Table of Contents
Overview
Considerations
Accessing the Admin Dashboard/Console
Merge Settings Configuration
Import Rolled Term into Coursedog
In-line Merge Status for Sections
Related Articles
Overview
There are three key aspects of the Academic Scheduling integration process that registrars should be familiar with and manage:
Once the term has been rolled in the SIS, import the rolled term data into Coursedog.
Post schedule changes to the SIS periodically until the schedule is finalized either via real time integration, nightly synchronization, or ad-hoc merges.
Use phases to dial back which bits of scheduling information are tunable once the scheduling cycle is complete.
Considerations
Coursedog provides an administration console that enables configuration of the integration. We recommend that you take a proactive approach to managing the bidirectional flow of scheduling data with your SIS and define a clear strategy so you can determine:
Which terms should flow into Coursedog from the SIS and when.
Which period within a scheduling cycle Coursedog should send scheduling information back to the SIS.
What information is allowed to be updated during the general scheduling cycle, during the final phases of the scheduling cycle, during one-offs as registration is about to begin, during registration, and post-registration.
Accessing the Admin Dashboard/Console
To gain access to the admin console, you'll need to add the Admin product to your superuser account.
No more than one or two registrars at your institution should have the Admin product added, as it comes with a significant degree of responsibility and should be considered a highly restricted privilege.
Make sure you have more products listed than just “Admin” or the system will not be accessible to the user when they next log in. For example, ensure you have both “Scheduling” as well as Admin.
Refresh the page and access the Admin console from the products menu.
To manage your integration settings access Merge Settings:
Merge Settings Configuration
On an ongoing basis we recommend that you keep all merge types enabled as set at the time that your project launched in production.
Manage which term data is flowing by managing the terms in the Section, Course, and Relationship merge type screens. For any term that you are still making edits in Coursedog, ensure that the term is set in the following configuration screens:
Additional Note
For more information on Merge Settings and standard integration configurations for Academic Scheduling, refer to this article.
Import Rolled Term into Coursedog
Once the term has been rolled in the SIS, add the term to the merge settings screens for courses, sections, and relationships as shown above and the term data will synchronize into Coursedog in the next nightly sync.
While not necessary as the information automatically syncs into Coursedog nightly, you may also opt to do a one-time import of that term data into Coursedog via an Execute Merge as noted below if you want to see it “right away”.
You might need to wait 24 hours after the term has rolled in the SIS to see it as selectable in the Coursedog environment.
Execute Merge
Step One:
To manually pull a term's worth of course and section data into Coursedog, access the Execute Merge function on the left navigation of the Admin Console.
Step Two:
Run the execute merge for Courses and then Sections and then Relationships.
For PeopleSoft clients, please import Sections prior to Courses.
Keep the “Send Updates” feature set to NO to just pull data into Coursedog.
Post the Schedule back into the SIS
We recommend keeping the real time and nightly synchronization enabled for all terms that you are editing in Coursedog. With these on the schedule for a section will post any time a scheduler hits save for any section, and the full schedule will synchronize nightly.
Utilize the Phases feature in Coursedog to control what edits are permitted and therefore what changes will be posted to the SIS and who is permitted to make them. For example, the weekend before scheduling starts you may want to limit who can edit/change rooms or instructors. Once the term has started, you'll want to lock down nearly all edits and further limit who is permitted to make changes.
Remove the Term from the Section, Course, and Relationship merge types when you no longer wish Coursedog to modify scheduling data for that term at all. No term should remain enabled in the configuration beyond its end date.
Coursedog POSTs to SIS
In Academic Scheduling, the only things Coursedog POSTs to the SIS are Section and Relationship (crosslist) information. Coursedog does not update any other data type in the SIS such as courses, instructor profiles, rooms, buildings, departments, or terms.
Section Creations – Coursedog will create new sections in the SIS.
Section Updates – Coursedog will update existing section information such as instructor assignments, room assignments, meeting days and times, section type, etc. The exact fields that Coursedog will update are carefully configured during onboarding with the Coursedog Customer Success team and are dependent upon which SIS you have and the rules/restrictions for that SIS.
Section Deletion/Cancellation – Depending on your SIS and how your integration has been configured, sections will be deleted and/or canceled/inactivated.
Relationship (i.e. crosslisting) – Create, update, and delete.