Shared Courses in ctcLink
Purpose: Institutions or programs interested in system shared courses in ctcLink can refer to this document for functional setup and business process considerations.
Audience: Colleges/programs interested in sharing courses.
Supplemental Information for Shared Courses
- Shared Course: A method of coding equivalent classes in ctcLink to allow students from multiple institutions to be taught by one instructor. Students will enroll in the shared class at their institution, although another institution may employ the instructor.
- Enrolling College: Institution that schedules/offers a shared class but does not employ the instructor.
- Teaching College (Instructing College): Institution where the instructor is employed. The Teaching College's shared class may also have enrolled students.
- FTEs are generated at the college the student is enrolled at, regardless if it is a Teaching College or Enrolling College.
- Class Section: An offering of a course (ex. ENGL& 101) within a specified term. A course can have multiple Class Sections within a term. For the purposes of shared courses, shared classes must use the exact same Class Section value. The Class Section value will be used to identify shared classes across institutions in ctcLink queries and DataLink.
- Course Attributes will be to used to designate Shared Courses on specific class sections:
- A shared class section must be assigned a Teaching or Enrolling attribute.
- Shared class sections must have the same applicable Program attribute.
- Refer to the SBCTC Student and Course Coding Manual to see which attributes should be used.
Students Benefit from Shared Courses
- Students can continue to enroll at their home institution with access to additional enrollment options.
- Students will not need to apply to multiple institutions.
- Students will not need to request and send transcripts across multiple institutions, as the enrollment will remain with their home institution.
- Students will not need to wait for transcript evaluation processes at the teaching college to enroll, nor the home college to receive credit.
- Student Advisement Reports will update as they enroll in shared classes.
- Students will be more familiar with their home college’s communication procedures and contact resources.
- Student Financial Aid awards will not be delayed by administrative coordination that would have otherwise been needed across enrolling and teaching colleges.
Business Process and Policy Considerations
Prior to implementing Shared Courses in ctcLink, colleges and/or programs should consider their business processes, policies, and procedures. The following is a list of some example considerations, though staff should define a complete list of requirements that suit your needs prior to implementing shared courses in ctcLink.
- Establishing an agreement/Memorandum of Understanding
- Approval from Deans (or equivalent) to share courses.
- Faculty contracts and payroll.
- Course/class fees.
- Billing and invoicing between colleges.
- Program coordinator(s) may be needed to monitor/track enrollments.
- Defining equivalent Enrollment and Waitlist capacities across colleges.
- Establishing grading policies and grading crosswalks across institutions (i.e. 2.0 Decimal Grade is equivalent to a “C” letter grade).
- Establishing a procedure for grade appeals and incomplete grading.
- Establishing a student withdrawal/drop procedure.
- Establishing attendance policies (collecting, tracking, etc).
- Establishing session dates.
- Establishing equivalent Enrollment Requirements.
- Establishing equivalent Course Subjects and Numbers for courses not part of the common course numbering.
- Establishing parallel course descriptions.
- Establishing what to enter in class notes.
- When establishing common class section numbers, contact the shared program coordinator (if applicable).
- Establishing a process to ensure shared classes have the same amount of credits.
- Establishing student notification procedures (each individual college would need to send their own communications if using Message Center and/or 3Cs Communications).
- College website information regarding Shared Courses.
Instructor/Advisor Table Setup
The instructor must be added to the Instructor/Advisor table for teaching and enrolling colleges that will share the course. Adding an Instructor to the Instructor/Advisor Table.
Class Setup
- Class Setup - Maintain Schedule of Classes.
- Session field – If colleges have different term dates, class sections for the Enrolling College should use the Dynamic Session. The Start/End dates can equal the start /end dates of the teaching college. Students may receive final grades for shared courses at a different time than their other classes.
- Class start /end date fields – Verify the class Start/End dates for each sections of the shared course.
- Class Section field – Shared Course Programs will coordinate with each other and enter the same Section value for the teaching and enrolling sections at each institution for the shared course. The Class Section field will be used to link these classes together in queries/DataLink.
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Course Attributes - Shared courses require the use of two globally defined attributes:
- Refer to the SBCTC Student and Course Coding manual to see which attributes should be used.
- One to designate that this is a system shared course and the role of the college (Teaching or Enrolling).
- If the college is both teaching and enrolling, only designate the class with a teaching attribute.
- If the college is enrolling only, only designate the class with an enrolling attribute.
- The second attribute will designate the program under which the course is being shared. Refer to the SBCTC Student and Course Coding manual to see which attributes should be used.
- One to designate that this is a system shared course and the role of the college (Teaching or Enrolling).
- Refer to the SBCTC Student and Course Coding manual to see which attributes should be used.
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Instructors For Meeting Pattern - Grading and Faculty Workload (FWL):
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Class Grading:
- The enrolling college has the option to allow the teaching college instructor to enter final grades on the Grade Roster.
- To grant access, the enrolling college will add the teaching college instructor and select a Grade Roster Access value of “Approved” and an Assign Type of “Unassigned” to ensure FWL calculations are not processed.
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Faculty Workload:
- The teaching college will add the instructor to their college’s class sections and calculate FWL as per their standard processes.
- The enrolling college will select an Assign Type of “Unassigned” to ensure FWL calculations are not processed.
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Class Grading:
- Enrollment and Waitlist capacities fields – Enter Enrollment and Waitlist capacities as agreed upon by the program. These capacities can be monitored via query.
Faculty Center Grading
Faculty Center Grading - Faculty will enter grades for each institution with a section in the shared course. Faculty members will need to know the Class Section numbers.
Student Fees and Invoicing
Shared Course programs will determine the procedures for fees, invoicing, and payment/refund processes using current ctcLink functionality within Washington/federal legislative guidelines. As you make these decisions, consider that students will be enrolling at their home institution, and therefore any initial student fees will be charged by the enrolling college(s).
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Student Financials
- If a college wishes to charge a fee based on the course/class, the following linked QRGs will be beneficial to review. If the desire is to manually post a fee, consider reviewing QRGs associated with charging accounts. For any questions or concerns on charging additional fees or which option may be best for your institution, please submit a ticket to work with the State Board Student Financials team.
- If you will be charging students non-tuition fees, consider whether student Financial Aid awards will cover these. Consult with your Financial Aid Director first!
- If a college wishes to charge a fee based on the course/class, the following linked QRGs will be beneficial to review. If the desire is to manually post a fee, consider reviewing QRGs associated with charging accounts. For any questions or concerns on charging additional fees or which option may be best for your institution, please submit a ticket to work with the State Board Student Financials team.
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Finance
- When the college knows the amount to invoice the other college(s) for instructor-related costs, this process can take place in the ctcLink Finance Pillar. However, first confirm there is an active customer. If there is no active customer, please submit a Service Desk ticket. Once an active customer has been located or created, the college should Create a Standard bill in the ctcLink Finance Pillar. See QRG: Create a Standard Bill for additional information. After Single Action has successfully completed, please confirm with your AR specialist that your invoice has been posted to the customer account.
- Additional Resources:
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Financial Aid
- Students will remain at their home institution when enrolling in ctcLink shared courses. Colleges follow standard processes to determine eligibility and award funds. Consult your FA office for questions.
- The Canvas Integration service reads class and roster information from ctcLink and provisions your college Canvas system. See the Canvas Course Sharing guide for details on how shared courses are managed and integrated to Canvas.
- In order for data to be returned in queries, the following must be true:
- The SSHR Course Attribute must be added to all applicable shared classes.
- The applicable Shared Course Program attribute must be on all applicable shared classes for that program.
- The applicable shared classes must have the exact same Class Section number.
- QCS_CM_SHARED_COURSES_CLASSES
- QCS_SR_SHARED_COURSES_ENROLLED
If your college needs to update the setup for a current or upcoming class that students have already enrolled in, follow the below recommendations. Always test changes in PCD first and remember NOT to change data for historical terms.
- Forgot to apply a Course Attribute or added the wrong Course Attribute?
- Navigate to Maintain Schedule of Classes and add or adjust the Course Attribute as needed, and that’s it!
- Entered the wrong Class Section number?
- No worries, navigate to Maintain Schedule of Classes and add or adjust the Class sections for the shared class section as needed, and that’s it!
- Entered the wrong class to/from dates or selected the wrong session type?
- Colleges will need to drop and re-enroll students in the new or corrected section, which could have impacts on census date, last date to drop, etc. If colleges need assistance, please submit a support ticket.
- Need to adjust enrollment/waitlist capacities?
- Navigate to Maintain Schedule of Classes and adjust the enrollment/waitlist capacities as needed, and that’s it!
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