when offering the course.
- How is this course used in GPA calculations?
  Enter the following:
  - GPA weight: Used in grade average calculations, managers can set certain courses (such as AP/Honors courses) at a higher weight to increase the GPA for students taking those courses.
  - Alt. GPA weight: Use this to create an additional or alternate GPA (e.g. an unweighted GPA).
  - GPA points: This is used as an alternative method of calculating grade averages.
  - Course type: Use this field to identify courses as Regular, Honors or Advanced Placement (this is used primarily for University of California GPA calculations).
- How should this course appear on transcripts?
  Enter an abbreviation for the course, choose a transcript category, and enter information specific to Canadian transcripts if applicable.
If Schedule, Attendance and/or Course Requests are used, enter the following information in the Schedule tab:
- What priority should this course be scheduled in? Courses within the same department can be prioritized, and thus scheduled, differently based on the selected Course priority category.
  To add or modify entries in the drop-down and determine their schedule priority, modify the Course priority table under Table values. Courses with lower numbers (ex. 1) are prioritized over courses with higher numbers (ex. 10). This setting impacts the Class scheduling order found under Generate master schedule.
- Exclude course from generate master schedule processing: For more information, see Generate Schedules.
- Exclude course from generate student schedule processing: For more information, see Generate Student Schedule results.
- What teachers can be scheduled?: Choose which teachers can teach the course, the number of sections, and priority
- How will sections be set up?: Determine the minimum, target, and maximum number of sections and section sizes
- What rooms can this course be scheduled in?: Determine which Buildings and Rooms the course can be scheduled in. You can update the room type drop-down by modifying the entries in the Room type table.
  
  Choose Include homerooms for teacher resources to utilize faculty homeroom settings when generating schedules. To configure homeroom settings, use the People finder in Core to access a user's Schedule, then edit the Settings.
- When can classes be scheduled for this course?: Identify the blocks which can be tied to the course and if a course should use all or a specific number of meeting times from the selected block(s).
If scheduling rules are used, enter the following information in the Scheduling rules tab:
- + Add another rule: Any existing schedule rules will appear as options in a drop-down menu.
  
  Once you select a rule, enter or modify a relevant course title in the search bar to the right. For example, if you are setting up a Biology 101 course that has a rule called Science with a Lab, you might select the relevant Biology lab course that needs to be scheduled with it.
  
  To add or edit schedule rules, go to Scheduling, Schedule outline, then Schedule rules. For more information, see Scheduling Setup .
If course requests are used, enter the following information in the Course requests tab:
- Maximum # Requests allowed
- When multiple start terms exist, students can request
  - "any term: or specific terms : The student may either select a specific term , or any term . The "any term " option will only be available if the course has multiple start term .
  - only "any term ": If a course is offered in multiple terms , and the course request period stretches across multiple terms , "any term " will select the most ideal term for the student based on scheduling priorities. If a course is only offered in one term , then any term will default to the single term . Students are not able to select specific terms , if they exist, when "only 'any term '" is selected. Managers, however, can select specific terms from the Course request approval screen.
  - only specific terms : If a course is offered in multiple terms , the student must select a specific term .
- Requires recommendation: If checked, students will not be able to see or request this course until it has been recommended to them by a teacher or manager.
- Prerequisites: Notify students that they still need to enroll in, receive full credit, or reach a minimum grade for specific prerequisite course(s) when requesting this course. Students will not be able to enroll in a course if they do not meet the prerequisite. Teachers can override prerequisite checks, however.
  
  Exceptions to communicate must be set to Show message under Lacks prerequisite in order for prerequisite to be both communicated and enforced. This setting can be found in Course Request Settings.
  
  To add a prerequisite, select Add other prerequisite.
  
  When selecting a prerequisite, choose from the following options:
  - Any of the following: At least one of the prerequisites entered must be met in order for the student to enroll.
  - All of the following: Each prerequisite must be met in order for the student to enroll.
  - Enrollment only: The student must have completed, or be currently enrolled in, the selected course in order to enroll.
  - Full credit received: The student must have completed a course and received the maximum allotted credit amount for successful course completion in order to enroll.
  - Minimum grade
    - Numeric grade: Enter a numeric grade, such as 75, to set as the minimum threshold. A student must achieve this grade or higher in order to enroll.
    - Letter grade: Enter a letter grade, such as A, to set as the minimum threshold. Please ensure that the selected Letter grade corresponds to an option on the Grade Translation associated with the Grade Plan Grade.
    - In grade plan grade (for Minimum Grades): Select the Grade Plan Grade that contains the grade that should be used to compare against the Minimum Grade prerequisite. If a course occurs in more than one marking period, and therefore uses multiple Grade Plan Grades to record grade data, then add another prerequisite to account for the additional Grade Plan Grade.
  - In the course: The prerequisite course. Use the search bar to find and select a course.
If a retake is needed, enter the following information in the Course retake tab:
- Enable Course can be retaken to open additional options:
  - Unlimited number of times - Allows as many retakes as needed.
  - Specific number of times - limits the amount of retakes that can happen. Manually enter a number to set the retake value.
Select Save & Close.

If you need to edit or change a class section name, you either have to change the entire course name, or update the section identifier. If the course name is changed, it is updated throughout the entire system.