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How to Update the Course
Catalogue – A Brief Guide
Document Reference Number
Last updated:
Version:
SSSAPO-002
26 May 2004
Alison Milfull/Suzane Fayle/
Sarah Thomson
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
INTRODUCTION TO COURSE CATALOGUE…………………………………3
2
LOCATING THE COURSE
CATALOGUE……………………………………………………………………….3
3
THE EFFECTIVE DATE…………………………………………………………..4
4
COMMON UPDATES……………………………………………………………...5
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
5
Courses not Offered in 2005……………………………………………………5
Changing Sessions of Offering for a Course…………………………………..5
Changing Title for a Course……………………………………………………5
Changing/Adding Course Components………………………………………..5
Adding a New Course for 2005…………………………………………………6
Scheduling Winter and Summer Session Courses…………………………….8
IMPORTANT
CONTACTS…………………………………………………………………………9
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1. INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE CATALOGUE
Beginning in June and prior to 31 August, Course Catalogue data in NSS is updated by
faculties.
The Course Catalogue holds important information relating to all courses (subjects) offered by
UNSW and it is essential that details are correct for both student enrolments and online and
printed publications.
Other important information about how courses are offered appears in the Class Schedule
panels in NSS (eg. course administrator/staff contact, meeting times etc.). Training will be
available in August for these panels.
The following updates to the Course Catalogue and Class Schedule usually occur in the
period prior to 31 August:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Addition of new courses and scheduling of classes for these courses. (Basic class
records must be created in NSS so that 2005 offering information can be published.)
Unchecking of “schedule term roll” box for courses which will not be offered in 2005
or have a change of session.
Changes to course description, title, components, contact hours, pre-requisites.
Scheduling of Summer and Winter session classes. These need to be scheduled, as per
new courses, as they are not included in the Class Schedule roll-over (unless by specific
request).
Scheduling of classes which were not offered in 2004, but will be offered in 2005.
Scheduling Note: Meeting dates should be entered on the Basic data and Meetings
panels in the Schedule of Classes for all classes which do not teach according to the
standard session dates.
It is important that updates are made to the Course Catalogue prior to the Class
Schedule roll-forward process on 1 September. On this date, the Session 1 and 2 class
records for all active courses ticked “Schedule Term Roll” in the Course Catalogue, are
rolled forward to the corresponding session in 2005, excl. Summer & Winter Session
courses.
Updating the Course Catalogue prior to this date, will ensure that all classes roll correctly and
that the correct data defaults from the Course Catalogue into class records, ensuring minimal
updates are required to the Class Schedule at a later time. It also ensures that accurate course
information can be published in the printed Handbooks and Online Handbooks, and that 2005
offerings and census dates can be published in accordance with Government requirements.
2. LOCATING THE COURSE CATALOGUE
The Course Catalogue can be located in NSS via the following menu path:
Go > Manage Student Records > Establish Courses > Use > Course Catalogue > Course
Catalogue Data > Update/Display All
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(If you do not have access to NSS, or if you find you do not have these panels on your menu,
please download an NSS access application form from the web at:
http://nss.admin.unsw.edu.au/student/staff/resources/nss_access_form_v3.doc )
To find an existing course, select the Subject Area you are interested in (eg. ACCT, ENGL,
MECH) and enter the catalogue number and then click ‘OK’. (If you know a course should exist
and the message ‘no matching entry found’ appears, you may also need to have your NSS access
amended.)
Alternatively, enter a Subject Area and click ‘OK’. This will bring up a list of all courses in that
Subject Area, enabling you to select the appropriate course/s.
Once you are within a course record, navigate between the different panels by clicking on the
panel tabs e.g. Offerings, Components etc.
You can easily scroll through the list of courses you generated previously by using the 3 List
buttons on the tool bar.
3. THE EFFECTIVE DATE
Information in the Course Catalogue is effective dated, so that a history of changes made to
courses is maintained. When you make a change to the Course Catalogue or create a new record,
you need to enter an “effective date”. Please ensure that you make all the necessary changes to the
record before you save it, otherwise you will need to insert another effective dated row.
To insert a new row, place the cursor in the “Effective Date” field and press F7 or click on the
“insert row” button in the tool bar.
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(NB: If you do not start by inserting an effective date, a pop-up warning will appear advising that
you cannot make changes unless in correction mode.)
Changes for inclusion in the 2005 Handbooks should be effective dated 6/11/04. This is so that the
changes don’t impact currently enrolled students, but are dated prior to the commencement of the
2005 academic year (incl. Summer session).
If you need to add additional rows, it is fine to add dates after 6/11/04 as long as the latest row
remains prior to 1/12/04.
Please use the effective date 6/11/04 for updates to the Course Catalogue, so that
these changes can be included in 2005 publications.
4. COMMON UPDATES
The following updates are the most common amendments faculties will need to make to the
Course Catalogue:
4.1
COURSES NOT OFFERED IN 2005
On first “Catalogue Data” panel, insert a row with the effective date of 6/11/04. Then go to the
“Offerings” panel and uncheck both the “Allow Course to be Scheduled” and “Schedule Term
Roll” boxes.
Please note: You should always leave courses as “Active” in NSS unless the course will never be
scheduled/offered again (in which case “inactive” is the appropriate status).
4.2
CHANGING SESSIONS OF OFFERING FOR A COURSE
Insert a new row with the effective date 6/11/04. Uncheck “Schedule Term Roll” on the
“Offerings” panel. This means that the course will not roll forward to the corresponding session for
2005 in the class roll-forward process. However, you will need to create new class records in the
Schedule of Classes for the sessions in which it is now offered.
Note, if you forget to uncheck “Schedule Term Roll” and a class record is inadvertently rolled
forward, it can be deleted in the Schedule of Classes after the roll forward has occurred.
4.3
CHANGING TITLE OF A COURSE
Insert a new row with the effective date 6/11/04. Change the Course title field. (As this date is the
day after the end of Session 2, transcripts for currently enrolled students will not reflect this
change.)
4.4
CHANGING/ADDING COURSE COMPONENTS
Changes to teaching components (e.g. lecture, lab, tutorial) should be made in the Course
Catalogue prior to the Class Schedule roll-forward process, so that classes can be scheduled
accordingly in the Class Scheduling process. Insert a new row with the date 6/11/04. Go to
“Components” panel. Add a new row under “Course Component” for additional component/s and
select the relevant value/s.
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4.5
ADDING A NEW COURSE FOR 2005 (IN 9 STEPS)
Step 1 - Generating the Course ID
Go > Manage Student Records > Establish Courses > Use > Course Catalogue > Course
Catalogue Data > Add
Navigate as above or, if you already in the panel group, you may click the “Add” button on the
tool bar:
Click ‘OK’ on the first box as the Course ID will be system generated.
Step 2 – Entering Course Title & Units of Credit (Catalogue Data panel)
Effective Date
Status
Short Course Title
Long Course Title
Consent
Grading Basis
Minimum & Maximum
UOC, Academic Progress
& Financial Aid Units
Course Contact Hours
Repeat for Credit
Enter effective date of 6/11/04 (as described above.)
Should be set to “Active”
Enter title of course. Max. 30 characters.
Allows the full course title, if longer, to be entered. Max. 100 characters.
This has a default value of “no consent”. Change this to ‘School Consent’ only if
you wish to prevent students from enrolling online in the course. This can be
altered in the schedule of classes at any time if necessary.
The main values used here are Graded (full range of marks) and Sat/Unsat
(SY/FN)
Enter the UOC to be awarded upon successful completion of this course, e.g. 6
UOC. The value should be the same in each of these fields.
Class hours per week
Generally this should not be ticked. Should only be selected for course taken
over more than one session.
Step 3 - Entering Academic Structure (Offerings panel)
Course Offering Number
Catalogue number
Academic Institution
Academic Group
Subject Area
Campus
Academic Organisation
Academic Career
Course Approved
Schedule Term Roll box.
Allow Course to be
Scheduled.
Catalogue Print
Print Instructor in
Schedule
This should be ‘1’ unless there are multiple offerings of the same course.
Enter the 4 digit numeric value which identifies the course e.g. ENGL1004 (as
approved at the Faculty Standing Committee).
UNSWA
Faculty owner of this course.
The 4 letter alpha prefix by which the course will be identified e.g. ENGL1004.
Alter the default value if required.
The Dept/School owner of the course.
Enter the Career i.e. UGRD or PGRD
Select either “pending” (course is yet to be approved by Faculty Standing
Committee; this means the course cannot be scheduled yet and will not appear in
publications) or “approved” (course has been approved by Faculty Standing
Committee).
For new courses, it is probably best to tick this box. Although there is no class
record to roll forward initially, it is more likely that you will want records to roll
forward in the future.
This should remain ticked, so that the classes can be scheduled and the course
will appear in publications.
This should be ticked if you wish this course to appear in publications.
Leave as default.
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Step 4 – Entering Component details (Components panel)
Course Component
Graded Component
Centrally Timetabled
Exam
Default Section Size
A course offering may consist of one or more components e.g. lecture, tutorial
etc. Select the relevant value and, if there will be more than one class
component, a new row will need to be added. Please note that the components
entered here must subsequently be scheduled in the class scheduling process or
students will receive an error message when they attempt to enrol. If you change
your mind about components at the class scheduling stage, contact the class
scheduling support contact so that the change can be made.
One component must be set as the graded component for which students will
receive grades. This would normally be the lecture component.
Select “yes” if the course is to have an exam to be scheduled by the
Examinations Unit (including those conducted internally but timetabled
centrally).
The number entered here will set a default enrolment limit for any class set up
under this course in the Class Schedule. This can be altered at the Class Schedule
level.
Step 5 – Entering Course Description (Description panel)
Description
Equivalent Course Group
Please enter a Course Description of no more than 100 words. This
description will appear in the printed and Online Handbooks and other
publications as required.
Used to specify that a course or courses are equivalent for the purpose of
meeting enrolment requirements. If the course is equivalent to another course
or group of courses, select from drop-down menu.
Step 6 – Entering Prerequisites, Corequisites or Exclusions (Requisites panel)
Requirement Group
Enrolment requirement groups are already set up elsewhere in NSS. Check to
see if the appropriate group for your course exists and select this. This might
be a specific course which students must have completed prior to enrolling in
this course or else a more general pre-requisite such as “12 Level 1 UOC in
English”. (In the event that there is not an appropriate pre-requisite or corequisite group, please contact your Faculty office. In the case of exclusions,
please contact Suzan Fayle, s.fayle@unsw.edu.au or 9385 1899).
Step 7 – Final Two Panels
There is no need to enter anything on “Taxonomy” panel. This is related to fees and is managed
centrally.
There is no need to enter anything on “Ownership” panel unless the ownership of this course is
split between more than one academic organisation (e.g. School). If this is the case, please tick
“split ownership” and the bottom part of the panel will become active. For each owner, you must
enter the Academic Organisation (e.g. PHIL for School of Philosophy) and the percentage owned
(eg. 50%). To enter the next owner, place your cursor in the Acad Org field and insert a new row
(F7 or the insert row button on the toolbar).
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Step 8 – Saving your record
Save the panel group. Congratulations! You have completed adding a new course to the Course
Catalogue and can now create classes for this course in the Class Schedule in NSS.
(Note that the new course has been given a unique Course ID.)
Step 9 - Scheduling Classes for your New Course
New courses should be scheduled straight away.
It is not necessary to enter all class scheduling details immediately, although a basic class record
should be created for the relevant sessions so that there is a record of the sessions the course will
be offered in 2005.
Accurate teaching start and end dates should also be entered in the Basic Data and Meetings panels
in the Schedule of Classes for those classes not offered according to the standard session teaching
periods (e.g. Summer and Winter Session, Weeks 1-7, 8-14).
To schedule a new course, follow the menu path:
Go > Manage Student Records > Establish Courses > Use > Schedule New Course
Class Scheduling training will be held in August and training materials are also available on the
web at http://nss.admin.unsw.edu.au/student/staff/resources/userprocedures.html. If more urgent
assistance with training is required, please contact Miria Kakaire on 9385 8670 or
m.kakaire@unsw.edu.au.
4.6
SCHEDULING SUMMER AND WINTER SESSION COURSES
Summer and Winter Session courses are not routinely rolled forward from one year to the next,
due to the volatility of offerings in these sessions. Where complex class structures are involved for
Summer/Winter courses, it is possible that individual subject areas may be rolled forward on
request – contact Sarah Thomson on 9385 8757 or s.thomson@unsw.edu.au.
Like new courses or the not offered in 2004, a basic record for Summer and Winter Session
courses should be scheduled immediately, including entering teaching start and end dates on the
Basic Data and Meetings panels.
Contact Miria Kakaire, as above, if you require Class Scheduling training prior to the main training
sessions in August.
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5. IMPORTANT CONTACTS
Bookings for Class Scheduling or Course
Catalogue training
Summer and Winter Session scheduling
of classes and enrolments
Printed and Online Handbook queries
Miria Kakaire, m.kakaire@unsw.edu.au,
9385 8760 (Mon-Weds)
Sarah Thomson, s.thomson@unsw.edu.au,
9385 8757
Alison Milfull, a.milfull@unsw.edu.au,
9385 8057
General enquiries re. Course Catalogue Suzane Fayle, s.fayle@unsw.edu.au,
and Class Scheduling/User Support
9385 1899
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