Purpose

To enable the creation and maintenance of institution defined courses and details relating to courses

Subsystem

Course Structure & Planning

Structure

Single Block

Course Version

Navigation Buttons invoke:

• The Other Course Details menu which permits navigation to the forms:
• Maintain Course Alternative Exits
• Maintain Course Annual Load
• Maintain Course Categorisations
• Maintain Course Approval
• Maintain Course Stages
• Maintain Progression Rule Application
• Maintain Course Awards
• Maintain Course Group Membership
• Maintain Course Fields of Study
• Maintain Course Version Rules
• Maintain Course Ownership
• Maintain Course Reference Codes
• Maintain Restricted Funding Sources
• Maintain Course Default Research Milestones
• The forms:
• Maintain Course Offerings
• Maintain Course Version Notes

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Course Version

Explanation

A course is a grouping of one or more units of study which may or may not lead to a formal award. Each course may be defined by numerous attributes. A definition of each attribute is included in the subsystem glossary section of this manual. It is possible to create many versions of a course, where a new version represents a significant difference between its attributes and those of previous versions. Course versions are therefore a history of changes made to the attributes of a course. They permit allowance to be made for the 'pipeline' effect. That is, students are able to complete the course version for which they enrolled even though a different course version is currently offered to newly enrolling students. The Institution will determine whether changing one or more attributes is significant and warrants the creation of a new version.

Students are enrolled in particular course versions.

Example

To change a course from non-award to award would require the creation of a new version. Similarly, changing admission and advanced standing rules would generally involve creation of a new version.

To create a new course using the Maintain Basic Course Details form:

1. Enter Insert Mode.
2. Enter the course code in the Course Code field.
3. Enter the name or description of the course in the Title field.
4. Enter in the Version Number
5. Select Sector from the list of values, either VET or HE.
6. Select the appropriate course status from the list of values (or key a valid value) in the Course Status field.
7. Start Date defaults to the current date. If this is incorrect, enter the correct date from which the course version becomes effective.
8. Enter the date on which the details of this course version should be reviewed in the Review Date field. (optional)
9. Enter the date after which, if no action is taken, this course will no longer be available to new enrolments, in the Expiry date field. (this may be pending a review, accreditation etc.) (optional)
10. Enter a short version (up to 40 characters) of the course title in the Short Title field.
11. Enter an abbreviated version (up to 20 characters) of the course title in the Abbrev. field.
12. Select the appropriate course type from the list of values (or key a valid value) in the Course Type field.
13. Select the organisational unit with responsibility for this course from the list of values (or key a valid value) in the Responsible OU field.
14. Select the appropriate government special course type from the list of values (or key a valid value) in the GOVT Special Course Type field.
15. The Supp Exams Permitted check box is selected by default, deselect if supplementary exams are not permitted.
16. If the course is a generic course, select the Generic Course check box.
17. The Grad Students check box is selected by default, this means that students can graduate from this course. Deselect if students are not able to graduate from this course. (Should be deselected for non award courses)
18. The first Tab is dependant on what Sector is selected.
19. The record can be saved at this point. The remaining fields are optional and can be completed at any time.
20. Enter data in the remaining fields (defined in Understanding Course Structure & Planning), all of which are optional:

• Intermission Tab
• Allow Intermission
• Number Units Before Intermission
• Max Intermission (months)
• Count in Progression
• Advanced Standing Tab
• Qualification Recency
• External Limit
• Internal Limit
• Credit Points Req
• Std Annual Load
• Crs Total EFTSU
• GOVT Course Load
• Min Submission Perc
• Contact Hours
• Std PT Cmpltn Time
• Std FT Cmpltn Time

 

21. Save.

Rules:

• A new course is automatically assigned the version number 1.
• The Course Code must not be greater than 6 characters in length when defined for the HE sector.
• The Course Code must not be greater than 10 characters in length when defined for the VET sector.
• When creating a new course, the course status must have a corresponding system course status of 'PLANNED'.Changing the course status so it has a corresponding system course status of 'ACTIVE' is specifically described in below.
• The following rules apply to system course status changes resulting from changes to a mapped course status.:
• PLANNED status can only become ACTIVE or INACTIVE.
• INACTIVE can only become ACTIVE.
• ACTIVE can only become INACTIVE.
• ACTIVE and INACTIVE cannot become PLANNED.
• There can only be one version of a course with a status of ACTIVE and an unset expiry date.
• You cannot alter the details of a course version once it has been made INACTIVE, with the exception of changing it back to ACTIVE. Some data will preclude this status change. A quality check is performed when the status change is attempted. The course version will only be active if the quality check is passed, otherwise a new version will need to be created. Advisory messages are displayed.
• When a course version is set to ACTIVE, and has a system sector code of 'VET', there must be a mapping of the course version to one or more Occupation Types.
• When a course version is set to ACTIVE, and has a system sector code of 'VET', there must be a mapping of the course version to one or more Government Training Organisations.
• A closed Industry Sector or Industry Group cannot be inserted or updated in a Course Version record.
• Some check box fields are selected by default on creation of a new record. All default values should be checked for correctness.
• Units with an expiry date recorded against them cannot be used by the Admissions subsystem except for re-admissions.
• An end date can only be specified for course versions where the course status has been changed to one with a system course status of INACTIVE. i.e. An end date cannot be entered when creating a new course. Similarly, the course status can only be changed to INACTIVE when an end date has been entered. i.e. Both events must happen in a single update transaction.
• The Title, Short Title and Abbr fields should contain carefully considered data as this data may be used to generate handbook entries etc.
• If the course annual load for a course version is not constant for each year of the course, the Std Annual Load field should be left blank. The Maintain Course Annual Load form should be used to record the annual load for each year of the course.
• Closed organisational units, course statuses, Govt special course types and course types cannot be used to define a course. Courses containing these closed values cannot be activated.
• The course type, assigned to a course, must be for an award course if course awards exist for this course.
• The end date for a course must be >= the expiry date if an expiry date is set.
• The Supp Exam indicator in the Maintain Basic Unit Details form (CRSF2210) overrides the Supp Exams Permitted indicator in this form. ie. The unit supplementary exam indicator overrides the course supp exam indicator.

To create a new version of an existing course using the Maintain Basic Course Details form:

1. Find and display the current version of the course for which a new version is to be created.
2. Select the New Record function, a blank record will be displayed.
3. Select the Duplicate Record Above function, a duplicate of the current version will be displayed.
4. Check all fields for correct values, altering those which will be different in the new version. The new version must have the Status of 'PLANNED' before it can be saved
5. Save. The new version number is added by the system at this time. The most recent offering instance of the course version is copied to the new version. The associated data that is duplicated in the new version, is listed under Course & Unit Rollover Processes. Note, and where appropriate act upon, any system messages which require modification of data before proceeding. Note the system message as the new version is created. If the creation process fails to copy all records from the old version to the new version, a Course Version Creation Exception Report (CRSR0630) is automatically generated. This report should be reviewed and alternate data entered for the new course version.
6. Use the Other Course Details navigation button to go to the maintenance forms for other details associated with the new course version and check and modify this data as necessary.
7. Repeat this checking and modification process for course offering and course version notes data.

To create a new course based on an existing course using the Maintain Basic Course Details form:

1. Find and display the current version of the course from which a new course is to be created.
2. Select the New Record function, a blank record will be displayed.
3. Select the Duplicate Record Above function, a duplicate of the current version will be displayed.
4. Enter the new course code in the Course Code field and alter the Status to PLANNED.
5. Check all fields for correct values, altering those which will be different in the new course.
6. Save. The version number 1 is added by the system at this time. The most recent offering instance of the existing course is copied to the new. The associated data that is duplicated in the new course, is listed under Course & Unit Rollover Processes. Note, and where appropriate act upon, any system messages which require modification of data before proceeding. Note the system message as the new course is created. If the creation process fails to copy all records from the old course to the new course, a Course Version Creation Exception Report (CRSR0630) is automatically generated. This report should be reviewed and alternate data entered for the new course.
7. Use the Other Course Details navigation button to go to the maintenance forms for other details associated with the new course version and check and modify this data as necessary.
8. Repeat this checking and modification process for course offering and course version notes data.

To modify a course version using the Maintain Basic Course Details form:

1. Find and display the course version to be modified.
2. Make the required changes.
3. Save.

Rules:

• It is unlikely that a course version will be modified other than to correct data which has been entered incorrectly. Changes to course versions in which students are, or have been, enrolled will usually result in the creation of a new version of the course.
• For changes to other course details see the instructions for their particular maintenance forms.
• No system checks are carried out for closed reference data when changing a course version status from one with an INACTIVE system status to one with an ACTIVE system status.

To change the course status of a course version from one with a system course status PLANNED to one with a system course status ACTIVE using the Maintain Basic Course Details form:

1. Change/Modify the course status as described above. On attempting to navigate off the field by any method, a quality check is performed. This checks related course offerings for closed or missing reference data. Messages are displayed identifying any incorrect data involved. This data must be corrected before the quality check will permit the process to proceed.
2. Save.

Rules:

• Only one version of a course can be ACTIVE, with an expiry date not set, at a time. ie. An existing course version must have its status changed to INACTIVE or an expiry date entered prior to changing the status of the new course version to ACTIVE.

To delete a course version using the Maintain Basic Course Details form:

1. Find the record to be deleted.
2. Delete Record.
3. Save.

Rules:

• Course versions cannot be deleted if they have been used elsewhere in the system. For example, if students have been enrolled in the course version.
• It is unlikely that a course version will be deleted other than to remove data which has been entered incorrectly.
• To delete a course version, dependent data such as course awards, offerings etc. must first be deleted.

Changes within this form will have the following notable effects: