Table of Contents
Overview
Considerations
Accessing the Integrations Hub
Global Settings
Field Settings
Import Rolled Term into Coursedog
Execute Merge
Post the Schedule Back into the SIS
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:
Assigning phases to terms.
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 Integrations Hub 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 Integrations Hub
To gain access to the Integrations Hub, you'll need to add the Integrations Hub product to your superuser account.
Refresh the page and access the Integrations Hub from the products menu.
Global Settings
You can access your Global Merge Settings with the Hub via “Global Settings”.
This is where you manage high-level merge settings, like whether merges are enabled to run nightly or in real-time.
You can also create and enable/disable new saved states. However, we recommend reaching out to your Coursedog team to make any changes to this area.
Field Settings
Overview
Manage which term data is flowing by managing the terms in the Section, Course, and Relationship merge type screens.
Additional Note
For more information on Merge Settings and standard integration configurations for Academic Scheduling, refer to our Standard Integration Configuration article.
Import Rolled Term into Coursedog
Once the term has been rolled in the SIS, it will automatically appear in Coursedog during your next nightly merge.
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 1: 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 Integrations Hub.
Step 2:
Run the execute merge for Courses and then Sections and then Relationships.
For PeopleSoft clients, please import Sections prior to Courses.
Post the Schedule Back into the SIS
Overview
We recommend keeping the real-time and nightly synchronization enabled for all terms that you are editing in Coursedog. With these on the schedule, edits for a section will post any time a Scheduler hits save, and the full schedule will synchronize nightly.
Utilize the Phases feature in Coursedog to control which edits are permitted and therefore which changes will be posted to the SIS and who is permitted to make them.
For example, the weekend before scheduling starts you might 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.
When merges for this term should no longer be running, either remove it from any phases or ensure the assigned phase is one wherein the integration is turned off.
What 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.