Setting Up Academic Course Lists

This chapter provides an overview of academic course lists and discusses how to:

Maximize the efficiency of course lists.
Set up academic course lists.

Understanding Academic Course Lists

Academic course lists form the backbone of academic advisement. They are lists of courses or wildcard course lists. For example, a course list might consist of eight history courses. Course lists are used in academic requirements to identify what courses a student must select from to complete a graduation requirement.

You specify courses either by a unique course ID or by using the wildcard indicator. For example, you can insert a row with the course ID for English 62 or set up a wildcard course list of all English courses rather than manually entering each English course row by row.

Maximizing the Efficiency Of Course Lists

To enhance performance, establish the fewest number of sequence rows. It may be more efficient to use a wide-ranging wild card and then use set operation theory to subtract smaller pieces. For example, you may establish undergraduate courses as 100 through 400 level courses and graduate courses at the 500 level. Rather than use a course list with four course sequences, 1##,2##,3##,4##, it would be more efficient to use the wildcard course list at the subject level, or even academic group level, then subtract from the line detail item a course list of 500 level courses.

Using wildcard course lists is an efficient way to establish course lists. To maximize efficiencies, consider the highest level at which you establish a wildcard course list. For instance, if all psychology courses are acceptable to fulfill a requirement, enter Psychology in the Subject field, rather than create course sequences with Psych 1##, Psych 2##, and so on.

When evaluating course lists, consider not only what you want to include in the list, but also what you do not want to include. If all of the courses in a subject are valid to be used, with the exception of five, it is more efficient to use a wildcard course list at the subject level and then subtract a course list of those five courses than to establish a course list that details all of the valid course IDs.

See Creating a Course List Detail.

Setting Up Academic Course Lists

To create an academic course list:

Enter the academic institution, career, program, plan, and subplan information for the new course list on the Course List Description page.
Establish the details of individual courses that comprise the course list on the Course List Detail page.
Indicate the course parameters for the course list on the Course List Parameters page.

Pages Used to Create an Academic Course List

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Course List Description	RQ_COURSE_LIST	Academic Advising, Academic Requirements, Define Course Lists, Course List Description	Describe the course list.
Course List Detail	RQ_CRSE_LIST_DET	Curriculum Management, Enrollment Requirements, Enrollment Course Lists, Course List Detail Academic Advising, Academic Requirements, Define Course Lists, Course List Detail	Establish exactly which courses comprise the course list.
Course List Parameters	RQ_CRSE_LST_DPRM	Academic Advising, Academic Requirements, Define Course Lists, Course List Parameters	Establish detail parameters for each course in the course list.

Setting Up a Course List Description

Access the Course List Description page.

Effective Date and Status

Enter an effective date to define when the status that you select is valid. This date reflects the student's requirement term as determined by the requirement group that uses this course list.

When the advisement process applies a requirement group to a student, the requirement term begin date of the requirement group academic structure determines which effective-dated course list row is current for the student. For example, if you define a requirement group to the plan level, then the system uses the student's plan requirement term to determine the effective date for the requirement group. (You assign requirement terms in the Student Program/Plan component.) The system then uses this requirement term to evaluate the current effective-dated row for all requirements and course lists that the requirement group uses.

For example, suppose that the system applies to a student a requirement group defined at a program level. The requirement group has two effective-dated rows of 01/01/1900 and 01/01/2000. The student's academic program requirement term is fall 1999, so the current effective-dated row for the requirement term of fall 1999 is 01/01/1900. The 01/01/1900 requirement group points to a requirement with effective-dated rows of 01/01/1900 and 01/01/1980. Again, the student's program requirement term is used (because that was the academic structure of the requirement group that uses this requirement), and the current effective-dated row for requirement term fall 1999 is now 01/01/1980. The 01/01/1980 requirement uses a course list with two effective-dated rows of 01/01/1900 and 01/01/1990. Once again the student's program requirement term is used to evaluate the current effective-dated row to be used, which in this case would be 01/01/1990.

Copy

This button appears on this page in Add mode only. You can copy course lists with a usage value of Academic Advisement and Requisite Restriction.(However, requisite restrictions do not appear if you search for course lists to copy; you must enter the requisite course list number directly during the copy process.) You cannot copy course lists with a usage value of Student Individualized Plan.

To copy a course list, click the Copy button, enter the number of the course list that you want to copy, and select the appropriate copy mode.

Values are:

Copy last record: (The default.) Select to copy only the last effective-dated record.

None: Converts to Copy last record.

Copy all records: Select to copy all effective-dated records. (Use this field value only if the course list to be copied has multiple effective-dated rows.)

Then click OK to copy the specified course list.

Because the academic course list pages are more complex than their enrollment course list counterparts, you cannot copy enrollment course lists and requisite restriction course lists into course lists with a usage value of Academic Advisement. Course lists with a usage value of Requisite/Restriction can only be copied and saved as Requisite/Restriction course lists.

Note. If you use the copy feature to create a new course list, then you cannot assign a course list number to the new list. When you save after clicking the Copy button, the system automatically assigns the next sequential number to the new course list. If you must assign a specific, unused number to the new course list, do not click the Copy button. Instead, create the new course list by reentering all of the field values.

Usage

Select to specify how data in this course list is used. Values are:

Academic Advisement: (The default) Select to use the data recorded on this page during the degree audit process.

Student Individualized Plan: Select to use the data on the Student Override Exceptions pages for degree audit purposes. Use this value when a specific student or group has special requirements. A course list with a usage value of Student Individualized Plan can only be used by a requirement with a usage value of Student Individualized Plan.

Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. Do not modify these values in any way. Any modifications to these values will require a substantial programming effort.

Description, Short Description, and Long Description

Enter a description, short description, and long description for the course list that you are establishing. None of these values appears on the audit reports. These fields are used for documentation purposes only.

Academic Institution, Academic Career, Academic Program, Academic Plan, and Academic Sub-Plan

Use these fields to document departmental ownership of the course list. These fields are used for prompting and documentation only; they do not affect auditing analysis.

Creating a Course List Detail

Access the Course List Detail page.

Fetch

Click this button to retrieve and display the course sequence data, including the related detail parameters for the effective-dated row. When you access this component, the system loads only effective-dated rows, without any detail, to enhance performance for those course lists that have hundreds of course sequence rows.

Course Sequence

Indicates a unique component of the course list. Each sequence represents a course ID or a group of equivalent courses. The system assigns the numbers sequentially but you can change them. Usually, courses in a course list do not have to be in a particular order. However, you must put courses in sequential order when you plan to assign the course list to a requirement line type of Sequential Restriction or Global Sequential Restriction. In those cases, enter the correct course order here so that the advising process requires the student to complete the courses in the course sequence that you specify. For example, students should take French 1, French 2, and French 3 in that order.

Course ID

Enter the Course ID that specifies the course needed to satisfy this course list. (Prompt on this field and enter search criteria to narrow down the selection choices.) If a course ID contains multiple offerings, then any of the offerings attached to that course ID satisfies that course list. In addition, if a student takes two offerings in a course ID, then the audit allows both classes to count toward unit and grade point average (GPA) requirements. The classes are treated as separate courses.

This field is unavailable if you select the WildCard Indicator check box.

Include Equivalent Courses

Select to have the system include in its evaluation both the course ID that you specify and all courses that are set up as equivalent to the selected course ID for this course list. If you select this check box, then the following fields become unavailable: Term, Associated Class, and Topic ID.

If you select the check box, the advisement engine must search the database for any valid course equivalencies, even if no equivalencies exist for this course ID. Therefore, clear the check box if the course ID has no equivalents.

Clear this check box to further narrow your course parameters with the Term, Associated Class, and Topic ID fields. For example, you may specify not only the course ID, but also the term in which the specific course must be taken.

See Creating Course Equivalency Groups.

Term

Enter the term in which the student must take the course that you specify in order for the course to be used in this course list. Leave this field blank to return all values.

Associated Class

Enter the associated class number (of the course that you specify) that the student must take in order for the course to be used in this course list. For class associations, indicate a term to prompt off valid values. Leave this field blank to return all values.

Note. You cannot enter 9999, because this special associated class number can be associated with any other associated class number and is never an enrollment section.

See Defining Class Associations.

Topic ID

Enter the topic ID (of the course that you specify) that the student must take in order for the course to be used in this course list. This field prompts from the topics defined in the course catalog. Leave this field blank to return all values.

See Defining Course Catalog Data.

WildCard Indicator

Select to specify that the course is a wildcard course, and use additional variables to specify the course that you want to capture. The rest of the fields discussed in this section are available.

Academic Group

Enter the academic group from the course catalog offering. (Leave this field blank if any academic group is acceptable.)

Academic Institution

Enter the academic institution.

Subject

Enter the subject of the course offering. (Leave this field blank if any subject is acceptable.)

Catalog Nbr (catalog number)

Enter the required portion of the catalog number that is a 10-character field. Use the format NNNNAAAAAA, where the first 4 characters are numeric (leading zeroes are blank-padded) and the last 6 characters are an alphanumeric suffix. For example, a catalog number of 3## indicates that any 300-level course is acceptable, including 301A, because suffixes are ignored when a number wild card is specified unless a suffix value is exclusively indicated. In another example, a catalog number of 3##B would accept only 300-level courses with a suffix of B. In a third example, a catalog number of 321* indicates that 321, 321A, and 321B (but not 321AB) are acceptable. You can use a wild card in any position in the field. When you use wild cards, the system does not check equivalent courses. (This is an efficiency constraint.)

Note. The Catalog Nbr field does not support ranges. However, you can establish multiple detail lines. For example, in one detail line, you can use a wild card for 100-level courses. In a second detail line, you can use a wild card for all 200-level courses.

Use the pound sign (#) to represent the first 4 numeric values, and use the asterisk (*) to represent the last 6 alphanumeric characters. If you enter #, then the system right-justifies the value. If you enter *, then the system left-justifies the value. For example, 1#* retrieves 1 through 19 plus 1 alphanumeric character.

This table provides an overview of how the system processes different wild card values:

Catalog Number	Results
#	The search retrieves all courses with a single digit catalog number and any number of alphanumeric characters (letters) after the digit. For example, the search engine would pick up 1ABCD.
*	The search retrieves all courses with no numbers and a single alphanumeric character identifier. The system assumes that there are four blank spaces (represented by NNNN) in front of this value.
#*	The search retrieves all courses with 1 digit followed by 1 alphanumeric character.
###	The search retrieves all catalog numbers up to 3 digits, including any characters after the numbers.
##W	The search retrieves all 1- and 2-digit catalog numbers followed only by the character W.

You cannot place alpha characters before numeric characters. The format must be NNNNAAAAAA, where N means numeric and A means alphanumeric. Specifically, 4 numeric characters must precede all alpha characters.

If the Academic Group, Subject, and Catalog Nbr fields are blank, then the system includes all courses in the academic institution in the course list. If the Academic Group and Subject fields are blank but the Catalog Nbr field is populated, then all courses matching that catalog number are included in the course list, regardless of academic group or subject area. If only the Subject field is populated, then the system selects any course within that subject.

Establishing Course List Parameters

Access the Course List Parameters page.

Course Sequence

Appears by default from the Course List Detail page.

Course Information

Describes the course selected on the Course List Detail page. The system displays course information in course sequence order. If the WildCard Indicator check box is selected, then this field is blank.

Min Units / Course (minimum units/course)

Enter the minimum number of units that this course, or the courses in this list (if a wildcard list), must provide to be considered valid.

Min Grade Points / Unit (minimum grade points/unit)

Enter the minimum number of grade points per unit that this course must be worth to be considered valid. This overrides the minimum grade points per course defined for the requirement in the Line Item Parameters page.

Transfer Level Allowed

Select the type of transfer credit (if any) that is acceptable:

Always Allow: (The default) Select to specify that all applicable transfer credit can be used to satisfy the requirement.

Four-Year Institution Only: Select to specify that only transfer credit from accredited four-year institutions can be used to satisfy the requirement.

Never Allow: Select to specify that transfer credit can never satisfy the requirement.

Two-Year Institution Only: Select to specify that only transfer credit from accredited two-year institutions can be used to satisfy the requirement.

None: Converts to Always Allow.

Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. Do not modify these values in any way. Any modifications to these values will require a substantial programming effort.

Note. The Advisement School Type field on the School Type Table page contains the value that drives the derived lists in academic advisement. Each school type may belong to an advisement school type. On the School Data page, a school may be identified as a two- or four-year institution.

See Setting Up School Types.

See Defining External Organizations.

Requirement Designation

Select any requirement designation that is a special requirement within this course sequence number.

Typically, this designation is attached to a course and affects one section of that course. A requirement designation may reflect additional work that a student needs to complete in addition to the regular course work; or the designation may be an identifier used to track what sort of requirement this course fulfills. For example, the requirement designation might indicate that the course fulfills the physical education requirement or the architecture design credit. Depending on the setup data in the Requirement Designation table, a separate course grade may or may not be required for designation credit to be earned. If a separate requirement designation grade is required, then you must enter an RD Grade (requirement designation grade) of Satisfied on the Grade Roster 2 page or on the Student Enrollment 4 page for the degree audit to include the course. If a separate requirement designation grade is not required, then the student must earn a passing grade in the course for designation credit to be granted. (You define the minimum grade needed.) If a requirement designation is required, then an RD Grade of Unsatisfied causes the course to be rejected.

If a separate requirement designation grade is required but the course is still in progress, then the degree audit records the requirement designation as satisfied.

See Defining Requirement Designations.

Valid Begin and Valid End

Enter the date range that specifies when the student must take this course to satisfy the requisite. Leave these fields blank to specify that when the course is or was taken does not matter. In comparing the date range, the system uses the start date of the term in which the course is or was taken.

Course Must Be GPA Material

Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement needs to be applied toward the student's career grade point average calculation. (The course cannot be taken on a pass/no pass or audit basis; it must be taken for a grade.) The default is clear.

Important! On the Grading Scheme table, you must select the Include in GPA check box for each individual grade for the Course Must Be GPA Material check box on this page to work.

See Defining Grading Schemes.

Test Credit is Allowed

Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement can be taken via the test credit portion of the student's academic record. (The default is selected.)

Other Credit is Allowed

Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement can be taken via the other credit portion of the student's academic record. Note that internal transfer credit is marked and treated as enrolled credit. (The default is selected.)

Exclude In-Progress Credit

Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement must be fully graded to be considered valid. If this check box is not selected, then a nongraded course, a course with a grade of incomplete, or a course in progress is included in the academic analysis and satisfies all parameters. (The default is clear.)

Example

In this example, the Exclude In-Progress Credit check box is not selected. To fulfill the English composition requirement, a student must have a minimum of 6 units and two courses from ENGLCOMP 100 and ENGLCOMP 200.

If the advisement processes dictate that in-progress coursework can fulfill course unit requirements, GPA requirements, or both, then you should not select the Exclude In-Progress Credit check box. Note that the advisement report indicates whether the English composition requirement is satisfied by in-progress work, thus alerting the student, the advisor, or both that the requirement is not entirely satisfied and will not be satisfied until the course is successfully completed.

To build this requirement, first create an academic course list that references ENGLCOMP 100 and ENGLCOMP 200. On the Course List Detail page, insert one row for each course. On the Course List Parameters page, do not select the Exclude In-Progress Credit check box.

Then create an academic requirement that references the course list. On the Course List Parameters page, enter a Min Units/Course field value of 2 and a Min Grade Points/Unit field value of 6. On the Line Item page, enter a line type of Course Requirement. On the Line Item Detail page, enter a line detail type of CLST and enter the course list.

Now create an academic requirement group that references the academic requirement that you created; or attach the academic requirement to some preexisting academic requirement group. On the Requirement Group Detail page, enter a group line type of Requirement and reference the academic requirement.

When you run a degree audit report, the requirement appears as satisfied (not bolded) on the audit report. The report also provides a note that the courses used to fulfill the requirement are still in progress. (If the courses reported are fully graded, then a note pertaining to in-progress courses is not needed and does not appear in the report.)

Effective Date and Status	Enter an effective date to define when the status that you select is valid. This date reflects the student's requirement term as determined by the requirement group that uses this course list. When the advisement process applies a requirement group to a student, the requirement term begin date of the requirement group academic structure determines which effective-dated course list row is current for the student. For example, if you define a requirement group to the plan level, then the system uses the student's plan requirement term to determine the effective date for the requirement group. (You assign requirement terms in the Student Program/Plan component.) The system then uses this requirement term to evaluate the current effective-dated row for all requirements and course lists that the requirement group uses. For example, suppose that the system applies to a student a requirement group defined at a program level. The requirement group has two effective-dated rows of 01/01/1900 and 01/01/2000. The student's academic program requirement term is fall 1999, so the current effective-dated row for the requirement term of fall 1999 is 01/01/1900. The 01/01/1900 requirement group points to a requirement with effective-dated rows of 01/01/1900 and 01/01/1980. Again, the student's program requirement term is used (because that was the academic structure of the requirement group that uses this requirement), and the current effective-dated row for requirement term fall 1999 is now 01/01/1980. The 01/01/1980 requirement uses a course list with two effective-dated rows of 01/01/1900 and 01/01/1990. Once again the student's program requirement term is used to evaluate the current effective-dated row to be used, which in this case would be 01/01/1990.
Copy	This button appears on this page in Add mode only. You can copy course lists with a usage value of Academic Advisement and Requisite Restriction.(However, requisite restrictions do not appear if you search for course lists to copy; you must enter the requisite course list number directly during the copy process.) You cannot copy course lists with a usage value of Student Individualized Plan. To copy a course list, click the Copy button, enter the number of the course list that you want to copy, and select the appropriate copy mode. Values are: Copy last record: (The default.) Select to copy only the last effective-dated record. None: Converts to Copy last record. Copy all records: Select to copy all effective-dated records. (Use this field value only if the course list to be copied has multiple effective-dated rows.) Then click OK to copy the specified course list. Because the academic course list pages are more complex than their enrollment course list counterparts, you cannot copy enrollment course lists and requisite restriction course lists into course lists with a usage value of Academic Advisement. Course lists with a usage value of Requisite/Restriction can only be copied and saved as Requisite/Restriction course lists. Note. If you use the copy feature to create a new course list, then you cannot assign a course list number to the new list. When you save after clicking the Copy button, the system automatically assigns the next sequential number to the new course list. If you must assign a specific, unused number to the new course list, do not click the Copy button. Instead, create the new course list by reentering all of the field values.
Usage	Select to specify how data in this course list is used. Values are: Academic Advisement: (The default) Select to use the data recorded on this page during the degree audit process. Student Individualized Plan: Select to use the data on the Student Override Exceptions pages for degree audit purposes. Use this value when a specific student or group has special requirements. A course list with a usage value of Student Individualized Plan can only be used by a requirement with a usage value of Student Individualized Plan. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. Do not modify these values in any way. Any modifications to these values will require a substantial programming effort.
Description, Short Description, and Long Description	Enter a description, short description, and long description for the course list that you are establishing. None of these values appears on the audit reports. These fields are used for documentation purposes only.
Academic Institution, Academic Career, Academic Program, Academic Plan, and Academic Sub-Plan	Use these fields to document departmental ownership of the course list. These fields are used for prompting and documentation only; they do not affect auditing analysis.

Fetch	Click this button to retrieve and display the course sequence data, including the related detail parameters for the effective-dated row. When you access this component, the system loads only effective-dated rows, without any detail, to enhance performance for those course lists that have hundreds of course sequence rows.
Course Sequence	Indicates a unique component of the course list. Each sequence represents a course ID or a group of equivalent courses. The system assigns the numbers sequentially but you can change them. Usually, courses in a course list do not have to be in a particular order. However, you must put courses in sequential order when you plan to assign the course list to a requirement line type of Sequential Restriction or Global Sequential Restriction. In those cases, enter the correct course order here so that the advising process requires the student to complete the courses in the course sequence that you specify. For example, students should take French 1, French 2, and French 3 in that order.
Course ID	Enter the Course ID that specifies the course needed to satisfy this course list. (Prompt on this field and enter search criteria to narrow down the selection choices.) If a course ID contains multiple offerings, then any of the offerings attached to that course ID satisfies that course list. In addition, if a student takes two offerings in a course ID, then the audit allows both classes to count toward unit and grade point average (GPA) requirements. The classes are treated as separate courses. This field is unavailable if you select the WildCard Indicator check box.
Include Equivalent Courses	Select to have the system include in its evaluation both the course ID that you specify and all courses that are set up as equivalent to the selected course ID for this course list. If you select this check box, then the following fields become unavailable: Term, Associated Class, and Topic ID. If you select the check box, the advisement engine must search the database for any valid course equivalencies, even if no equivalencies exist for this course ID. Therefore, clear the check box if the course ID has no equivalents. Clear this check box to further narrow your course parameters with the Term, Associated Class, and Topic ID fields. For example, you may specify not only the course ID, but also the term in which the specific course must be taken. See Creating Course Equivalency Groups.
Term	Enter the term in which the student must take the course that you specify in order for the course to be used in this course list. Leave this field blank to return all values.
Associated Class	Enter the associated class number (of the course that you specify) that the student must take in order for the course to be used in this course list. For class associations, indicate a term to prompt off valid values. Leave this field blank to return all values. Note. You cannot enter 9999, because this special associated class number can be associated with any other associated class number and is never an enrollment section. See Defining Class Associations.
Topic ID	Enter the topic ID (of the course that you specify) that the student must take in order for the course to be used in this course list. This field prompts from the topics defined in the course catalog. Leave this field blank to return all values. See Defining Course Catalog Data.
WildCard Indicator	Select to specify that the course is a wildcard course, and use additional variables to specify the course that you want to capture. The rest of the fields discussed in this section are available.
Academic Group	Enter the academic group from the course catalog offering. (Leave this field blank if any academic group is acceptable.)
Academic Institution	Enter the academic institution.
Subject	Enter the subject of the course offering. (Leave this field blank if any subject is acceptable.)
Catalog Nbr (catalog number)	Enter the required portion of the catalog number that is a 10-character field. Use the format NNNNAAAAAA, where the first 4 characters are numeric (leading zeroes are blank-padded) and the last 6 characters are an alphanumeric suffix. For example, a catalog number of 3## indicates that any 300-level course is acceptable, including 301A, because suffixes are ignored when a number wild card is specified unless a suffix value is exclusively indicated. In another example, a catalog number of 3##B would accept only 300-level courses with a suffix of B. In a third example, a catalog number of 321* indicates that 321, 321A, and 321B (but not 321AB) are acceptable. You can use a wild card in any position in the field. When you use wild cards, the system does not check equivalent courses. (This is an efficiency constraint.) Note. The Catalog Nbr field does not support ranges. However, you can establish multiple detail lines. For example, in one detail line, you can use a wild card for 100-level courses. In a second detail line, you can use a wild card for all 200-level courses. Use the pound sign (#) to represent the first 4 numeric values, and use the asterisk () to represent the last 6 alphanumeric characters. If you enter #, then the system right-justifies the value. If you enter , then the system left-justifies the value. For example, 1#* retrieves 1 through 19 plus 1 alphanumeric character.

Course Sequence	Appears by default from the Course List Detail page.
Course Information	Describes the course selected on the Course List Detail page. The system displays course information in course sequence order. If the WildCard Indicator check box is selected, then this field is blank.
Min Units / Course (minimum units/course)	Enter the minimum number of units that this course, or the courses in this list (if a wildcard list), must provide to be considered valid.
Min Grade Points / Unit (minimum grade points/unit)	Enter the minimum number of grade points per unit that this course must be worth to be considered valid. This overrides the minimum grade points per course defined for the requirement in the Line Item Parameters page.
Transfer Level Allowed	Select the type of transfer credit (if any) that is acceptable: Always Allow: (The default) Select to specify that all applicable transfer credit can be used to satisfy the requirement. Four-Year Institution Only: Select to specify that only transfer credit from accredited four-year institutions can be used to satisfy the requirement. Never Allow: Select to specify that transfer credit can never satisfy the requirement. Two-Year Institution Only: Select to specify that only transfer credit from accredited two-year institutions can be used to satisfy the requirement. None: Converts to Always Allow. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. Do not modify these values in any way. Any modifications to these values will require a substantial programming effort. Note. The Advisement School Type field on the School Type Table page contains the value that drives the derived lists in academic advisement. Each school type may belong to an advisement school type. On the School Data page, a school may be identified as a two- or four-year institution. See Setting Up School Types. See Defining External Organizations.
Requirement Designation	Select any requirement designation that is a special requirement within this course sequence number. Typically, this designation is attached to a course and affects one section of that course. A requirement designation may reflect additional work that a student needs to complete in addition to the regular course work; or the designation may be an identifier used to track what sort of requirement this course fulfills. For example, the requirement designation might indicate that the course fulfills the physical education requirement or the architecture design credit. Depending on the setup data in the Requirement Designation table, a separate course grade may or may not be required for designation credit to be earned. If a separate requirement designation grade is required, then you must enter an RD Grade (requirement designation grade) of Satisfied on the Grade Roster 2 page or on the Student Enrollment 4 page for the degree audit to include the course. If a separate requirement designation grade is not required, then the student must earn a passing grade in the course for designation credit to be granted. (You define the minimum grade needed.) If a requirement designation is required, then an RD Grade of Unsatisfied causes the course to be rejected. If a separate requirement designation grade is required but the course is still in progress, then the degree audit records the requirement designation as satisfied. See Defining Requirement Designations.
Valid Begin and Valid End	Enter the date range that specifies when the student must take this course to satisfy the requisite. Leave these fields blank to specify that when the course is or was taken does not matter. In comparing the date range, the system uses the start date of the term in which the course is or was taken.
Course Must Be GPA Material	Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement needs to be applied toward the student's career grade point average calculation. (The course cannot be taken on a pass/no pass or audit basis; it must be taken for a grade.) The default is clear. Important! On the Grading Scheme table, you must select the Include in GPA check box for each individual grade for the Course Must Be GPA Material check box on this page to work. See Defining Grading Schemes.
Test Credit is Allowed	Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement can be taken via the test credit portion of the student's academic record. (The default is selected.)
Other Credit is Allowed	Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement can be taken via the other credit portion of the student's academic record. Note that internal transfer credit is marked and treated as enrolled credit. (The default is selected.)
Exclude In-Progress Credit	Select if the course taken to satisfy this requirement must be fully graded to be considered valid. If this check box is not selected, then a nongraded course, a course with a grade of incomplete, or a course in progress is included in the academic analysis and satisfies all parameters. (The default is clear.)