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SIS 2000+ District Courses

The District Courses program is used to maintain a course directory and define the attributes of courses offered by the school district. Changes made in attributes of a course relating to student transcript records are tracked through a history table. The information stored in this database is used in numerous applications throughout SIS 2000+, most notably Scheduling procedures.

Login:
The District Courses database can be viewed from any school site login or from the District Office login. Editing capability depends on the permissions granted to the user.

1. Open District Courses database
From SIS 2000+’s System Menu (Fig. 1), click on the District Courses icon button.

Fig. 1

The opening screen will default to the first course in the database, sorted alphanumerically by the Course Code field, in the read-only mode.

Fig. 2 - Read-only mode

2. Find a Course record
There are three search methods, as follows:

Show All Courses Option:



When scrolling or listing to find a course record, the default selection will be "Active" courses only (as defined in the Status field in the 'General' information screen). Put a check in the Show All box in the upper right of the screen to show all courses in the database; 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Future', 'Dropped', and 'Unset'.


• Scroll:

Scroll through course records backward or forward using VCR buttons at the bottom of the screen.



• List:

Click on the List command button to view a list all the courses (Fig. 3). Select the a course by double clicking the entry, or by highlighting it and clicking on the Select command button (or Cancel to abort).
• Find:

Click on the Find command button to open the Find Course dialog box (Fig. 4). Enter the course code or description of the course you are looking for and click on Find again.


Fig. 3


Fig. 4

When certain attributes of a course are changed in the edit mode, the District Courses program will track the history of those changes. Changes to fields that will affect student transcripts (such as Description, Subject, Grad. GPA Credit, Status, GPA Level, etc.) will be recorded as separate history records in a summary list. The effective date range of each history record will be shown in the From and To fields. The current history record will always be displayed in the main District Courses screen.

View the 'History for This Course' screen (Fig. 5) by clicking on the Show History command button at the bottom of the General tab.

Fig. 5 - left section

Use the horizontal scroll bars to view attribute columns to the middle and right sections (Figs. 5a & 5b)

Fig. 5a - middle section

Fig. 5b - right section

Viewing History of other courses: Once the Show History mode has been activated, the history records of the other courses in district database can be viewed without having to return to the main screen. To do this, use the left and right VCR buttons at the bottom of the screen to scroll backward or forward through the course records. The course records available for viewing will be only 'Active' courses unless the Show History field has been checked, in which case the history of all courses will be available for viewing.

See Step 4.2, "Define Attributes" for details on each data field. See Step 5, "Edit Course Attributes" for an explanation on how history records are created.

Click on the Hide History command button to close the History screen.

4. Add a new course

Caution: for the sake of database integrity, a course record cannot be deleted once it has been saved.

4.1 Activate entry mode
Click on the Add command button at the bottom of the screen.

4.2 Define attributes
A blank record will appear with three or four information screens (depending on Preferences) in which the course attributes can be entered. Use the TAB key to move from field to field. Enter course attributes as follows:

"General" course attributes


Fig. 6


• Course Code -

Enter a code for this course, 10 characters - alphanumeric. Caution: this code cannot be changed once it has been saved.
• Description -

Enter the full descriptive name of the course
• Subject -

The subject selected here describes the general category of the course that is to be used in conjunction with Graduation Requirements. Available selections have been pre-defined during the configuration of SIS 2000+ using the Table Editor.
• Department -

Select a department defined for administrative purposes. Available selections have been pre-defined during the configuration of SIS 2000+ using the Table Editor.
• Low Grade -

Select the lowest grade level of student allowed to take the course. This may be left <Unset> if there is no lower limit for the course (or the lower limit is the lowest grade level of the school.
• High Grade -

Select the highest grade level of student allowed to take the course. This may be left <Unset> if there is no upper limit (or the upper limit is the same as the highest grade level of the school).
• Status -

Typical status codes are:
• Active: taught this year and the next year
• Future: taught next year, not this year
• Inactive: not taught this year or next
• Dropped: to be deleted.
• Gender -

Indicate if the course is offered for Male only, Female only, or Co-Ed
• # of Terms -

Enter a numerical value for the duration of a course in terms.
• # of Periods -

Enter a numerical value for the duration of a course in periods.
• Section Size -

Enter the maximum number of students allowed to be enrolled in a section of the course. This information is utilized by the Student Loader.
• TA Sect(ion) Size -

Enter the maximum number of teaching assistants allowed in the course.
• Can be Scheduled -

Put a check here if course is qualified to be entered into the Master Schedule
• Take Attendance -

Enter a check mark here if attendance is to be taken for this course. This integrates with the Attendance applications. If checked, teachers will receive an attendance sheet for this course.
• Count Attendance -

Check here if attendance will be counted for state reporting purposes.
• Assign Grades -

Check here if grades will be assigned to this course.
• Post to History -

check here if this course will be recorded in the student transcripts.
• Schedule Conflict OK -

Check here if this course can be scheduled without conflict restrictions in the same time period as another course. This information is used by the Student Loader.

"Credits/Codes" course attributes


Fig. 7 - entry mode


• Grad Credits -

Enter a numerical value for how many credits are granted by completion of this course towards graduation requirements.
• GPA Credits -

Enter the numerical value used in calculating GPA. This value is normally the same as a credit.
• Credit Type -

Select the type of credit awarded for this course (such as Carnegie, etc). Credit Types are pre-defined via the Table Editor during the configuration of SIS 2000+.
• Variable Credit -

Check here if variable credit is allowed in this course. This option allows a teacher to assign a student less than the designated Grad Credit for this course (executed in the Student Academic History application).
• GPA Level -

Enter a numerical value indicator for calculating GPA for weighted marks.
• Mark Set -

Select which type of marks are used to grade this course, such as "Numerical", "Letter marks with +/-", etc. Available selections have been pre-defined in the Mark Reporting applications.
• Course User Flag 1, 2

These are user-defined logical (yes/no) fields that can be used to flag a course for sorting purposes in the Course Directory Report.
• Crshist User Flag 1,2 -

Course History user flags: these are user-defined logical (yes/no) fields that can be used for marking courses that have history changes. These flags do not display in the Course Directory report but do display in the 'History for This Course' screen.
• Alternate -

A field for an alternate course code defined by the state.
• Speede Express Code -

Electronic Data Exchange protocol course code.
• Work Level -

Electronic Data Exchange protocol sub-code. Work Levels are pre-defined via the Table Editor during the configuration of SIS 2000+. Examples: Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Easy, etc.
• CIP Code -

Classification of Instructional Program code using Federal Vocational Education protocol. CIP Codes are pre-defined via the Table Editor during the configuration of SIS 2000+.
• User Code -

A field for an alternate course code defined by the user.

"Prerequisites-Corequisites / Miscellaneous" course attributes


Fig. 8

Select entries from the four drop-down lists by clicking on the description until it is highlighted in gray. To select more than one entry in the same list, hold the Ctrl key down while clicking. Entries may be deselected by using the reverse process.


• Pre-requisites -

Select any courses that must be successfully completed before enrolling in the current course (Not shown in illustration. This feature is under construction).
• Co-requisite -

Select any courses that must be taken concurrently with this course (not shown in illustration; this feature under construction).
• GPA Types -

Select the types of GPA calculations that will be used for this course.
• Course Categories -

Select the categories that apply to this course. Categories are user-defined names that are used as database flags for grouping and filtering courses in other SIS 2000+ applications. Categories are pre-defined via the Table Editor during the configuration of SIS 2000+.

"Funding" attributes (optional)

The Funding information screen is an optional screen that will be customized per state requirements. It may be included or excluded during set up via the Preference Editor program. The illustration below (Fig. 8) is an example of the FTE Funding system used by the State of Georgia.


Fig. 9

4.3 Save the data
Click on the Save command button to save the new course, or Undo to cancel.

Caution: for the sake of database integrity, a course record cannot be deleted once it has been saved.

5.1 Activate the edit mode
Click on the Edit command button to activate the edit mode, signified when the gray fields turn to white.

5.2 Modify data
Click on the tabbed information screens to access the various kinds of information. Use the TAB key to move from field to field. Modify data as needed.

5.3 Save changes
Click on the Save command button to save changes.


Course History
Some course attributes can be changed without effecting other areas of SIS 2000+. In these cases, the Save command will return the view to the read-only mode without any further messages. However, when certain other attributes of a course are changed, the District Courses program must track the history of those changes. The user must also decide whether the changes will act to correct existing records or will be the basis for new records. These fields are:

General screen

• Description
• Subject
• Status
• Crshist Flag 1,2
Credits / Codes screen
• Grad Credits
• GPA Credits
• Credit Type
• GPA Lvl.
• Mark Set
• Speede Express Code
• Work Level
• CIP Code
• User Code
Pre- Co / Misc. screen
• GPA Types
If changes are made to any of the above fields, a dialog screen (Fig. 10) will appear after the Save command.


Fig. 10


5.3.1 Create a New course history record or Update Existing course history Record
Chose "Updating Existing Record" if corrections or changes are to be made to the current record, in which case existing transcripts will reference the changed data. Chose "Create A New Record" to save changes to the current record and at the same time create a new record, in which case existing transcripts will reference the data in the previous record. The effective date for creating a new record defaults to today's date. This date can be changed by activating a drop-down calendar via the field button in the Effective Date field.

5.3.2 Confirm selections
Click on the OK command button to confirm course history selections, or Cancel to abort.

5.3.3 View Course History Records
See Step 3, "View the History of a Course"

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