Course and Unit Rollover Processes

Course and unit versions exist independently of the calendar structure and can continue to be available for offer year after year.

By contrast, offering a course version in a particular academic calendar instance, or a unit version in a particular teaching calendar instance, creates a course offering instance and a unit offering pattern respectively. Both are specific to their calendar instances. To offer the same course or unit in different calendar instances requires that the course or unit version and all their associated details be recorded against the new calendar instances.

Callista provides a number of mechanisms to minimise the work involved in maintaining the institution's curriculum and associated data. These include:

Creation of New Courses and Course Versions Based on Existing Course Versions

This process allows the creation of a new course or course version without having to laboriously key all of its associated data. A new course version should be created when one or more of its attributes differ from the existing course version. If the changes to a course version are 'significant' then a new course may be created. The institution determines whether the changes to an existing course warrant the creation of another version or a new course.

The process is triggered in the Maintain Basic Course Details form (CRSF1210) when the existing course version is displayed, the New Record function is invoked and Duplicate Record Above is selected. Depending on the action taken (refer to CRSF1210) either a new course or new version of the existing course can be created.

In both cases the following associated data is copied from the old course version to the new record:

All of the copied data should be checked, and modified if required. Where data is unable to be copied to the new course (e.g. where the owning organisational unit is no longer ACTIVE), these exceptions are reported in the Review of Course Version Creation Report (CRSR0630).

The Roll Course Offering Instances and Patterns process (CRSJ0010) is used to perform the bulk copying of course offering instances and patterns associated with one academic calendar instance to another academic calendar instance.

Using the Maintain Course Offerings form (CRSF1300), it is possible to copy course offering patterns from a single course offering instance to a newly created course offering instance.

Creation of New Units and Unit Versions Based on Existing Unit Versions

This process allows the creation of a new unit or unit version without having to laboriously key all of its associated data. A new unit version should be created when one or more of its attributes differ from the existing unit version. If the changes to a unit version are 'significant' then a new unit may be created. The institution determines whether the changes to an existing unit warrant the creation of another version or a new unit.

The process is triggered in the Maintain Basic Unit Details form (CRSF2210) when the existing unit version is displayed, the New Record function is invoked and Duplicate Record Above is selected. Depending on the action taken (refer to CRSF2210) either a new unit or new version of the existing unit can be created.

In both cases the following associated data is copied from the old unit version to the new record:

All of the copied data should be checked, and modified if required. Where data is unable to be copied to the new unit version (e.g. where the organisational unit with teaching responsibility is no longer ACTIVE), these exceptions are reported in the Review of Unit Version Creation Report (CRSR0640)

Bulk Rollover of Course Offering Instances and Patterns (CRSJ0010)

Course versions exist independently of the calendar structure, i.e. they continue to be 'current' unless expired or end dated. Course offering instances and patterns however are tied to particular academic calendars. For a course to be 'available' in another academic calendar, its course offering instances and patterns must be rolled forward into that academic period. CRSJ0010 is run through the Job Scheduler for the purpose of rolling course offering instances and patterns from one academic calendar instance to another.

This job has three parameters:

The process attempts to copy all course offering instances and patterns associated with the Source academic calendar and create new course offering instances and patterns for the Destination academic calendar. The Destination calendar must already have been created, usually via the Calendar Rollover process, and must be of the same Calendar Type as the Source calendar and active.

The Organisational Unit parameter permits this process to be run for either one organisational unit or all organisational units. When run for a single organisational unit, only course offering instances and patterns for which the organisational unit is the nominated 'Responsible OU' are rolled.

If any course offering patterns have been rolled over prior to running this job (by adding a new course offering instance in CRSF1300 and copying patterns from an existing instance), these patterns remain and are merged with the patterns created by this job.

The process attempts to create a new course offering instance for the destination academic calendar instance. If successful it attempts to copy all course offering pattern details from the old offering instance to the new. These include all details except:

Many combinations of circumstances can result in records being excepted from the rollover process. Aggregate messages are written to the Job Run Log, viewed through the Job Scheduler, advising of the successful rollover or otherwise of various components of the data.

The resultant structure generated by this process should be reviewed using one of the course data reports, CRSR0624 or CRSR0625.

Note:

The rollover process attaches the latest version of the grading schema to the new course offering pattern. Co-ordination between the rollover process and the creation of new grading schema versions is therefore critical.

 

Bulk Rollover of Unit Offering Patterns and Options (CRSJ0020)

Unit versions exist independently of the calendar structure, i.e. they continue to be 'current' unless expired or end dated. Unit offering patterns and options however are tied to particular teaching calendars. For a unit available in one teaching period to be 'available' in another teaching period, it must have unit offering patterns and options created in the new teaching period. The new patterns and options could be keyed individually, however the Rollover Unit Offering Pattern and Unit Offering Option process (CRSJ0020) can be run to copy the unit offering patterns and options from all of the units associated with the old teaching calendar to the new teaching calendar.

CRSJ0020 is run through the Job Scheduler.

This job has three parameters:

The process attempts to copy all unit offering patterns and their attached unit offering options and unit assessment items, associated with the Source teaching calendar, and create new unit offering patterns, options and assessment items for the Destination teaching calendar. The Destination calendar must already have been created, usually via the Calendar Rollover process, and must be of the same Calendar Type as the Source calendar and active.

The Organisational Unit parameter permits this process to be run for either one organisational unit or all organisational units. When run for a single organisational unit, only unit offering patterns and options for which the organisational unit is the nominated 'Owning OU' are rolled.

The process attempts to create a new unit offering pattern for the destination teaching calendar instance. If successful it attempts to copy unit offering option details from the old pattern to the new pattern. These details are:

If creation of the new unit offering pattern is successful, the process also attempts to create a new unit assessment item and assessment pattern (if any) by copying the associated assessment item and assessment pattern details from the old unit offering pattern to the new. These details are:

If any unit offering pattern, unit offering option and unit assessment item and/or assessment pattern records have been rolled over prior to running this job (by adding a new offering pattern in CRSF2310 and copying options from an existing pattern to it), these patterns and options remain and are merged with the patterns and options created by this job.

Many combinations of circumstances can result in records being excepted from the rollover process. Aggregate messages are written to the Job Run Log, viewed through the Job Scheduler, advising of the successful rollover or otherwise of various components of the data.

The resultant structure generated by this process should be reviewed using one of the unit data reports, CRSR0621 or CRSR0622.

Note:

The rollover process attaches the latest version of the grading schema to the new unit offering option. Co-ordination between the rollover process and the creation of new grading schema versions is therefore critical.

 

Last Modified on 8 March 2002