Table of Contents
Overview
What are Phases?
Related Permissions
How To Do It
Permissions Overview
End User Experience
Related Articles
Overview
This article describes and reviews how to use the Phases functionality in Curriculum.
For information on using Phases in Academic Scheduling, please refer to Configuring and Managing Scheduling Phases.
If your SIS’s concept of Effective Dating doesn’t align with Coursedog’s and you have not implemented a reconciliation strategy with your Customer Success team, we recommend reaching out to Coursedog before implementing phases.
What are Phases?
Depending on the time of year – oftentimes relative to Catalog cycle – certain types of form submissions might be available or unavailable to proposers. For example, if a catalog’s publication date is May 1st, you might not want to accept new program proposals after January 1st, or course edits after April 15th.
Use of phases in Curriculum can increase clarity for both reviewers and proposers, as submission of course and program proposals for effective start dates that are “too soon” cause friction in the approval process.
Related Permissions
PATH: Curriculum > Settings > Roles > (Select Role) > Phases
“View Phases” determines if a role has the ability to view Phase Settings.
“Modify Phases” determines if a role has the ability to modify Phase Settings.
How To Do It
Step 1 - Update General Settings | Step 2 - Create a Phase | Step 3 - Configure Your Phase(s) | Example
Step 1 - Update General Settings
Overview | Choosing between “Custom Dates” and “Terms” | Managing Phases Relative to Custom Dates
Managing Phases Relative to Terms
Overview
Navigate to Curriculum > Settings > Phases > General Settings
Use this modal to update the overall settings for Phases, starting with “Manage Phases Relative to:”.
“Manage Phases Relative to:” determines whether Phases are managed relative to term dates or relative to custom dates.
Choosing between “Custom Dates” and “Terms”
Overview | PeopleSoft & Banner Customers | Colleague Customers | Anthology, Jenzabar, Workday & Homegrown/Unintegrated Customers
Overview
Terms should be used by clients whose catalog and curriculum cycles are dependent on the dates of their terms as defined in Coursedog.
Custom dates should be used by clients who have curriculum cycle dates that are not dependent on term dates.
SIS-specific recommendations are below.
PeopleSoft & Banner Customers
We recommend using custom dates given the potential for multiple concurrent terms.
Colleague Customers
We recommend using custom dates given effective dating strategies.
Anthology, Jenzabar, Workday & Homegrown/Unintegrated Customers
Discuss with your representative
Managing Phases Relative to Custom Dates
Overview
If you select “Custom Dates”, you can define the custom dates in this modal.
These dates will then be available to users who set Phase settings.
How to Do It
Select the “Phases time unit”.
Choose between Weeks, Days, and Months.
Recommended configuration is to use Weeks.
Some clients with a more complex and/or granular system might use Days, and clients with a much longer time horizon of their cycle might use Months.
Build out your dates.
Click “Add Custom Date” to create custom dates that will appear across phase settings.
Input a name that describes this custom date.
Select the date.
Set the error message header and description. This is what will appear when a user or form cannot perform an action.
Click “Save”.
Managing Phases Relative to Terms
Select the phases time unit.
Choose between Weeks, Days, and Months.
Recommended configuration is to use Weeks.
Some clients with a more complex and/or granular system might use Days, and clients with a much longer time horizon of their cycle might use Months.
Choose the Phase/Term Display Style.
This dictates how Phase dates will appear to users in-app.
This should be set based on preference.
Set the error message header and description. This is what will appear when a user or form cannot perform an action.
Click “Save”.
Step 2 - Create a Phase
Navigate to Curriculum Management > Settings > Phases > Add Phase.
Input a Phase name and description are required to create the phase.
Click “Create”.
Step 3 - Configure Your Phase(s)
Navigate to Curriculum > Settings > Phases.
Select a Phase to open/edit it.
Click the “Overview” tab to set and update the Phase name, description, and assigned timeline.
Use the “Phase Name” and “Phase Description” inputs to include details about what is changing between phases, so it’s easier to tell the purpose of this phase at-a-glance.
Click “Add New Timeline Item” to determine the timelines during which a phase will be active.
Phase timelines are associated with the start date on the record.
See EFFECTIVE DATING: A High-Level Overview to learn more.
Click the “Form Permissions” tab to dictate the permissions that will change for forms during this phase. You should not use this space to indicate what is happening by default. In other words: This is where you go to indicate if you wish to add or remove permissions from this user on this date.
Default behavior for forms is determined by the settings on the form configuration itself.
The Form Permissions assigned when a phase is active will supersede the default settings.
The configuration options for Phases in Curriculum allow for multiple phases to be active during the same time period, potentially introducing different permission at the same time.
This is known as Phase Conflict.
In cases of Phase Conflict, the system will default to the less permissive setting (e.g. DENY). See “Phase Conflicts” below to learn more.
Phase Conflicts
A Phase Conflict occurs when two or more phases dictate differing permissions for the same form over the same time period.
For example:
Phase A: Proposal Change Form is CLOSED 3 weeks before Start of Spring Term
Phase B: Proposal Change Form is OPEN 12 weeks before start of Fall Term
Phase A and B overlap → Default to Phase A because it is LESS permissive
Phases system will check the date assigned to the start date of the proposed record against the forms list to allow only forms active during the period in which the proposed record will be submitted to move forward.
Example
Configuration
Compare Phases
PATH: Curriculum > Settings > Phases > Compare Phases
Click “Compare Phases” to compare the name, description, timeline, and form permissions for established phases.
Use this view to validate your phase settings and better understand the experience of your end users.
Permissions Overview
PATH: Curriculum > Settings > Phases > Permissions Overview
This view allows you to see the calculated permissions for proposals submitted with a specific start date.
Use this view to validate your Phase settings and better understand the experience of your end users.
End User Experience
When an End User is viewing form options for the selected term, they will see “(Closed)” next to any forms where submission is currently closed.
If they attempt to select that form anyway, they will see an error message that reads, “Currently this action is not possible”.
