Course Prerequisites Setup

Course Prerequisites

Course prerequisite provides you with the ability to specify academic requirements or authorizations that must be fulfilled prior to a student's enrollment in a course and enforced at the time of student section enrollment request (during the request process). These requirements are primarily focused on the student's attainment of a sufficient grade or earned credits upon completion of one or many courses, but may include additional or alternative criteria such as faculty recommendations, average percent grades, and concurrent enrollments in one or many specified sections.

Enter Prerequisites for Individual Courses

Use the following procedure to add course prerequisites to an individual course, such as adding a complex rule or quickly editing a rule for a specific course.

1. Navigate to the Courses page. 

2. Click the Number, Name, or Department of the course for which you want to add prerequisites. 

3. Click Prerequisites. 

4. Enter descriptive text about the prerequisite in the Prerequisite Note field. A maximum of 512 characters are allowed, including carriage returns and spaces.

5. Enter prerequisites. Click Reset to discard any changes you've made and start again.

6. Click Save. 

Enter Prerequisites for Selected Courses

Use the following procedure to add prerequisites to selected courses in the course list, such as to select courses that are advanced placement in a school to easily drag and drop rules from one course to another course across multiple departments.

1. Navigate to the Courses page. 

2. Click Edit Prerequisites. 

3. Enter prerequisites. Click Reset All Courses to discard any changes you've made and start again.

4. Click Save All Courses. 

Enter Course Prerequisites for Entire Department

Use the following procedure to add course prerequisites for multiple courses within a selected department, such as to select all courses in one department to easily drag and drop rules from one course to another within that department.

1. Navigate to the Courses page.

2. Click a course in the Number, Name, or Department column that's within the department for which you want to add prerequisites. 

3. Click Prerequisites. 

4. Click Edit Prerequisites for Entire [Name] Department. 

5. Enter prerequisites. Click Reset All Courses to discard any changes you've made and start again.

6. Click Save All Courses. 

Edit Prerequisites in Simple Rule Builder

Once you have selected the course or courses that you want to work with and navigated to Edit Course List Prerequisites, you can then enter simple rule information using the following procedures:

To enter complex rules for a course, click the Plus (+) button in the upper-right corner of the course enclosure.

1. Click the Expand All Prerequisite Notes link to view the prerequisite note field. You can enter text about the prerequisite in the note field.

2. Drag the A+ icon to the enclosure to add a Letter Grade rule for this course.

3. Drag the % icon to add a Percent Grade rule for this course.

4. Drag the C icon to add a Credit Hours rule for this course.

5. Drag the R icon to add a Concurrent Requests rule for this course.

6. Choose one of the following enclosures from Rule Type:

   • All Of – to indicate rule passes only if all enclosed rules pass.

   • Any Of – to indicate rule passes if any one or more of the enclosed rules passes.

7. Click the Plus (+) button to add a rule. Choose the Rule Type, edit the information as needed, and click Add.

Edit Prerequisites in Complex Rule Builder

Once you have selected the course or courses that you want to work with and navigated to the Edit Course Prerequisites page, you can then enter complex rule information. The complex rule builder allows you to use enclosures. An enclosure is a grouping of rules and other enclosures that must be satisfied according to the Rule Type logic selected.

To begin working in the complex rule builder, click Edit in the complex rule builder.

Add an Enclosure

1. Double-click the enclosure or click the plus ( + ) icon.

2. Choose a Rule Type to Add. Some options may include:

   • All Of – to indicate rule passes only if all enclosed rules pass.

   • None Of – to indicate rule passes if none of the enclosed rules passes.

   • Any Of – to indicate rule passes if any one or more of the enclosed rules passes.

3. Click Add.

You can move an enclosure by dragging and dropping it to the desired location.

Add Rule to an Enclosure

1. Double-click the enclosure or click the plus ( + ) icon.

2. Choose a Rule Type to Add. Options may include:

   • Average Percent Grade

   • Concurrent Request

   • Credit Hours

   • Letter Grade

   • Percent Grade

   • Recommend

3. Edit information as needed.

4. Click Add.

You can move a rule by dragging and dropping it to the desired location.

Enter Rule Type Information

When entering course prerequisites, whether using the simple rule builder or the complex rule builder, you must select a rule type then enter information for the selected rule type. Rule type information is entered from Add New [Rule Type] or Edit [Rule Type].

Enter Letter Grade Rule

Use the following information to enter parameters in the fields in order to require the student to have passed another course with one of the specified letter grades:

Field	Description
Course Number	Enter the course the student needs to have taken.
Store Codes	Indicate the store codes you want to scan by doing one of the following: Enter a store code to scan that specific store code. Enter a comma-separated list of store codes to scan multiple store codes. Leave blank to scan all store codes. Store codes are codes set up in the final grades setup. They generally map to the term code abbreviations, such as Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 or S1, S2.
List of Grades	Indicate acceptable grades by doing one of the following: Enter an acceptable grade. Enter a comma-separated list of acceptable grades.
If the Student Retakes	Indicate what to do if multiple grades are stored for this course and store codes for a student by choosing one of the following: One must pass All attempts must pass The latest attempt must pass
Presume Completion	Select the checkbox to assume that the grade the student will get for a course the student is currently enrolled in will pass this rule. Otherwise, leave the checkbox blank. Generally, this checkbox should be selected as it allows students to request the next course in a series before they have fully completed and had their grades stored for the previous course in that series.
Make Defaults	Click to make the current entries the new default settings.

Enter Percent Grade Rule

Use the following information to enter parameters in the fields in order to require the student to have passed another course with a percentage grade within given bounds:

Field	Description
Course Number	Enter the course the student needs to have taken.
Store Codes	Indicate the store codes you want to scan by doing one of the following: Enter a store code to scan that specific store code. Enter a comma-separated list of store codes to scan multiple store codes. Leave blank to scan all store codes. Store codes are codes set up in the final grades setup. They generally map to the term code abbreviations, such as Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 or S1, S2.
Minimum Percentage	Enter the minimum passing percentage. Students passing with a lower grade will not be allowed to take this course.
Maximum Percentage	Enter the maximum passing percentage (inclusive). Students passing with a higher grade will not be allowed to take this course. Leave blank if no maximum applies.
If the Student Retakes	Indicate what to do if multiple grades are stored for this course and store code for a student by choosing one of the following: One must pass All attempts must pass The latest attempt must pass The average must pass
Presume Completion	Select the checkbox to assume that the grade the student will get for a course the student is currently enrolled in will pass this rule. Otherwise, leave the checkbox blank. Generally, this checkbox should be selected as it allows students to request the next course in a series before they have fully completed and had their grades stored for the previous course in that series.
Make Defaults	Click to make the current entries the new default settings.

Enter Average Percent Grade Rule

Use the following information to enter parameters in the fields to require the student to have passed with percentage grades within given bounds, averaged across two or more courses:

Enter Credit Hours Rule

Use the following information to enter parameters in the fields to require the student to have passed other courses with earned credit hours within given bounds:

Enter Concurrent Request Rule

Use the following information to enter parameters in the fields to require the student to request another course at the same time:

Enter Recommend Rule

Use the following information to enter parameters in the fields to require a teacher to recommend the student for this course:

Prerequisite Notes

When adding or editing course prerequisites, you can also enter descriptive text about the prerequisite. A maximum of 512 characters are allowed, including carriage returns and spaces. This information appears in PowerSchool, as well as PowerSchool Parent.

View and Print Prerequisite Notes

Use the following procedure to view prerequisite notes for selected courses.

1. Navigate to the Courses page.

2. Note the Prerequisites Note column. Click Print.

Add or Delete Prerequisite Notes

Use the following procedure to create a prerequisite note for a selected course.

1. Navigate to the Courses page.

2. To narrow the list of courses, see Step 3 of View the Course List.

3. Click the course in the Number, Name, or Department column for which you want to add a prerequisite note. 

4. Click Prerequisites. 

5. Enter descriptive text about the prerequisite in the Prerequisite Note field.

6. To delete a prerequisite note, remove the descriptive text about the prerequisite in the Prerequisite Note field.