Courses
The Course settings page lets you manage the subjects that you teach, including student registrations in each subject for each year.
At first glance, a Course is simply a subject area. However, a Course allows you to manage much more information than that. You will register a student in a Course in order to record the fact that the student is receiving instruction in that area during a particular year and term(s). Additionally, a student's registration in a Course will allow you to group together assignments and lessons for grading purposes.
For ease of management, the Course settings page allows you to view your courses by Student or by Subject. To select one of these views, click on one of the buttons in the Courses header.
Courses by Subject
In this view, you can see all the courses that you have created, regardless of student registrations. You can add a new course by clicking on the Add button in the Courses header. You can change the name or the objective of an existing course by clicking on the row for that course. Finally, if you create a course by mistake, you can delete it by placing your cursor on top of the round drop-down icon in the row for that course and clicking on the Delete option.
You can see the students registered for a course by clicking on the link underneath the title for each course, for example, “2 Student Registrations” under the “Algebra 1/2” course below.
Clicking on the student registrations link displays a listing like the one below.
As you can see, one student, Madeleine Keith, is registered for each of the terms in the 2012-2013 academic year. Since each term is counted as a separate registration, this brings the total to two registrations.
You can view registrations for this course in other years by clicking on the Year drop-down menu below the Courses header. This drop-down defaults to the current year.
In the example above, you can expect that there will be no registrations in other years for this course, because the course has a total of two registrations, and we know that Madeleine Keith is registered for both Spring and Fall of 2012-2013.
You can go back to the course listing by clicking on the “All Courses” link below the Courses header, or by clicking on the “By Subject” button in the Courses header.
Adding a Registration
To add a new registration for a student, click on the Add button in the Courses header. The course entry form will appear.
To create a new registration, you must specify the following information.
- The student to register
- One or more terms
- The default grade scale
- The number of credits
Note that the entry form will pre-populate the Terms field with all the terms for the selected year. If you do not want to create a registration for all of the terms in the year, you can remove individual terms by clicking on the X icon to the right of their name.
Also note that the grade scale that you select for the registration will be used as the default grade scale when creating assignments for that course and student (of course, you can always override the default if you wish a particular assignment to use a different grade scale).
The number of credits that you enter will be shown in the Transcript report in the Reports module, and will affect the calculation of the student's Grade Point Average (GPA). For each course, the number of credits earned is obtained by multiplying the points for the earned grade by the number of credits registered for. Similarly, the number of credits attempted is obtained by multiplying the maximum points possible by the number of credits registered for. The GPA is then calculated by dividing the sum of credits earned by the sum of credits attempted for all courses.
Changing a Registration
To change a student's registration, simply click on the row for that student. When the entry form appears, you will be able to change the term(s) for which the student is registered as well as the default grade scale and the number of credits for the registration.
Note that changes to the grade scale or the number of credits will affect all terms for which the student is registered.
Also note that it is not possible to edit an existing registration in order to “unregister” a student. For instance, once a registration is created, you cannot change it to apply to another student. Similarly, you cannot save changes to a registration unless at least one term is selected. If you would like to unregister a student, simply delete the registration as explained below, and create new registrations as needed.
Deleting a Registration
To delete a student registration, simply place your cursor on top of the circular drop-down icon in the row for that student. Select the Delete option from the drop-down menu that will appear.
Courses by Student
In this view, you can see the courses for a particular student and year. You can select the student and year using the drop-down menus below the Courses header.
In this view, you can see the course registrations for a particular student during a particular year. You can select the student and the year by clicking on the drop-down menus below the Courses header. These drop-downs default to the current student and the current year.
Adding a Registration
You can create a new registration by clicking on the Add button in the Courses header. The course entry form will appear.
To save the new registration, you must specify the following information.
- The course in which to register the student
- One or more terms
- The default grade scale
- The number of credits
As you can see, creating a new registration in the “By Student” view is almost exactly the same as in the “By Subject” view, except that, instead of specifying the student, you must specify the course.
Creating a New Course and Registration Simultaneously
In the “By Student” view, the Course drop-down menu in the entry form allows you to select any existing course. However, it also contains an extra option labeled “-- Add New Course --”. When you select this option, a new entry field will appear below the Course drop-down menu, prompting you to enter a name for the new course. In this way, you can create a new course and register a student for that course at the same time.
When you save the course and registration, the new course will be visible in either the “By Student” or “By Subject” views just like the courses you created in the “By Subject” view.
Changing a Registration
To change a registration, simply click on the row for that course. When the entry form appears, you will be able to change the term(s) for which the student is registered as well as the default grade scale and the number of credits for the registration.
Note that, just as in the “By Subject” view, you will not be able to change the course for which a student is registered by editing the registration. To register the student for a different course, delete the erroneous registration first, and then add a new one if needed. Similarly, you will not be able to unregister a student by deleting terms from an existing registration. To unregister the student, simply delete the registration as explained below.
Deleting a Registration
To delete a registration for a course, simply place your cursor on top of the circular drop-down icon in the row for that course. Select the Delete option from the drop-down menu that will appear.
