This document describes the differences between the original subjects structure against the newer “Courses & Sections” module, along with changes in the processes.
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Student Promotion and Retention Migrating your Section Enrollments |
Overview
The “Course & Sections” feature is the starting point for using more advanced features within QuickSchools such as:
- Section Attendance
- Chronos Transcripts (including Graduation Requirements)
- Course Requests and Master Scheduler
However, moving to this framework involves several concessions, as outlined in this document.
Core Structural Changes
There are 2 key elements that impact how data is structured within your QuickSchools account, namely Courses and Enrollment Periods.
Courses
Every subject within your QuickSchools account must now be linked to a Course. The Course element contains its own set of fields, and can be shared across subjects:
As a result, all Gradebooks which originally would have only a “Subject Name” and “Subject Abbreviation” will now have a “Section Name” and “Section Number” in addition to a linked course. And multiple sections can be linked to the same Course.
The school will maintain a master list of courses under the “Course Catalog” module. However, you will also need to configure which courses within the catalog that you’ll be offering with an “Enrollment Period” (discussed below).
Enrollment Periods
Every academic term must now be linked to an Enrollment Period. An Enrollment Period can consist of one or more academic terms.
The Enrollment Period will also contain the following information:
- Bell Schedule - This is used for Section Attendance
- Course Offering - This defines the courses that you’re offering for that enrollment period.
- Status - Either “Active”, “Next Enrollment Period” or “Inactive”
Additional Data Elements
When creating a course, there are additional data elements that are available to you.
District Settings
Under District Settings, you can configure optional elements Subject Area, Rooms and Pathways:
Section Details
When creating a section, you can also specify the Period Info (for scheduling or attendance) and Room, both of which are optional:
Section Enrollment Details
Finally, when managing student enrollment into specific sections, you will be required to track Add/Drop dates for students into those sections:
Process Changes
Due to the introduction of the above-stated data elements, you will need to make several changes to your administrative processes:
Course Offering
When creating a section, before you can select a Course from the Course dropdown, you will need to configure your Course Offering for the Enrollment Period.
Only courses in the Course Offering will appear in the Course dropdown when creating a section.
Add / Drop History
When assigning students into sections, you must now specify an Add Date. By default, this should correspond to the current date, or the first day of the semester (if it’s in the future).
When a student drops a course, you will also need to specify a Drop Date.
The student always appear in the Gradebook by default, but they will be greyed out if inactive (i.e. future Add Date, or past Drop Date). There is on option to hide inactive students from the Gradebook.
At the end of the semester, a drop date will be automatically assigned when migrating to the next semester.
Migrate to Next Semester
We are currently improving the current screens for migrating to the next semester.
Migrate to Next Year
The process for moving to the new academic year has been modified to accommodate the new data structures. The process is split into 3 parts.
Part 1: Copy Grade Levels
Use this function to copy the Grade Levels from the current semester into the new semester. You can do this anytime. This step is needed for pre-enrollment, or generating scheduled for the “Next Enrollment Period”.
Part 2: Close Academic Year
Use this function to close out the semester. This will apply drop dates to all student section enrollments. Any student that does not have a Next Grade will be assigned a Next Grade based on the Sort Order of the Grade Levels.
Part 3: Migrate Students
Use this function to activate the semester. Any pre-enrolled students will be activated. The Next Grade of all students will be applied and cleared from memory.
Also, unlike the original “Create Year & Semester”, this process DOES NOT copy sections forward. You will start with an empty semester, without any sections / Gradebooks.
If you’re using the Orchestra Master Scheduler, sections are created on finalization of your schedule in Step 6. Otherwise, the can either import your new sections from Excel, or manually create sections via the “Courses & Sections” menu.
Student Promotion and Retention
In the original “Create Year & Semester”, all students are promoted by default (based on a configured mapping), and then you’d update specific students to retain them at the previous grade level. With the new system, you can now apply a “Next Grade” directly from the student record.
The values from the “Next Grade” will only appear after you run “Part 1: Copy Grade Levels” from “Migrate to Next Year”. Applying a “Next Grade” is optional, since if you leave it unset, “Part 2: Close Academic Year” of the “Migrate to Next Year” will automatically calculate the “Next Grade” for you. Finally, “Part 3: Migrate Students” will activate the “Next Grade” when the new academic year is activated.
Enrollment Periods
The school can only designate one enrollment period as the “Active” enrollment period, and one other enrollment period as the “Next Enrollment Period”.
The “Active” enrollment period is the enrollment period that is currently in session. This is the session used for Attendance.
The “Next Enrollment Period” designates the upcoming enrollment period. You can set up sections for the Next Enrollment Period, without affecting the classes that are in session. Then, once the period arrives, you can activate the Next Enrollment Period, at which point it becomes the new “Active” enrollment period.
Data Migration
The way the original Subjects are structured are not compatible with the new “Courses & Sections”. So if you wish to continue to access old data after migrating to “Courses & Sections”, the old subject data will need to be migrated to the new structure.
Module Installation
Before we begin, QuickSchools will install all the associated modules as outlined above.
| Please allow 1 business day for module installation. |
Building your Course Catalog
All subjects will need to be linked to a course. To accomplish this, we will generate a unique list of Courses based on all the historical data using the Subject Name and Subject Abbreviation. So all subjects with the same Subject Name and Subject Abbreviation will be linked to the same course. However, if you’ve named your sections uniquely across semesters, the generated Course Catalog may need to be cleaned up.
QuickSchools will provide you with a preliminary list of generated courses based on the historical data, and the school will need to assist in finalizing the course catalog, before it is committed to your account.
| The initial Course Catalog will be generated as part of the Module Installation. |
Historical Enrollment Periods
Before we can migrate your subjects, we will also need to configure previous Enrollment Periods, and link them to your historical Academic Terms.
| This task will be done with the Module Installation. |
Migrating your Sections
Once your Course Catalog and Enrollment Periods have been finalized and saved into your account, QuickSchools will then link all historical subjects to an appropriate course and enrollment period.
| This task will only begin AFTER the Course Catalog has been finalized. The effort required will depend on how well the Course Catalog has been cleaned up and organized. Estimate is 2 - 4 business days. |
Migrating your Section Enrollments
Once your sections have been migrated, the final step will be to apply the Add/Drop dates for all historical data. QuickSchools will use the first and last days of the semester.
| This task will be done along with Migrating your Sections. |
Additional Elements for Migration
In general, all data from Attendance, Gradebook and Report Cards will remain intact through this migration process. However, if you wish to use the new Chronos Transcripts module, this will need to be managed separately (Installation and Migration is managed separately).
Conclusion
The new “Courses & Sections” module offers several benefits, like:
- Usage of new modules like Orchestra Master Schedule, Section Attendance, Chronos Transcripts and Graduation Requirements.
- Tracking of Add/Drop History
- Tracking or Rooms and Period Info for each section
- Tracking Promotion and Retention via “Next Grade”
However, in order to leverage this module, you’ll need to change some of your administrative processes:
- Need to manage additional elements such as Course Catalog, Enrollment Periods and Course Offering.
- Add/Drop Dates are required
- Sections do not copy forward
Finally, if you’re thinking of switching from the original subjects-based framework, you’ll need to assist in cleaning up and finalizing your initial Course Catalog. QuickSchools support will assist in the migration of the other elements like Subjects and Student Enrollment into Subjects. Time frame is as follows:
- 1 business day to install the module and generate initial Course Catalog
- School will need to revert on changes
- 2 - 4 business days to complete the migration