Table of Contents
Overview
Section Credit Fields in Coursedog
Section Credit Fields in Banner
Section Credit Fields in PeopleSoft (Work In Progress)
Related Articles
Overview
Coursedog supports credit fields on the section level (see this article for additional details on the “credit” card in the section editing modal). Credits are often tied to curriculum, and the intersection of credits and scheduling differs for different SIS systems. Below is an outline of the current Coursedog functionality, known SIS functionality, and features that we could build.
Section Credit Fields in Coursedog
Overview
Our section editing modal supports up to six different credit fields, all of which are number fields that can take any integer or decimal value:
Credit Hours
Billing Hours
Contact Hours
Lecture Hours
Lab Hours
Other Hours
Variable Credits
There are also two variable credit fields: Minimum Credit Hours and Maximum Credit Hours.
These fields currently are just number inputs that do not have any downstream functionality.
Nowhere do we enforce the mix/max range on the section, nor does this impact Curriculum in any way.
Credits Advanced Settings
PATH: Academic Scheduling > Settings > Templates > Section Template > Credits Advanced Settings
All the settings for these fields are defined on the Credits Advanced Settings Card in the Section Template.
Section Credit Fields in Banner
Overview
In the Banner Section Form, SSASECT, the credit inputs are as follows:
Credit Hours
Billing Hours
Contact Hours
Lecture Hours
Lab Hours
Other Hours
Functionality
Each credit field has roughly the same functionality, so we’ll look at just one (Credit Hours) as an example. It has four fields: minimum, maximum, value, relationship (see table below).
Example
If the credit hours minimum = 3 and the relationship = None, that means that the Section Credit Hours value can only be set as 3. In such instances, Banner will auto-populate the Section Credit hours because it knows what it will be. In all other cases, the Section Credit hours are not auto-populated.
Section Credit Fields in PeopleSoft (Work In Progress)
Overview
PeopleSoft contains the following credit fields (note their term for units is analogous to credit hours):
Minimum Units
Maximum Units
Academic Progress Units – Related to financial aid (FA) units.
Course Count – Indicates the worth, or count, of the course towards an advising requirement. Some institutions count courses, as well as units, towards degree requirements.
Billing Factor – PeopleSoft does not have "Billing Hours", but instead uses a number which indicates a factor multiple. The billing factor regulates billing units, which the system uses to calculate per unit fees. When you establish fees for terms, courses, and classes, you can assess a per unit fee which is derived from the billing units on the student's enrollment record. Billing units are equal to the billing factor times academic progress units (BU = BF x APU). So if “billing factor” is set to 1 and “academic progress units” is set to 3, “billing units” would be 3. Alternatively, if “billing factor” is set to 2, and “academic progress units” is set to 3, billing units would be 6. Because “billing factor” defaults to 1, billing units are usually equal to academic progress units.
FA Units – “Financial Aid” Units
Contact Hours
Workload Hours (Not visible below)
On the section level, units is always defaulted to what is set at the Course level:
A
However, credits can be customized for different components of a course. Let's say a course has a lecture, lab, and discussion component. In PeopleSoft, you can set custom contact hours and workflow hours to each component. If you set the Lecture component to have 10 contact hours, then every section of that course that is a lecture will have 10 contact hours.
