Table of Contents
Overview
Viewing Sections
Adding Sections
In-line Merge Status for Sections
Deleting Sections
Configuring Sections
Department, Calendar, and Instructor View
Video Tutorials
Related Articles
Overview
Once your course list is accurate, it’s time to configure your sections.
For information on how to view "Section Demand Analytics", refer to this article.
Viewing Sections
To access the sections of a specific course:
Navigate to Scheduling > Section Editor.
Click the accordion for the relevant course to view its sections.
Click into the section you wish to view and/or edit.
Adding Sections
Unlike courses, sections will sync with the SIS. If you need to make any changes, you can create new sections within the Coursedog platform. To create a new section:
Step 1:
Click on the course you want to create a section for and select "+ Section".
This will open the section editor modal where you can edit all of the settings for your sections.
Step 2:
Input values into available “General Information” fields.
Some of these fields may be locked or hidden, and some of them may be fields that you will want to edit.
Any warnings or conflicts will be shown in yellow at the top of the card.
Required fields are denoted with a red "required" symbol in their label.
We do not recommend adding instructors, meeting patterns, or rooms just yet – we will add those later. Before adding flexible fields (such as meeting patterns, instructors or rooms), we need to configure fixed settings. This will help guide the assignment of those variable fields.
Step 3: Hit “Save Section” to add the section to the schedule.
Additional Notes
When adding a section the new section number must be unique for each course within a term.
If you try to submit a "New Section" request and you create a new section using an existing section number, you will not be allowed to submit the request.
In-line Merge Status for Sections
Each Section Editor has the ability to display an Integration Sync status at the top of the modal. Learn more here.
If permissions allow, you might also see an “SIS Sync Tool” to the right of section details. Learn more here.
Deleting Sections
Overview | Best Practice | Note for Banner SIS Users | How to Do It
Overview
Most SISs do not allow for section deletion or discourage it. This is because they require a specific order of operations or checks (e.g. Ensure no registration/enrollments, etc.).
This means that when sections are deleted in the Coursedog platform, that change might NOT successfully POST to the SIS (i.e. Coursedog will NOT DELETE the sections in the SIS).
Section deletion is only fully supported for Banner integrations and non-integrated environments.
Best Practice
With the exception of Banner and non-integrated schools, section deletion should be performed directly in the SIS.
Sections should be marked cancelled in Coursedog (i.e. “Section Status” changed from “active” to “cancelled”).
An admin should set the “delete sections” permission to “deny” for all roles at Academic Scheduling > Settings > Roles > (Select Role) > Course Editor.
Note for Banner SIS Users
Banner integrations support the ability to delete sections on the back-end. However, this is disabled by default (via Role Permissions) to prevent sections from being accidentally deleted if schools want such safety mechanisms in place.
How to Do It
If permissions allow you to delete sections in Coursedog, you can do so by opening the Section Editor for the section you wish to delete and clicking "Delete Section" at the bottom.
Configuring Sections
Overview | Section Relationships | Credits | Enrollment Settings
Room Preferences | Part of Term, Section, and Meeting Patterns Dates
Overview
This section will likely differ depending on the scheduling policies of your institution. However, the general idea is the same: Before adding the flexible fields such as meeting patterns, instructors, or rooms, we need to configure fixed settings. This will help guide the assignment of those variable fields.
Section Relationships
Section relationships is a very important card to fill out prior to assigning meeting patterns and rooms. Section relationships are for defining relationships between sections. For example, two sections can have a non-overlapping relationship which means they cannot be scheduled during overlapping meeting times.
You can delete one of these relationships by clicking the red delete button to the left of the relationship. If you delete a linked section, the relationship will be deleted for the section and the sibling automatically. For example, if BIO1300 - 001 and BIO2200 - 001 are linked, and you delete the relationship from the BIO1300 - 001 Section Editor, it will automatically be deleted for BIO2200 - 001. The linked sections relationship options are as follows:
Once a section relationship is assigned, it will appear in the Section Editor as follows:
Additional Notes
Only Cross-listed Relationships are currently supported in the Iegration (POST).
Coursedog only supports cross-listed relationships for integrations currently.
The following relationship types are not currently supported and must be input directly in the SIS: Linked, Stacked, Co-convening, CoRequisite, PreRequisite, and Spanned.
If added in Coursedog, they will be wiped upon merge.
Recommendations
Where a relationship such as linked sections exists in the schedule, the Department Scheduler should review the SIS to ensure the sections are not set as overlapping (preventing enrollment) and the enrollment caps (especially for linked sections (e.g. labs) are set correctly.
In order to eliminate errors, it is advised you investigate if adding Time, Instructor, and Room override flags in your SIS.
Credits
Depending on your school’s configuration, you may need to fill out the credits field in order to assign a meeting pattern. You have the ability to assign fixed credits as shown below, or variable credits by selecting “Switch to Variable Credits”.
Credits are often tied to curriculum, and the intersection of credits and scheduling differs for different SIS systems. Refer to this article for an outline of the current Coursedog functionality, known SIS functionality, and features that we could build.
Enrollment Settings
Make sure all of your sections have designated enrollment capacity. This will ensure that the room selected for the section is large enough to hold all enrolled students.
Room Preferences
For each section, you have the option to add room preferences. If these are filled out, they can be used to help select rooms based on type, location, size, and features.
Part of Term, Section, and Meeting Patterns Dates
The section editor may be configured to capture part of term (also known as session) information for a section. Not all student information systems capture or require this information, so this field may not be visible to you. For example, Summer Term may have two parts, Summer I and Summer II, that are each four weeks. To properly schedule a section, a user must select the part of term desired for the offering.
When configured to default the part of term (PoT) from the parent term associated with the section, the start and end dates populated in the section template will reflect the chosen PoT.
The start and end dates for the PoT will cascade to any meeting times assigned to the section. This information can be found in the Set Details link in the Meeting Patterns & Rooms card.
The modal will display the start and end dates for each meeting pattern.
Additional Notes
Changes to part of term assigned to a section will be cascaded to both the section start and end dates as well as the meeting pattern start and end dates.
These dates are important because they inform the Coursedog logic that checks for conflicts in resource assignments. This is the order in which the Coursedog conflict algorithm determines what dates to employ when checking for resource utilization:
First checks if dates are defined on meeting.
If not, checks if dates are defined on the sections.
If not, checks if dates are defined on the part of term.
Finally, checks if dates are defined on the term.
Department, Calendar, and Instructor View
Overview | Departments View | Calendar View | Instructor View | Changing Views
Overview
In the top right corner of the “Section Editor”, there are some different ways to visualize the schedule.
Departments View
The Departments view enables you to see other departments' schedules as they are in progress, although you may not edit those schedules.
Calendar View
The calendar view enables you to visualize the schedule in a calendar view, list view, and room grid.
Instructor View
The instructor view enables you to see all of the instructors that are relevant to your department. If you click on the profile view, you can see more in depth information about the instructor, for example, whether they are an adjunct or full-time.
Changing Views
If you want to view the schedule by seeing all of the sections individually as opposed to having them consolidated into a course, you can click the “View by Sections” button under “Change View” in the top right corner of the Section Editor.
