Course Field Descriptions
See the Course Master Layout screenshots for the numbers references in the table below.
The numbered fields in the screenshots above are described in general terms in the Campus Community here:
Below are more details on how we use certain fields, and whether they are required for state (EMIS) reporting purposes.
Field | Default Value | Description - CCS Specific Items in Red | |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Course Catalog | The catalog to which this course belongs.
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2 | Number | This number is used for identification, searching, and making requests. It will appear on student schedules and transcripts. Spaces are not allowed at the beginning or end of this field. Beginning in 2015, courses must follow the Course Numbering Standards. | |
3 | Name | A more descriptive identifier, the course name is visible in many places in Campus and can be up to 30 characters in length. Must be in ALL CAPS. Spaces are not allowed at the beginning or end of this field. | |
4 | Standards-based | This checkbox indicates if this course will be graded using a traditional grading scale (secondary) or aligned with a standards area (elementary). | |
5 | Active | This checkbox indicates if the course is active and therefore available for requests and scheduling. | |
6 | State Report Exclude | When checked, course information will not be included in any state reports. | |
7 | Subject Type | unused | A state-specific field that indicates whether the course is considered core, elementary or special education. |
8 | State Code | A code given a course to be used in state reporting, up to 15 characters long. State codes can be found in the Current EMIS Manual, in § 4.7 - Subject Codes. Be sure to click on the highest number (i.e. 5.0) for the latest version. | |
9 | Department | This dropdown list contains the departments set in System Administration that can be used to organize courses. Assigning a department to courses helps in the organization of the schedule. When using the scheduling wizard or when searching by department, all courses in that department will be grouped together. At CCS, this should be the same as the credit type, with the exception of ESL and Special Education, which are all grouped into the same department. | |
10 | Schedule Load Priority | Indicates priority that should be given to the course during the scheduling. | |
11 | Max Students | empty | Numeric field indicating the maximum number of students that can be scheduled into the course. |
12 | Terms | Indicates the number of terms one instance of the course will cover, such as a semester long course that lasts for two terms in a four quarter schedule. Also, for Academic Planning this field is used to calculate the credit a student will receive for this course. This field should not be blank or have a value of zero. Enter a 4 for year-long courses, 2 for Semester courses, 1 for quarter-long courses. | |
13 | Schedules | This field indicates how many days a section will take up, as in a schedule structure with a two-day rotation. This should be set to 5, as this is what most schools have starting in 16-17. Individual schools can alter this value as necessary for varying schedule types. | |
14 | Periods | How many periods during the school day this course spans. This should be set to 1, as this is what most schools have starting in 16-17. Individual schools can alter this value as necessary for varying schedule types (i.e. block schedules). | |
15 | Sections to Build | empty | This field indicates to the schedule wizard how many sections of this course will exist. Leave blank - schools will set this based on need. |
16 | GPA Weight | This field indicates that the course contributes to the student’s cumulative GPA calculation. It is basically a multiplier. This should match the credit value for CCS courses. For example, a school’s score group is on a standard 4.0 scale. A course has a weight of 2. For a student that receives an A (4.0), the GPA value will then equal an 8, thus inflating his calculation. Most often, this field is set to a 1. If the course does not contribute to the GPA at all, leave the field blank. | |
17 | Bonus Points | unused | This checkbox indicates if bonus points will be used in calculating GPA. |
18 | Transcript | If checked, this course will be posted to the transcript tab. If HS Credit (below) is also checked, the course will appear on the custom CCS printed transcript. This box should be checked for grade 6-12 courses. | |
19 | Required | This checkbox indicates if the course is required for graduation. | |
20 | Type | The choices in the type dropdown may be edited in the Attribute Dictionary as needed for Ad hoc Reporting. Used to denote AP, IB, or PSEO courses along with the Curriculum field (below)  | |
21 | Honors | unused | A state-defined list of categories for state reporting. This field may be called by a different name in each state (AP Category, Advanced, ect.) |
22 | Activity | unused | A district-defined dropdown that allows tracking activity rosters and groups through the functionality of courses. |
23 | Homeroom | This checkbox indicates that this course functions as a homeroom. Leave this blank - homerooms are set by the schools at the section level. This field is used in scheduling and attendance reports, functions as a sort option when scheduling courses for the next school year. It also causes the teacher's name to print on the Report Card. | |
24 | Allow Student Requests | Indicates that students can request this course through the Portal. When this is not marked, the course displays in the Course Catalog search results with a message that courses can only be added by a counselor, and students are not allowed to request this on the Portal. Leave this un-checked - this is set by the schools if they so choose. This is used in the Academic Planning process. | |
25 | Allow teacher requests/recommendations | Checkbox indicating that teachers are able to recommend students for this course. When marked, teachers assigned tool rights can suggest courses for the student using Teacher Course Requests and Student Course Recommendations. Additional logic is including with this. See the Teacher Course Requests article for additional information. Leave this un-checked - this is set by the schools if they so choose. This is used in the Academic Planning process. | |
26 | Repeatable | Courses marked as repeatable can be chosen by students multiple times to add to their academic plan. The most common examples are Band or Chorus. This is used in the Academic Planning process. | |
27 | Attendance | Indicates if attendance will be taken during this course. This is required for all instructional courses taught at the school where the course is scheduled. For example, a CCP course would not be marked for attendance, but a school-based VCAP course would. | |
28 | Positive Attendance or Unit Attendance | unused | Indicates if attendance recorded for this section is in the form of positive attendance, in which the teacher tracks how long students work in a given course area. If the Positive Attendance Preference is not set (equal to No), this field is used as an indicator. If the preference is set, additional logic is turned on, allowing schools to accurately report student attendance for these courses. |
29 | Expected Hours | unused | When the Positive Attendance Preference is set to Yes, this field displays, indicating the total number of hours of attendance a student enrolled in this class is required to have. Hours can be entered as whole numbers or as decimal numbers up to 6 characters (1000.25, etc.). A maximum value of 8760 hours can be entered. |
30 | High School Credit | Indicates that this course is counted for high school credit. When checked, this course will appear on the student's printed CCS Custom Transcript. | |
31 | CORE Area for Credit | The subject for courses offered in which high school credit toward graduation is being applied, whether at middle school or high school level. If null or blank, field reports as ***. This is required for EMIS reporting for any high school course (those starting with a 9). Details can be found in § 2.15 of the EMIS manual (GC record). Here it states that you should use: "...the most specific option that would apply. For example, if a student takes a business course as an elective report the ‘BUS’ option instead of the ‘ELE’ option since the ‘BUS’ option is more specific." In the database, this field is Course.transcriptField1 | |
32 | Comments | When validating a course or making an update, enter a comment. For example: VALIDATED: 2016-17 course validation completed by jvance - 5/20/16 | |
33 | Description | All courses should have a meaningful description. At a minimum, it should contain a few sentences about the course curriculum. It is also helpful to include additional items where applicable, such as:
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Custom Data Elements | asterisk* indicates this field is reported to EMIS. Refer to § 4.2 of the EMIS manual (CN record) for details | ||
34 | Delivery Method(*) | FF | Most courses will be FF (Face to Face), however some courses (internship, home instruction, test out, etc.) should be indicated where applicable.
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35 | Subject | unused | |
36 | State Grade Level | unused | |
37 | Test Mode | unused | |
38 | Educational Option(*) | Should be set to Yes for Credit Flex courses. | |
39 | Semester Code(*) | Set to all year for year-long courses, First semester for semester courses. Schools can override with second semester at the section level when necessary. | |
40 | Location IRN | Should be blank except for CCP courses. Choose the correct college from the list. If it does not exist, contact the Campus Support Team to get it added. | |
41 | Student Population(*) | Most courses will be RG (regular ed). Those course numbers that end in an E should be Special Ed (SE). Those that end in a G (specifically for gifted students with a gifted teacher) should be set to GE.  | |
42 | Credit Flexibility(*) | Set to Y if this is a credit flex course NOT used for credit recovery. Set to R if this is a credit flex course used for credit recovery. If this is not a credit flex course, use N. | |
43 | CTE College Credit(*) | Leave unchecked unless this is a CTE course and college credit is being earned. | |
44 | Length of Scheduled Instruction(*) | The hours per year a teacher spends in instruction for the course/subject. This field reports data pulled from the Length of Scheduled Instruction field. If null, field will report based on the following calculation: (Instructional Days) * (Minutes per scheduled period) / 60 (minutes per hour). This is set to 120 hours for year long courses, and 60 hours for semester courses. | |
45 | Course Level | Indicate the level of the course when applicable (one course is a prerequisite for the next), i.e. World Language courses, leveled math courses, etc. | |
46 | Curriculum(*) | unused | Used in conjunction with the Type field for more specific information. Most courses will be type OT, with the following exceptions:
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47 | Subject Area for Credit | ||
48 | Correlated Course Number | This is for CTE courses only, if they have a correlated course. | |
49 | Second Correlated Course Number | This is for CTE courses only, if they have second correlated course. | |
50 | Staff Provider IRN | unused | |
51 | Equivalent Course Group | Used to determine like courses that can be repeated for credit | |
52 | ACE Course Hours | Used for Adult & Community Education courses only. | |
53 | Repeatable for Credit | Courses like Marching Band that can be taken multiple times for credit | |
54 | Elementary Credit Type | Used for a SchoolNet data feed to differentiate between Elementary and Secondary courses | |
55 | MHE Building Blocks SE | Specific code for the McGraw-Hill Building Blocks program (Student Edition) | |
56 | MHE Building Blocks TE | Specific code for the McGraw-Hill Building Blocks program (Teacher Edition) | |
57 | MHE ConnectEd SE | Specific code for the McGraw-Hill ConnectED program (Student Edition) | |
58 | MHE ConnectEd TE | Specific code for the McGraw-Hill ConnectED program (Teacher Edition) | |
59 | MHE Number Worlds | Specific code for the McGraw-Hill Number Worlds program (Student Edition) | |
60 | Read 180 | Denotes a Read 180 program course | |
61 | SMI | ||
62 | SRI | Denotes courses used for Scholastic Reading Inventory program ... typically English / Language Arts courses | |
Grading Tasks | |||
63 | Grading Task | For secondary courses, most should have Interim, Quarter, Exam, and Final. Exceptions:
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64 | Score Group | Choose the appropriate Score group to make sure the grade scale is correct:
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65 | Term GPA | This only applies to the Quarter grading task, and should match the number of periods the course is offered. Most will be 1.0, but block courses (course # ends with a B) should be 2.0 | |
66 | Credit | Amount of credits this course is worth | |
67 | Credit Type | This list contains all credit types for ES, MS and HS. Scroll down to the right section and choose the appropriate type for this course. | |
68 | Credit Overflow Override | An additional credit type can be chosen here if applicable. If a student has met the number of credits for the primary credit type, then the course can be rolled over into another credit type (i.e. Elective) | |
69 | Term Mask | Determines which term(s) the grading task will appear for teachers to enter grades.
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70 | Post-Only Grading Task | Indicates a grading task cannot be aligned to assignments and categories in the teacher's Grade Book. Post-only Grading Tasks are for posting grades only, not for aligning student work. |