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SIS 2000+ Course Directory Report Detailed Instructions Last update: 04/15/2001 jmm

The Course Directory Report prints a list of all courses and their attributes offered by the district or a list of "track courses", i.e., all courses offered at a specific school site and track within the district.

Course attributes are defined in the District Courses program where the district course directory is maintained. Course directories for specific school sites are then created via the Track Course Selection program by assigning the courses from the district course directory to each site. Besides the course identification number and course description, the Course Directory Report lists numerous other course attributes, thus becoming a useful reference when creating the Master Schedule. Using queries, a wide variety of criteria may be defined to select the records to be reported.

Login:
If the report to be generated is for a specific school, log on to that school directly or use the Switch School command from the district office login to go to the target site. Reports for all courses in the district can be generated from either the district office login or a specific site logon. See the document titled Login for instructions on login procedures.

1. Open the report
From the Scheduling Menu, click on the Reports icon button. Select the report's title from the list menu that appears. See General Reporting Procedures, Step 1 for more information on finding and opening a report.

Fig. 1- opening screen, default Options
 

2. Define Parameters
The opening screen of this report (Fig. 1) contains three information screens: 'Options', 'Select', and 'Sort'. Click on each tab to view and define various parameters for the report, or continue to the Step 3 to preview and/or print the report using the default parameters.

2.1 Choose Options
Click on the 'Options' tab (Fig. 2). Choose options as follows:

Fig. 2 - sample, user-defined options
 
• Report Title -

The default title of the report is "Course Directory Report". This field may be edited by the user.
• District Courses -

Check this box to print a list of all the courses in the district. When this box is checked the Track field will be disabled.
• Track Courses -

Check this box to print a list of only those courses assigned to the logged on school site.
• Track -

When the Track Courses option is turned on, select a track to report from a drop-down list of all tracks available for the logged on school site.
• Include notes -

Check this box to include the "Notes" field from the District Courses database for each course record.
 



Click on the Reset command button to restore all Options to their default selections (Fig. 1).
 

2.2 Apply Select queries
SIS 2000+ reports can be instructed to print specific records through the application of queries. A query is essentially a data filter. By defining criteria (parameters) for selected data fields, specific records can be retrieved.

Click on the 'Select' tab. A list of data fields is displayed (Fig. 3). These are the data fields that will available for querying. The default criteria is "All" for each data field. To apply a query to any data field, continue with Step 2.2.1. If no queries are needed, continue to the sorting procedure in Step 2.3.


Fig. 3
 

2.2.1 Select data fields and apply queries
Select a data field in the list until it is highlighted in gray (Fig. 3) and then click on the Edit command button. A query screen (criteria selection screen) will open that is specifically designed for the selected data field. There are several possible types of queries, depending on the data field selected. Further instructions on how to apply each type of query are found in the document titled General Reporting Procedures, as follows:
 
• Course = Query Type 3. This query allows for the selection of a single course or a set of courses to be listed. If none are selected then "All" will be listed.
• Course Group = Query Type 1. A specific course group or set of groups may be selected. Those courses within the group(s) will be included in the list. Course groups are defined in the Group Editor application.
• Department = Query Type 1. A specific department or set of departments may be selected. Only those courses within the department(s) will be listed. If none are selected, then "All" will be reported. Courses are assigned to Departments in the District Courses program.
 

Apply queries as needed for each of the above data fields. Click on the Done command button within each criteria selection screen to save the query.
 

Note on Query results:  Use caution when making multiple queries across data fields. Only records that satisfy all queries will be reported. Some queries may be mutually exclusive, causing the report to yield no records. For example, selecting a single course from the Athletics department in the Course query and selecting the "Math Department" in the Department query will yield no records to report. In this type of situation there will be no pages to preview or print for the body of the report. This status will be indicated by the following error message appearing at the bottom of the cover sheet:  ***** NO RECORDS SELECTED FOR REPORT *****

 

2.2.2 Review selected parameters
After parameters are set and queries applied as needed, the view will return to the 'Select' screen. Each data field in the list will display a code after its name signifying the parameters currently applied (Fig. 4). Review the parameters. If all are satisfactory, continue to the sorting procedure in Step 2.3. If editing is required, repeat Step 2.2.1.


Fig. 4 - sample review
 



To restore a field's parameters to its default selection, highlight the field name in the Select screen and click on the Reset command button.
 

2.3 Define the Sort order
Click on the 'Sort' tab. The 'Sort' screen (Fig. 5) displays the data fields used for sorting the information in the report. They are listed in the default sorting order as follows:

Course Code = the primary sort field
Course Name = the secondary sort field
Department = the tertiary sort field

 

Fig. 5
 
• Additional sorting fields may be added via the Add command button.
• A sorting field may be deleted by first selecting the field in the list and then clicking on the Delete command button
• The sorting order may be changed by shifting the position of a field in the list using the mover bar .
• The default sorting direction of all fields is Ascending. The direction of a sort field (Ascending or Descending) may be edited by selecting the sort field  from the list, executing the Edit command, and selecting the desired sorting direction from the 'Edit Sort Field' dialog that appears. Click on Done to save the sort direction, or Cancel to abort.

 
For further instructions on defining the sort order of the report, see General Reporting Procedures, Steps 2.3-2.3.4
 

2.4 Resetting global defaults



Global default parameters for all the screens can be reset by clicking on the Reset All command button at the bottom of the main screen.
 
 

The customized or default report can be previewed at any time before actual printing by clicking on the Preview command button. An option to print the report is available when the Preview is exited. For further instructions on previewing reports, see General Reporting Procedures, Step 3
 

4. Print the report to printer or to a file

Click on the Print command button to print the report to a printer or to a file without previewing it. For further instructions on printing reports, see General Reporting Procedures, Step 4

Click on the Quit command button to exit the report screen at any time.

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