Courses and Course Catalogs

To work with the courses that will be part of next year's schedule, you must first add any new courses you plan to offer and associate them with your school. Then, create a course catalog to make course selections available for student course requests. After creating a course catalog, you can edit or delete that catalog, depending on your needs.

It is possible for students to request a course that is not part of your course catalog if that course has been associated with your school.

Course relationships have consequences for how you manage new and modified courses. First, it is important to understand the ways to view courses and how those views are connected:

1. Courses - This page lists all courses on the server and is the central point from which you can manage courses and course-related information at both the district and school 
2. Available Courses for [Year] List (on the Courses page, click Manage courses for this school) - This page lists all courses on the server and is used to create new courses, as well as to make them active or inactive for the current school.

3. PowerScheduler Course Catalog (On the PowerScheduler page, click Catalogs, and then Edit) - This list matches what is listed on the PowerSchool School Course List. Indicate for each course if it is active for scheduling. When you submit this information, a new record is created for the course in a different table in PowerSchool's database. At that point, changes to courses listed in PowerSchool do not affect courses listed in PowerScheduler.

4. PowerScheduler School Course List (On the PowerScheduler page, click Courses). This list includes the selected courses from the Scheduling Course Catalog. Selecting courses to be scheduled does not affect this list of courses.

In summary, view 4 is based on the selected courses of view 3, which, like view 2, is based on the selected courses of view 1. This means that to add a course to PowerScheduler, you must first add a course to the Available Courses for [Year] List (view 1). Then, in the Scheduling Course Catalog, select the checkbox next to the course and submit.

To change a course name but use same course number, there are two options. The first takes more thought but is easiest, whereas the second requires someone with the highest level of access to the database to make changes for you. Regardless of the option you choose, the current courses should not be modified at all if any of them are in use this school year by any school on the server. It is necessary to store grades using the courses' current names. Do not modify course names until you complete all necessary processes at the end of the school year. Also, changes made in PowerScheduler are void when you complete your master schedule and are ready to commit student schedules because the master schedule references courses in PowerSchool.

To change a course name but use same course number:

• • Option 1: Leave everything as is and schedule using the old course name. After the end of the school year, change the course's name. This takes more thought because you must remember that you need to change the name at the end of the school year. Since you must change the course name regardless of which option you choose, no extra work is required.
  • Option 2: Use DDA to search the SchedCourseCatalogs table for the course number. Be sure to search only within records belonging to your school, and make a backup of your data file before proceeding. Then, change the course name. This affects the course name in PowerScheduler.

New Courses

Add any new courses before building or loading a master schedule.

You cannot add a new course to your course list in PowerSchool's Scheduling area.

Add a New Course to the Course List (District)

Use the following procedure to create a new course. Once a course is created, it is available and active for both student course requests and inclusion in your course catalog for the selected schools and years.

While in the school context, if the New Courses button does not appear on the Courses page, then the district may only allow new courses to be created at the district office.

1. Navigate to the Courses page.
2. Click New Course.

3. On the Create New Course page, enter information as needed:

   Field	Description
   Course Name	Enter the name of the course.
   Course Number	Enter the number that will be used to identify this course.
   Alternate Course Number	Enter an alternate course number if your school uses this field for state reporting or district purposes.
   Associate Course with Schools	To associate this course to a school, select the checkbox next to the school. To associate this course to all schools, select the checkbox in the header row. By default all schools are selected. This field only appears at the district level. If creating a new course at the school level, the new course is automatically associated only to the selected school.
   Available School Years	Select the checkbox next to each school year you want this course to be available. By default all current and future years are selected.
   Credit Hours	Enter the number of credits a student receives for taking this course.
   CIP Code	In some states, schools use CIP codes to identify courses as part of a vocational or career technology program. If applicable, select the appropriate checkbox and enter the code.
   Vocational Class	Select the checkbox if this is a vocational course.
   Credit Type	Enter the type of credit a student receives for passing this course, such as MATH, ENG, or FINE. You can then apply this credit to a graduation type.
   Default Maximum Enrollment	Enter the maximum number of students that can be enrolled in this course.
   Courses Notes	Enter descriptive text regarding the course or course enrollment, if any.
   Grade Scale	Choose the grade scale.
   GPA Added Value Points	Enter any added value for the grade points, such as 1 for one additional grade point. You can also use fractions of a point. Most schools do not enter added values.
   Exclude from GPA?	Select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the GPA calculation.
   Exclude from Class Rank?	Select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the class rank calculation.
   Exclude from Honor Roll?	Select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the honor roll calculation.
   Use the Course for Lunch	Select the checkbox to indicate that this course will be used exclusively for scheduled lunches. Otherwise, deselect the checkbox.
   Exclude on Report Cards/Transcripts	Select the checkbox to exclude all sections of this course from appearing on the schedule listing of Report Cards or the Transcript Object of Object reports. Otherwise, leave blank.

4. Click Submit.

Add a New Course to the Course List

1. Navigate to the Courses page.
2. Choose Manage courses for this school. 

3. Click New.

4. Enter information as needed.
5. Click Submit. 

Course Catalogs

Create the list of courses that your school will offer during the next school year. This list is referred to as the course catalog.

Courses in the course catalog are copied from the district level. Not all courses on the district course list are available for the catalog; only courses that appear on the school's Available Courses for [Year] page can be included.

You can edit information in the course catalog without affecting the courses on the school's Available Courses for [Year] page. For example, you may want to change the credit hours for a course for scheduling purposes, but revert to the course's real credit hours when committing schedules for the next school year. Once a master schedule is committed, the course information, including credit hours, is retrieved from the district level.

You can have more than one course catalog, and it is not necessary to create a new catalog for each scheduling year. Course catalogs are associated with builds, and a catalog is only active when it is associated with the active build scenario. This also means that you can only edit courses in the catalog that is active. For more information, refer to Build Scenarios Overview.

When navigating through the course catalog pages, there may be a warning icon next to the Courses Catalog and the Edit Course Catalog links. The warning icon indicates there are unavailable courses related to the course catalog of the active build scenario.

Create a Course Catalog

1. Navigate to the PowerScheduler page.
2. Click Course Catalogs. 
3. Click New. 

4. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter a name for this catalog. For example, if you are creating the course catalog for a specific school year, you might call it 2008-2009.
   Description	Enter a description of the catalog. Enter no more than 80 characters in this field.

5. Click Submit.

6. Click Edit Course Catalog in the row of the catalog you created. 

   

   If "Not active catalog" appears in the Edit Catalog column instead of "Edit Course Catalog," you must first make the new catalog the active catalog. Edit the current build scenario so that the new catalog is the active catalog. For more information, refer to Build Scenarios Overview.  

7. Deselect the checkbox next to each course you want to remove from this course catalog. By default, the checkboxes next to all of the courses available for scheduling at your school are selected. To sort the list, click Course Name, Course Number, or Active Status, which sorts the active (selected) courses first and the inactive (deselected) courses last.

   

   Deselecting a course means that you will not be able to schedule that course for the upcoming schedule year, even if you have student course requests associated with it. Any student course requests will be automatically dropped from the scheduling process.

8. Click Submit. 
   You can edit the scheduling information for any of the courses within your active course catalog by clicking Edit in the Courses row. For more information, refer to Build Scenarios Overview.

Edit a Course Catalog

1. Navigate to the PowerScheduler page.
2. Click Course Catalogs. 
3. Click the name of the catalog you want to edit.

4. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter a name for this catalog. For example, if you are creating the course catalog for a specific school year, you might call it 2008-2009.
   Description	Enter a description of the catalog. Enter no more than 80 characters in this field.

5. Click Submit. 

Edit Available Courses in the Course Catalog

1. Navigate to the PowerScheduler page.
2. Click Course Catalogs. 
3. Click Edit Course Catalog. 

4. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   [Text]	The following informational text appears on the page: This page lists courses in the course catalog (selected), as well as all available courses for this school and scheduling year not in the catalog (deselected). To add or remove a course from the catalog, select or deselect the checkbox and click Submit. Courses listed in black bold are available and active for live scheduling at this school for the designated scheduling year. Warning icons indicate courses that are in the catalog, but not available for live scheduling at this school for the designated scheduling year. These courses must be made available in order to commit them in live schedules, and if not, should be removed from the course catalog after removing any related data in PowerScheduler. Examples of related data includes sections, class enrollments, teacher assignments, teacher recommendations, course requests, constraints, and course relationships. If the district allows schools to change course availability, to edit availability for courses, use the Edit Availability for Schools and Years district level function, the Availability tab on the Course Edit page, or the Unavailable tab on the Courses for [year-year] page. If the district does not allow schools to change course availability, to edit availability for courses, use the Edit Availability for Schools and Years district level function or the Availability tab on the Course Edit page at the district level. To view all unavailable courses, go to the Unavailable Courses page.
   Sort List By	Sort courses in the course catalog by clicking Course Name, Course Number, or Active Status.
   [Course]	Do one of the following: Select the checkbox next to each course you want to include in the course catalog. Deselect the checkbox next to each course you want to remove from the course catalog.

5. Click Submit. 

Edit Unavailable Courses in the Course Catalog

1. Navigate to the PowerScheduler page.
2. Click Course Catalogs. 
3. Click Edit Course Catalog. 
4. Click Unavailable Courses. 

5. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

   Field	Description
   [Text]	The following informational text appears on the page: This page lists all courses that are unavailable for the selected school and scheduling year. Only available courses can be committed to the live side schedule. Unavailable courses should only be included in the catalog if they will be made available prior to committing the schedule, or for the purpose of temporarily accessing them within PowerScheduler to remove related data. Examples of related data includes sections, class enrollments, teacher assignments, teacher recommendations, course requests, constraints, and course relationships. To add or remove a course from the catalog, select or deselect the checkbox and click Submit. If the district allows schools to change course availability, to edit availability for courses, use the Edit Availability for Schools and Years district level function, the Availability tab on the Course Edit page, or the Unavailable tab on the Courses for [year-year] page. If the district does not allow schools to change course availability, to edit availability for courses, use the Edit Availability for Schools and Years district level function or the Availability tab on the Course Edit page at the district level. To view all courses included in the course catalog, along with additional courses available for this school and scheduling year, select View School Courses.
   Sort List By	Sort courses in the course catalog by clicking Course Name or Course Number.
   [Course]	Select the checkbox next to each course you want to include in the course catalog.

6. Click Submit. 

Delete a Course Catalog

Deleting a course catalog deletes the following items related to that catalog: courses, teacher assignments, constraints, and course relationships. You cannot delete the active catalog. To inactivate a catalog so that it can be deleted, refer to Build Scenarios Overview.

This function does not delete courses from the school's Available Courses for [Year] page.

1. Navigate to the PowerScheduler page.
2. Click Course Catalogs. 
3. Click the name of the catalog you want to delete.
4. Click Delete.
5. Select the checkbox if you are sure you want to delete this course catalog.
6. Click Submit.