prerequisites

Prerequisites are stored in two tables, a control (Prerequisite Advising Control table) and a detail (Prerequisite Advising table).

· If you configure prerequisite checking to be based on requirements, any course with at least one prerequisite will have a row in both tables.

· If you configure prerequisite checking to be based on course codes, the prerequisite courses will be stored in both the Prerequisite Control and Prerequisite tables.

· Course prerequisites require a student to receive a satisfactory grade on a list of courses before they can register for a course.

· Prerequisite messages can be used to communicate information to students on non-course criteria.

Most institutions base their course prerequisite checking on the Advising Requirement Codes rather than course codes because Advising Requirement Codes allow you to include transfer courses in the checking and therefore is a more comprehensive checking. You should only utilize course codes for prerequisite checking if your prerequisite checking process requires you to include your course component structure (for example, sections or lab components). If you do choose to utilize course codes, you will define the components to be used for prerequisite checking during implementation. A sequence number will be automatically generated when a new prerequisite list is created. Please be sure to consult your application trainer if you choose to use course codes for prerequisite checking.

Course Prerequisites

To set up course prerequisites, you must identify a list of courses that a course of study must satisfy. The list of courses can contain as many courses as is necessary.

Example 1

For example, the following list of courses in included in a course catalog:

Course Department & Number	Course Description
ECO-200	Microeconomic Principles
ECO-201	Macroeconomic Principles
ECO-230	Introduction to Statistics
ECO-300	International Economics
ECO-320	Money and Banking
ECO-510	Economic Development
SOC-230	Introduction to Statistics

You have determined that a student would have to earn a satisfactory grade in ECO-200 and ECO-201 in order to take ECO-300. To implement this course prerequisite checking, you would create the following course prerequisite list:

Course Department & Number	Sequence	Prerequisite List
ECO-300	1	ECO-200
		ECO-201

For each prerequisite course, the Registration program performs two checks:

· Has the student taken this course? If the student has not taken the course, a warning message appears to the person who enters the courses.

· Has the student received a satisfactory grade for this course? The program checks the student's grade against the Grade Table to verify that the grade satisfies prerequisites.

A letter grade of A would satisfy pre-requisites while a letter grade of F would not.

The student fulfills each course prerequisite only if the answer to both questions is YES, at which time they may register for the course. If the student fails to satisfy any course requirement in the list, a warning message appears and the student may be asked to see an advisor before registering, choose another course, or have the warning message overridden.

Example 2

In order to take ECO-320, the student must take ECO-200, ECO-201, and either ECO-230 or SOC-230. In this case, you must set up two lists of prerequisite courses for ECO-230. If the student satisfies either list, they have met the prerequisites and may enroll in the course.

Course Department & Number	Sequence	Prerequisite List
ECO-320	1	ECO-200
		ECO-201
		ECO-230
ECO-320	2	ECO-200
		ECO-201
		SOC-230

If a student has not fulfilled all of the prerequisite courses in the first list (Sequence 1), the program goes to the second list (Sequence 2). This process continues until the student fulfills the requirements of a list or until no lists remain. The student must fulfill either list to satisfy the course prerequisites or a warning message will appear.

Prerequisite Messages

You may define your prerequisite messages that appear when a student registers for a course by using the Course Reminder.