Managing Course Outlines

Owned by Dinara Kutti (Deactivated)
Last updated: Apr 21, 2022 by Diane Momongan (Unlicensed)
12 min read

Objective

This page outlines the unit components and complexities involved in creating a Course Outline, including:

  • The first step to set up core and elective units for a course,

  • Adding prerequisite, co-requisite and disallowed units to a course outline, and

  • Adding substitute rules to a course outline.

A course outline can contain all possible units that are permitted for inclusion in the course. Once a Course Outline has been created, Unit Enrolments can be created by the student or by administration staff.

Complexity: High

 

Page Contents

 

 

Assumptions

Be advised

The pages, fields and buttons that you can see, and the items you can edit, are based on:

  • how the Paradigm system is configured for your institution, and

  • the options that are made available by your institution, and

  • the access level assigned to you by the "nominated contact person" or other Paradigm expert, according to your permission needs.

For more information please contact your "nominated contact person" or other Paradigm expert.

  • The student record has already been created.

  • You have an access level that allows you to create or edit student records.

  • You have an understanding of the Australian Tertiary Education System / VET Sector and the terms commonly used.

  • You have an understanding of the different course types within the Paradigm system.

  • You have an understanding of course components that may be:

    • core units, 

    • elective units,

    • prerequisite units,

    • co-requisite units,

    • disallowed units,

    • substitute unit, and

    • other constraint types

  • You have an understanding of the dependencies of those course components to meet the accreditation requirements of the course.

  • The Course Plan has already been set up for this course.

  • Time Periods have been updated, allowing access to the Active Units within the Course Plan.

  • Units / Subjects have already been scheduled for the next study period.

Key terms and concepts

The Course Outline screen is intended to be completed by Administration Staff with elevated permission level access. All possible units that contribute to the course, are included in the Course Outline definition, including core, elective, prerequisite, co-requisite, and disallowed units, substitute rules and constraints. The details included in the Course Outline are used as the basis for defining the Course Plan for a student. The Course Plan can be defined for or by a student, or by administration staff, for a specific student’s course enrolment.

It is imperative that all core units and all elective units that can contribute toward completion of a course, are listed and saved in the course outline, before beginning to create any student’s course plan based upon that course outline. The core and elective units must have been saved in Paradigm before any prerequisites or corequisites or any other constraints can be defined for a course outline, because these constraints have a direct relationship with the existing core and elective units. A constraint cannot exist without referring to an existing core or elective unit.

The Course Plan is a grid that is restricted to a maximum of 9 columns across the screen, denoted by the columns A through I (the first through to the ninth English letters), usually representing the passage of time by semester or trimester.

The grid is restricted to a maximum of 25 rows down the screen representing the type of unit to be studied. The rows are grouped based on a shared description, so for the units to appear nicely aligned and ordered along a row and in columns across the screen, then the description needs to be exactly the same for the units to be shown on that row.

These column and row length restrictions are in place to prevent the containing grid structure from becoming unwieldy on devices with smaller display screens. Examples are shown below.

 

There are two types of course plan rules:

  • the first set (type core and elective) is solely focused on positioning units on the screen

  • the other types define the relationships between the units on the screen

For a prerequisite rule to appear as you intend on the course plan, the unit must already have an existing rule that defines it as either a core or elective i.e. the unit must already appear in the list for the course outline.

Essentially, the prerequisite rule for data entry is:

  • the first field defines what the student wants to study

  • the second field defines some kind of relationship that may impact whether the student can take the unit they wish to study

Loading the Course and then choosing the Outline option will show a screen such as this, detailing a list of all of the units and constraints that have been defined for a course:

Note that Unit Id BEM1002 is defined as a Core Unit and has a Display Code of B2. Clicking on the Edit icon reveals this information at the bottom of the screen:

Note that the Constraint Unit Id field is blank, which means that as no constraints apply to this unit, this unit will be available for students to enrol in, as soon as the enrolment period is current, and the unit has been scheduled.

Note that the above image contains different data than other images above it, unit BEM2002 is now listed to show in cell C2. To add a constraint for this unit, such that unit BEM1002 must have been completed before an enrolment will be allowed for BEM2002:

Click the Add Unit icon for the unit BEM2002 to add a constraint for this unit.

Scroll to the unit BEM1002 and click the Add As Constraint icon to make the completion of that unit compulsory before an enrolment into BEM2002 will be allowed.

Click the Save Outline Constraint button.

The Unit Id and Constraint Unit Id fields now indicate that there is a dependency on BEM1002 before an enrolment into BEM2002 is allowed.

 

 

Units Colour Legend on Student’s course enrolment (Course plan)

Colour

Meaning

Colour

Meaning

Green

Student has previously completed this unit

Blue

Student is currently enrolled in this unit

Orange

Unit is not available because prerequisites have not been met

White (with tick box)

Unit can be selected for enrolment

White (without tick box)

Unit has been scheduled, student meets prerequisites, but the enrolment period has not yet opened, and students are prevented from enrolling in the unit. Note: Staff member needs to double check the configuration time period called ‘Unit_enrolment’

Grey

Unit is not scheduled for the next enrolment period. This rule overrides the Orange rule where a prerequisite has not been met, i.e. when a prerequisite has not been met and the unit has not yet been scheduled, the unit will be shown in a grey cell.

The Course plan allows staff members to enrol students into units or it allows students to enrol themselves into units with ease.

To set up the Course plan / Constraint rules the following information will be required:

  • The scope and structure of the course including the units required to complete the course 

  • Units prerequisites, corequisites, core units, electives, substitute units, previous versions of units

  • Accreditation changes

  • Majors and Minors available within the Course structure

  • Planned unit schedules

 

Field Name

Brief Overview

Field Name

Brief Overview

Program Constraints ID

Internal System ID given to the course rule. Each constraint will have its own unique code

Course ID

Course ID associated with the base course and student’s course enrolment

Unit ID

Internal System ID assigned to a unit code

Constraint Unit Id

An unit code that is associated with the constraint type

Unit Name

Mainly for readability so that the staff members can more easily identify the unit by its name

Constraint Types

Core Unit, Elective Unit, Prerequisite Unit, Study Area (Minor), Major, Minor, Study Specialisation (Major), Program Prerequisites, Unit program prerequisites, Program Unit Not required, Application Unit, Co-requisite Unit, Disallowed Unit, Substitute Unit, Allow multiple schedule Units, Component Program, Competency Unit, Required Unit Count , Transfer Program

*Please refer to the Standard Constraint Types table below for more information

Display Code

Display code indicates where the unit will appear in the grid. The letters A-I (the first to ninth letters of the alphabet) are columns across the screen, whereas numbers 1-25 are the rows down the page. Combining the column and row identifiers then determines the exact grid position where the unit is displayed, such as cell A1, B2, C3

Description

Text that appears in the front of the row to describe this section of the grid, e.g. Core Unit, Electives

Setting up the logic of your course plan is highly subjective and specific to each institution. Below is an example of how a course plan appears (including showing the display codes) under a student’s course plan (course enrolment):

Explanation:

There are two types of rules: one is to determine the visual display of a unit on the course outline screen using the display code. The other is to determine the units that a student is eligible to select or enrol into at any given point of time.

Referring to the above picture, both core and elective sections control the visual grouping. Some education providers might only have Core units throughout their course offering.

 

Standard Constraint Types

Note

It is highly recommended that you setup a list of Core and Elective Units prior to further defining their constraint relationships.

Constraint type options

Description

Constraint type options

Description

Core Unit

Your institution defines the core units to study this course, often it is compulsory to study this unit within the major or program.

Elective Unit

Your institution defines a list of Elective unit options as part of the major or program.

Prerequisite Unit

Some units of study have a prerequisite. This is a requirement that must be completed before you are able to take this unit.

Co-requisite Unit

Some units of study require you to undertake another specific unit of study at the same time.

Major

Your institution defines which unit components make up the structure of that Major

Minor

Your institution defines which unit components make up the structure of that Minor

Disallowed Unit

Your institution defines that if a student has already completed a unit, they will not be allowed to enrol into this unit

Substitute Unit

Your institution defines a substitute unit to replace a historical unit

Required Unit

This is a compulsory that unit must be selected when enrolling via the course plan

 

Specialised Constraint Types

Constraint type options

Description

Constraint type options

Description

Optional Prerequisite Unit

There might be more than one Prerequisite unit to choose from

Cross course Prerequisite Unit

Set up Prerequisite units, for students who enrolled in to two courses

Transfer credit Unit

This is a function for bulk auto transfer course credits (If you want to select this option, please raise a ticket in Jira)

Program Prerequisite

This is a function at the course level. One course is a prerequisite for the other

Unit Program Prerequisite

The student will not be able to study this course until they finish the units outlined by the institution

Application Unit

For Applicant portal, allow Applicant to enrol in to units for their auditions and interviews

Block Mode

A special intensive enrolment status

Component Program

A special child and parent relationships between some courses

Transfer Program

An approach to bulk transfer courses (If you want to select this option, please raise a ticket in Jira)

Required Unit Course Count

Students must complete a list of required units to take the next course

 

Implications

We recommend that only staff who have higher permission levels can enrol students in this manner.

  • The Course Plan method will require initial setup of a course plan with restrictions, co-requisites, prerequisites, majors, minors, core units, electives, scope and structure of the course.

           By setting up the enrolment in this manner students may, if required, enrol themselves to units.

  • Units may only be selected if the student meets the requirements previously setup in the system and if the unit is on offer for the time period specified

  • Alternatively staff, with the designated access level may enrol students either via the course plan or via the Student >Course Enrolment> Units page.

  • This method may be used to bypass course rules and will enrol students into any unit regardless of restrictions, co-requisites, prerequisites, majors, minors, and time period as any date ranges can be selected.

   

YouTube videos

Course Plan - Adding Core and Electives Units

Adding Prerequisites, Co-requisites, Disallowed and Substitute Rules

 

Workflow

 

Please note: If you add more columns to the grid, it will be harder to view the course outline grid on mobile devices

  1. Click on the Course tab within the side menu

  2. Click on the Search option in the side menu

  3. Enter the Course Id or Course name into the search fields

  4. For a current course ensure the Course Status is Active, for a non current course change the Course status to Archived

  5. Click on the Search Course button

  6. This will return a list of courses that meet the searched criteria

  7. To filter the returned options in this box above the returned results start typing the Course name. This will reduce the number of results. 

  8. Click on the blue hyper link on the left side of the required record.

  9. The Course record has now been loaded. 

  10. Click on the Outline button in the side menu

  11. Scroll half way down the page and click on the Add Constraint button.

  12. To Search for the unit to be added by either Unit code or Unit name into the Unit Search section

  13. Click on the Search Unit button

  14. The list of units will appear below the constraints table.

  15. To add the unit click the add unit icon next to the unit name. The internal system id code will appear in the details box below.

  16. Select the constraint type from the drop down menu- Core Unit, Elective etc

  17. Add a display code - e.g. D2, that describes the cell’s coordinates - column D, row 2

  18. Add description - e.g. Core Units, Semester 1, Electives. This is the heading that will appear for the first column of the grid placement line 

  19. Click on Save Outline Constraints button

 

To add another unit, click on the Add Constraint button to clear the details previously entered.

Add all the units first, prior to setting up any pre-requites, or co-requisites rules, as it will make the process easier to follow.

 

  1. Locate the Unit that the constraint is tied to and click on Add As a Unit icon on the right hand side.

  2. Locate the constraining unit (pre-requisite, co-requisite, etc.) and click on the add constraint Icon on the right hand side.

  3. Select the Constraint type from the drop down menu

  4. Click on Save Outline Constraint button

To add more constraints to the Course plan edit table, click on add constraint button to clear the details previously entered.

 

 

  1. Click on the Courses tab on the side menu

  2. Click on the Search option in the side menu

  3. In the box labelled Course id enter the id of the course. 

  4. Click on the  Search Course button. This will return you the course matching your search criteria. 

  5. Click on the Outline option in the side menu

  6. Scroll down and locate the rule to be deleted

  7. Click on the delete icon next to the constraint / rule to be deleted.

 

  1. Click on the Courses tab on the side menu

  2. Click on the Search option in the side menu

  3. In the box labelled Course id enter the id of the course,

  4. Click on the Search Course button.This will return you the course matching your search criteria. 

  5. Click on the Outline on the side menu.

  6. To sort a column by Constraint, click on the arrow next to the Constraint column heading and sort the column. 

 

Please note that if you would like to have different descriptive texts for the rules, you have to make sure that your rules have different rows. The descriptive texts are course rule specific and different courses with the same units could have different descriptive label.

  1. Click on the Courses tab on the side menu

  2. Click on the Search option in the side menu

  3. In the box labelled Course id enter the id of the course

  4. Click on the Search Course button. This will return you the course matching your search criteria. 

  5. Click on the Outline option in the side menu

  6. Click on the Edit constraint icon against the units that you want to edit

  7. Add a descriptive text in the Description field

  8. Click on Save Outline Constraint button

 

 

 

Further Reading

Course Plan under student’s course enrolment page

 

Related Pages

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