This article outlines new behavior that will take effect in Staging on 1/8/2025 for customers who convert over to the new New Term/Phases process.
You will be able to continue to modify merge settings until the New Term Phases process goes into Production.
Once also enabled in Production, merge settings will be locked, and you will no longer have access to them (which is great, because with this new setup, you no longer need them!).
Table of Contents
Overview
First Steps in the Scheduling Process
Define Your Term in Coursedog
Scheduling Phases, Integration Saved States, and Timeline
Preparing for Your First Term
Creating Scheduling Phases
Assign a Phase to Terms
Build Your Timeline
Recommended Baseline Configurations
Preparing for Future Terms
Related Articles
Overview
This article will outline the key items you should prepare before scheduling your first-ever term in Coursedog. In other words, this is the article to reference during your Coursedog implementation.
If this isn’t the first term you’ve ever set up in Coursedog and you instead need guidance on scheduling for a subsequent term, check out our “Preparing for a New Term” article.
To learn more about getting your platform ready for the first scheduling term, you should consult the Administrator's Setup Guide and the Department Scheduler's Guide.
First Steps in the Scheduling Process
Overview | Begin Scheduling via Rollover | Additional Notes
Overview
Take these three steps before doing any work with Phases, Timelines, or Terms in Scheduling:
Perform a rollover (details below).
Familiarize yourself with integration best practices.
Begin Scheduling via Rollover
Overview
The Term Roll Process is used in most SIS systems to move section data from one term to another.
This process will typically copy the schedule from one term to a new term that does not contain any scheduling information.
For specific instructions regarding rolling a term in your SIS, please refer to the documentation provided by your vendor.
Once you have established a new term in your SIS, you can pull it into Coursedog and prepare to plan your schedule.
How to Do It
Perform a standard rollover in your SIS.
Once your rollover is complete, the term will be pulled into Coursedog during your next nightly merge.
Execute Merge (Optional)
If you don’t want to wait for your next nightly merge to pull in data, you can execute a “manual merge”.
Additional Notes
Coursedog's built-in Rollover functionality is primarily only to be used by non-integrated schools. Learn more about rollovers in Coursedog.
Define Your Term in Coursedog
Coursedog syncs with your SIS nightly. In preparation for scheduling a new term, we suggest giving a 2 day buffer between the rollover event in your SIS and when you want to start scheduling.
Set your "Current Scheduling Term" by navigating to Academic Scheduling > Settings > Terms.
Click on the values displayed under "Current Active Term" and "Current Scheduling Term" to select your new term.
The current term setting is automatically recalculated every week, so this value can keep up with the current date.
See Defining Terms and Dates more information.
If you don't see your term listed, make sure Coursedog is connected to your SIS and configured correctly.
Scheduling Phases, Integration Saved States, and Timeline
Overview | Scheduling Phases | Integration Saved States | Phases and Saved States | The Timeline Feature
Overview
This section provides an overview of key scheduling concepts.
Phases, Saved States, and the Timeline feature interact to allow schedulers to control their scheduling process without having to manually change role permissions, field edit permissions, edit merge settings, and update Schedulers throughout the scheduling process.
Scheduling Phases
Allows administrators to create, configure, and assign Phases that align with your overall scheduling process and associate role permissions, rules, section editing permissions, and integration saved states etc. that should automatically update or change depending on the phase you are currently in.
For Phases, navigate to Academic Scheduling > Settings > Phases.
NOTE: All schools need at least one Phase configured in Scheduling to enable the New Term process.
Integration Saved States
Allows you to save your merge settings and potentially align different merge settings to different scheduling phases.
Your Coursedog Data Engineer will work with you to set up any additional saved states that you need.
Phases and Saved States
All Scheduling customers should have at least one Phase.
All Phases should have a Saved State assigned to them.
Coursedog determines which Terms to run merges for by checking which Terms are in Phases with a Saved State where the integration is running for Scheduling entities.
Therefore, at least one Phase is required, and all Phases where merges should be running need a Saved State assigned to them.
Without at least one Phase, and without Saved States assigned to Phases, Coursedog can’t recognize Terms where the integration is ON.
The Timeline Feature
Allows admins to determine when one phase ends and another begins, trigger that change automatically, and notify users that the phase change has taken place.
Preparing for Your First Term
When scheduling your first-ever term in Coursedog, take the following steps to prepare for your first term (and to make subsequent term setup simple):
Create Integration Saved States
Create Scheduling Phases
Build out your timeline
Assign your first Phase to the current scheduling term
These steps are detailed below.
Creating Scheduling Phases
Overview | The Phases Tab | Role Permissions | Field Permissions | Section Rules
Merge Settings Configuration | Comparing Phases
Overview
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases
Phases are separate periods of your scheduling cycle in which specific sets of role permissions, rules, section editing permissions, and integration saved states can be used.
For example, an end user may have the permission to make a certain edit in one phase and that permission may be revoked in a later phase as the schedule is finalized. If "Scheduling Phases" have been configured, you should be able to tell what Phase your institution/team is currently in via the button next to “Departmental Status” on your homepage (see “Planning Phase” button in screenshot below).
Administrators may further take advantage of setting up an automatic email notification aligned with Phase change dates that will alert end users to permission changes as a new Phase begins.
Learn more about phases in Configuring & Managing Scheduling Phases.
The Phases Tab
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases > Add Phase
When you first land on the Phases page, you will see all phases created thus far, along with the “+ Add Phase” option.
This is where you go edit existing phases or create new phases.
To edit an existing phase, click to open it or select “edit”.
To add a phase, click “+Add Phase”.
Be sure to assign each phase a name and description that will make them easy to identify.
Role Permissions
Overview | How to Do It | Additional Notes
Overview
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases > (Select Phase) > Role Permissions
The Role Permissions tab within a Phase allows any permission for any roles to be updated while the selected Phase is active.
How to Do It
Use the “Role” select to determine for which Role you are updating the permission.
Use the “Permission” select to choose the permission you are updating.
Use the “Action” select to set the access for that permission within this specific phase.
If the permission supports conditional actions, you can set those in the “Condition” select.
Hover over “Baseline” to see what the baseline setting for this permission is.
The “Baseline” setting is the setting for this permission in Settings > Roles.
You can use this tab to configure permissions for multiple roles and permissions at once.
Click “Save” to save your changes.
Additional Notes
When a permission is updated for a given Phase and that Phase is active in the Scheduling process, the permission follows the setting you have created in this Phase (as opposed to the baseline setting created in Roles).
This allows you to allow or deny certain actions in Scheduling during parts of the Scheduling process.
For example, the Pre-Scheduling Phase may require that Department Schedulers not be able to Edit Courses (set to DENY), but the Open Scheduling Phase may require that Department Schedulers be able to Edit Courses (if the baseline = ALLOW, no configuration is required for that role and permission in the Phase).
Reference the “Recommended Configuration” section for tips on configuring the Role Permissions tab.
Field Permissions
Overview | How to Do It | Additional Notes
Overview
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases > (Select Phase) > Field Permissions
The Field Permissions tab within a Phase allows the “Editability” of a Section Template field to be updated while the selected Phase is active.
“Editability” determines which roles (if any) can edit this field on a Section.
In the below screenshot, you see the baseline configuration of a field within the Section Template. You can change who has permission to edit this field via phases (see “How to Do It”).
How to Do It
Click “Add Field Permission” and then use the “Field” select to select the field you’re looking for.
Hover over “Baseline” to see the baseline “Editability” setting.
To make a field editable by no roles, deselect “Editable.”
To make a field editable by all roles, select “Editable” and select no roles. You will see “(Editable for all roles)” in grey text in the role select field.
To make a field editable by specific roles, select “Editable” and select as many roles as needed from the role select option.
Click “Save” to save your changes.
Additional Notes
You can use this tab to configure editability for as many Section Template fields as needed.
When editability is updated for a given Phase and that Phase is active in the Scheduling process, the field will be edited by the settings you have created here.
This allows you to prevent or allow specific fields to be edited in different Phases of the scheduling process.
For example, you might not want any users to edit the “Instructors” field during Pre-Scheduling (uncheck “Editable”), but you might want Department Schedulers to be able to edit that field during “Open Scheduling”.
Note if the baseline = editable by Department Schedulers, no configuration is required for that field in the Phase.
Reference the “Recommended Configuration” section for tips on configuring the Field Permissions tab.
Section Rules
Overview | How to Do It | Additional Notes
Overview
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases > (Select Phase) > Section Rules
The Section Rules tab within a Phase allows Section Rule behavior to be updated while the selected Phase is active.
How to Do It
Click “Add Section Rule” and then use the “Rule” dropdown to select the rule you’re looking for.
Use the “Action on Failure” select to determine if the rule should trigger a Warning, a Section Change Workflow, or no action (“Off”) when the rule is violated.
Select “This rule cannot be violated” to require that the rule not be violated when scheduling a section (if this is not selected, rule violations will trigger the action selected in “Action on Failure”).
To check the baseline configuration for a rule, navigate to Rule > Section Rules > (Select rule).
Click “Save” to save your changes.
Additional Notes
You can use this tab to configure the settings for as many Section Rules as needed.
When the behavior for a Section Rule is updated here and that Phase is active in the Scheduling process, the Rule will follow the behavior configured here.
This allows you to update Rule behavior for certain Phases in the scheduling cycle.
For example, you might want to prevent any double bookings in the Pre-Scheduling Phase, so you can select the “Double Booked Room” rule and select “This rule cannot be violated”.
In the Open Scheduling Phase, you might want to allow a double booking to trigger a Section Change Workflow, so you can set “Action on Failure” to “Section Change Workflow” for the “Double Booked Room” rule.
Reference the “Recommended Configuration” section for tips on configuring the Section Roles tab.
Merge Settings Configuration
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases > (Select Phase) > Merge Settings Configuration
For more context, reference the Baseline Saved States section below.
The Merge Settings Configuration tab allows you to select an Integration Saved State to assign to a term.
Learn more about creating Integration Saved States.
Use the “Active Integration Setup” dropdown to select the Integration Saved State you would like to assign to this Phase.
Click “Save.”
Comparing Phases
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Phases > Compare Phases
Overview
Use Compare Phases to view up to three Phases in a comparison mode and track the changes made to Role Permissions, Field Permissions, Section Rules, and Merge Settings in each Phase.
Use Case
Once Phases are configured (or while configuring a new Phase), “Compare Phases” helps you review each Phase and determine that your Phases are following the best practices outlined in "Recommended Baseline Configurations" below.
Assign a Phase to Terms
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Terms > Phase
Overview
You’ll need to manually assign the first Phase of your scheduling cycle to each new scheduling Term.
If you are using the Timeline feature below, you’ll assign the first Phase manually, and following Phases will be triggered automatically.
If you are not using Timeline items, you’ll manually assign a new Phase to the active Scheduling Term any time you are ready to move onto a new Phase.
What Happens When You Assign a Phase to Terms
To make the new term setup process as seamless as possible and to ensure that your integration is running for Scheduling data in the correct terms, Coursedog uses your Phase and Term configuration to determine when your integration is ON.
As noted above, you can turn the integration for a phase on or off at Scheduling > Settings > Phases > Merge Settings Configuration. If you have set up Saved States, those can be applied to your Phases to determine if the integration is running or not in that Saved State and in turn in that Phase.
When a Phase with a Saved State where the integration for Section, Courses, and Relationships data is ON is assigned to a Term, the integration will run for that Term.
If a Term has no Phase assigned or has a Phase where the integration for Section, Courses, and Relationships data is OFF is assigned to a Term, the integration will not run for that Term.
Think of it this way – a term with no Phase assigned does not need the integration to run.
A Term with a Phase where the integration is OFF (for example, a Pre-Scheduling or Historical Phase) does not need the integration to run.
Only Terms assigned to Phases where the integration is actively running for scheduling data will have the integration on.
Build Your Timeline
Overview | How to Do It | Downstream Impact
Overview
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Timeline
The Timeline feature allows schools to determine when one Phase ends and another begins, trigger that change automatically, and notify users that the Phase change has taken place.
How to Do It
To create a new Timeline action, click “Add New Item.”
Assign the Timeline action a name – generally, this name should indicate the Phase change that will take place.
Assign the step a Start Date (you will not need to assign an end date – this Timeline action will end when the next Timeline action triggers the next Phase to begin).
Under “Display Timeline on Terms,” select the term to which this timeline action applies.
Using the “All terms” checkbox means that this step will appear on future and past term timelines.
Assign the Timeline step a Term and Phase. The Term and Phase selected here determine which Term this step is connected to and which Phase it will trigger.
You can also send an email notification to specific roles to notify users that the Phase is changing.
Customize the subject, body, and recipient roles to provide all necessary context and detail on the changes happening in the new Phase so that users understand why their Role Permissions or Field Permissions might change.
Downstream Impact
When Start Date, Timeline, and Phase are applied, the Timeline feature will automatically move Scheduling from one phase to the next.
For example, assume your Current Scheduling Term is Fall 2024-2025, which begins August 1, 2024 and ends December 31, 2024.
The first Phase in your cycle is Pre-Scheduling and the second is Open Scheduling.
You will create a Timeline action called “Pre-Scheduling to Open Scheduling.”
You will select a date of August 15, 2024.
You will select Term: Fall 2024-2024 and Phase: Open Scheduling
This means that on August 15, 2024, the Pre-Scheduling Phase will end and the Open Scheduling Phase will begin, transitioning your Role Permissions, Field Permission, Section Roles, and Saved States to your Open Scheduling settings.
Your timeline will appear at the top of Scheduling > Home along with dates to indicate the current, previous, and upcoming Phases of your scheduling cycle.
Recommended Baseline Configurations
Overview | Baseline Roles | Baseline Fields | Baseline Section Rules
Baseline Saved States | Terms | Example Phase Configuration | Timeline View
Overview
"Baseline configuration" refers to the default configuration – for things like Roles and Field Settings, these are the everyday settings you're using Phases to change.
For example, the baseline Roles configuration noted below is created in Settings > Roles, not within Phases.
This section captures what we recommend as the baseline configuration for roles, fields, section rules, and saved states.
Baseline Roles
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Roles
Baseline roles should be configured as the LEAST restrictive permissions at any point in the scheduling cycle
Phases will restrict access and roll back permissions from “Allow” to “Deny” as needed.
For example, the first Phase used in a term may require that the Department Scheduler role has the permission “Edit Courses” set to ALLOW, but the third Phase used in a term may require that the Department Scheduler role has the permission “Edit Courses” set to DENY.
In this case, the baseline Role for the Department Scheduler should have the “Edit Courses” permission set to ALLOW (the LEAST restrictive permission that will be used).
Department Scheduler > Edit Courses can then be restricted to DENY via Phases.
Baseline Fields
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Roles
Baseline Fields should be configured as the LEAST restricted permissions at any point in the scheduling cycle
Phases will restrict access and roll back permissions from “Allow” to “Deny” as needed.
If a field should be editable in any Phase, the baseline configuration should set that field as editable. It should be editable for as many roles as will be allowed to edit that field at any point in the scheduling process.
For example, the first Phase used in a term may require that the Room field be editable by any role, but the third Phase used in a term may require that the Room field is editable by no roles.
The baseline setting for the Room field should be “Editable by all roles,” and it will later be restricted to not be editable by any roles via Phases.
Baseline Section Rules
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Templates > Section Template > (Select Field)
Baseline Section Rules should be configured as the MOST restricted.
If a rule will be set as “Required” or “Warning/ Workflow” at any point in the scheduling cycle, the rule should be assigned that setting in the baseline (Rules > Section Rules and Rules > Meeting Pattern Rules).
Then, Phases can turn off any Rules as needed during Phases in which Scheduling is more open.
NOTE: Setting Rules to LEAST restricted and then turning those Rules on later in the process will flag issues that were created earlier in the scheduling process. Please discuss with your Project Manager or Customer Success Manager before proceeding with a Rules configuration that is not recommended here.
Baseline Saved States
Your Coursedog Data Engineer will work with you to configure any additional saved states that are needed.
Terms
PATH: Scheduling > Settings > Terms > (Select Term) > Set Phase
Terms in Coursedog should ALWAYS have a phase associated with them before scheduling for that Term begins.
Example Phase Configuration
Overview | Phase 1: Pre & Post Scheduling | Phase 2: Open Scheduling
Phase 3: Post Schedule Review | Phase 4: Historical/ Archived
Overview
You can create as many or as few Phases as you need to match your Scheduling process.
The Phases below are an example of a common way our partners think about Phases.
Before and after the Scheduling cycle, a very restrictive Phase is in use.
During the scheduling cycle in “Open Phases”, more roles are allowed to make more edits.
A “Post Schedule Review” Phase is used to send edits through Workflows.
A final "Historical" Phase turns the integration off.
Phases should have descriptive names that align anecdotally with different windows of time within the scheduling cycle.
Phase 1: Pre & Post Scheduling
Overview
This phase is used prior to and following the scheduling cycle.
It is intended to be the MOST locked down period of time.
Key Functional Characteristics
“Add Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to DENY
“Edit Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to DENY
ALL permissions in Roles > select role > Requests are set to DENY
Saved State
Integration ON
Phase 2: Open Scheduling
Overview
This phase is used during the open scheduling window up to the point of schedule submission and review.
It is intended to be the LEAST locked down period of time. This will be used when the bulk of the scheduling and end user activity is happening in Coursedog.
Key Functional Characteristics
“Add Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to ALLOW
This is likely the baseline role configuration.
“Edit Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to DENY
This is likely the baseline role configuration.
Saved State
Integration ON
Phase 3: Post Schedule Review
Overview
This phase is used during the window of time between the schedule being approved and locked.
All (or a majority of) edits must go through a workflow.
Certain fields MAY be open to edits.
This Phase is most often used during active enrollment windows and prior to/at the beginning of the term start.
Key Functional Characteristics
“Add Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to DENY
“Edit Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to DENY
SOME fields may be editable
In this case, “Edit Sections” permission for Department Scheduler Role is set to ALLOW.
Then Field Permissions for any fields that should NOT be edited by the Department Scheduler role should be configured to prevent those edits.
Examples of fields that may be editable are Enrollment Max, Waitlist Max, Instructor, and Room.
ALL permissions in Roles > (select role) > Requests are set to DENY
Saved State
Integration ON
Phase 4: Historical/ Archived
Overview
This is completely locked down and merges are turned OFF.
Saved State
Integration OFF
Timeline View
PATH: Scheduling > Home
Overview
If you’re using the phases that come preloaded with Coursedog, your timeline will reflect the below.
Preparing for Future Terms
Many of the items outlined above (e.g. the Phases and Timeline features in particular) will not need to be configured each term.
You can configure your Phase and Timeline settings once based on the steps in this article and reuse that configuration for future terms.
To learn more about preparing for a new term after your first term scheduling in Coursedog, check out Preparing for a New Term.
When updating your Phase or Timeline configuration, return to this article or reach out to your Customer Success Manager with questions.