Working with Courses and Sections
You create a portal-only course if you do not need any record of the course in your ERP system.
Each course must be associated with a department, and each course section must be associated with a term. That is, a course is a definition of a curriculum. The section is an occurrence of the course at a specific time and place. For example, a course might be “New employee orientation.” A section of that course might be “New employee orientation - MWF.”
Warning
There is no way within the Course Creator feature to display every portal-only course that you have created. The system is designed to display course sections, but not courses. So, you may want to maintain a master list of portal-only courses and keep it in a secure location.
Note
A course cannot be modified or deleted unless you have created at least one section of that course.
How To
Navigate to an instance of the Course Creator feature.
Click Add a New Course.
The Add a New Course screen displays.
In the Course Title field, enter a name for the course.
In the Course Code field, enter a code for the course. Note that once you create the course, the code cannot be changed—so be sure to enter a code that conforms to whatever naming conventions your school has decided to use.
Use the Department drop-down list to assign the course to a department. Note that you can choose either a portal-only department or a department that is defined in the ERP system. Once the course is created, you cannot assign it to another department, so you may want to take your time and make sure you are choosing the correct department.
If you need to create a portal-only department at this time, you can by clicking the Add a Department link and filling out the resulting pop-up form.
In the Description field, add a description of the course.
Click Add Course.
The system creates your course and displays the Add a section screen. As part of creating the course, the system creates a page for the course on the Academics tab and adds a link to this page from the appropriate department context.
Tip
You can either stop now and plan to add a section to your course later, or you can go ahead and add a section now by completing this procedure described in Create a Course Section. We recommend adding at least one section now. Until you add a section to the course, you will not be able to modify or delete the course.
Use this procedure to add a section to an existing course—either a portal-only course or a course that was created within your ERP system.
If you have not already done so, display the Add a section screen by completing the following steps:
Navigate to an instance of the Course Creator feature and maximize it.
The full view of the Course Creator feature displays.
Click Add a New Section.
The Select a Course page displays. You use this page to pick the course to which you want to add a section.
In the Select a Course field, enter the name of the course, or part of the course name, and then wait a moment.
The system displays a list of courses that include the letter(s) you entered, along with their course codes. Note that this list includes both portal-only courses and courses that exist in the ERP system. If appropriate, you can filter the list using the Department drop-down list.
Select the course you want.
The system displays the Add a section screen, with the name of the course you chose displayed at the top.
Use the Term drop-down list to choose a term for the new section.
In the Section Code field, enter a code for the section. Note that once you create the section, the code cannot be changed—so be sure to enter a code that conforms to whatever naming convention your school has decided to use.
You are not required to fill out any other fields at this time, though you may want to do some or all of the following:
Use the Section Title field to enter a name for the section.
Click the Add Faculty link to assign a faculty member to the section.
Click the Add Students link to assign students to the section.
To assign custom start and end dates for a student’s enrollment in the course section, enter them in the Open enrollment start date and Open enrollment end date fields for the student.
To add a meeting time and location for the class, click Add a meeting time. Then select the days and enter the times for the class and enter a location if desired. Click Save when finished.
Do one of the following:
If you are not planning to create additional sections right now, click the Add Section button at the bottom left of the screen (“Add section and exit”).
If you want to add this section and create another, click the Add Section button in the center of the screen (“Add section and add another”).
If you did not add a faculty member, the system displays a pop-up window asking whether you are sure you want to create the section without assigning a faculty member to it. In this case, either cancel out of the pop-up window and return to step 4 or click Yes.
The system adds your section and, depending on which button you chose, either redisplays the Add a section form or displays the main Course Creator feature view.
Once a course section is created, the system creates a course context for the section. If you have assigned a faculty member to the section, the system adds a link to the course context to the faculty member’s My Courses link list.
After you create a course, you can modify the course’s name or description using this procedure.
Note
Note that you cannot modify any aspect of a course unless you have defined a section of the course. If you need to add a course section, see Create a Course Section.
Additionally, you cannot modify the course code or re-assign the course to a different department. For these parameters, the values you defined when creating the course are permanent.
Navigate to an instance of the Course Creator feature and maximize it.
The system displays the full view of the Course Creator feature.
Locate the course that you want to modify on the screen. If the course is not displayed, use the Term drop-down list to locate a term associated with a section of the course you want to modify.
Click on the downward-arrow next to the name of the course.
The system displays a pop-up menu.
Select Edit Course.
The Add a New Course screen is shown, which also lets you modify the course.
Make any changes that are appropriate.
Click Save Course.
After you create a course section, you may want to modify any of the following:
The section’s title.
The teacher assigned to the section.
Students enrolled in the section.
The meeting time for the section.
To make any of these changes, use the following procedure.
Note
You cannot modify the course section code or reassign the course to a different term. For these parameters, the values you defined when creating the course section are permanent.
Navigate to an instance of the Course Creator feature and maximize it.
The system displays the full view of the Course Creator feature.
Locate the course section that you want to modify on the screen. If the section is not displayed, use the Term drop-down list to modify the view until you find it.
Click on the name of the course section.
The system displays the Edit Section screen.
As appropriate, modify any of the values displayed in the screen.
Click Save Changes.
At times, you may need to delete a course. Note that when you delete a course, you also delete all of its sections, and all of the data in the course contexts for those sections. You cannot delete a course unless you have defined a section of the course. If you need to add a course section, see Create a Course Section.
To delete a course (and all of its sections):
Navigate to an instance of the Course Creator feature and maximize it.
The system displays the full view of the Course Creator feature.
Locate the course that you want to delete. If the course is not displayed on the screen, use the Term drop-down list to change the view. Essentially, you need to display a term for which there is a scheduled section of the course you want to delete.
Click on the downward-arrow next to the course name.
A pop-up menu displays.
Select Delete Course.
The system displays a pop-up window asking if you are sure you want to delete the course and all the sections associated with it.
If you are sure you want to delete the course, click OK.
At times, you may need to delete a course section. Doing so also deletes the course context of the section and all of the data that the context contains.
Navigate to an instance of the Course Creator feature and maximize it.
The full view of the Course Creator feature displays.
Locate the course section that you want to delete. If the section is not displayed, use the Term drop-down list to modify the view until you find it.
Click on the downward-arrow next to the name of the course section.
A pop-up menu displays.
In the pop-up menu, select Delete Section.
The system displays a pop-up window asking if you are sure you want to delete the section and all of the features and associated data, including grades and attendance information.
If you are sure you want to delete the section, click OK.