Academic Sessions Explained

audience this guide is written for administrators and registrars who manage academic configuration, enrollment, reporting, and transcript setup in ampeducator it’s especially helpful for anyone responsible for defining how terms, sessions, and intakes are structured — or who needs to fix existing issues with session setup purpose to explain how to correctly structure academic sessions — using term or yearly sessions — and how to use program intakes for flexible course start dates series overview this tutorial is part 1 of the “academic sessions & programs” series part 1 academic sessions explained docid\ elx15 tmqjheoqagbu p3 how to structure terms, years, and intakes part 2 programs explained docid\ myqr9pgwejvk2vq6flhdp configuring programs, building them, and managing enrollment, audits, and program transcripts you can read each part independently, but together they form a complete foundation for setting up your academic structure in ampeducator 🎥 tutorial video part 1 — academic sessions explained watch the video below for a quick walkthrough of how to correctly structure academic sessions and program intakes in ampeducator introduction academic sessions are one of the most important — and most misunderstood — parts of ampeducator they define when learning happens at your institution by term , semester , or academic year every course, grade, and attendance record connects to a specific academic session, making it the backbone of your school’s academic data when sessions are structured correctly, everything works in sync transcripts stay clean and readable attendance and gpa calculations make sense reporting is consistent across all terms and years but when sessions are used incorrectly — for example, by creating a new session for every short course — things quickly become complicated students end up with multiple small transcript entries reports become fragmented managing enrollment and progress across programs becomes a headache this guide will walk you through how to structure your sessions properly, step by step you’ll learn when to create new sessions, how to name and organize them, and how to use program intakes to handle frequent start dates without creating endless sessions by the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand the role academic sessions play in ampeducator’s overall structure why sessions should represent terms or years , not course lengths how to use program intakes for rolling or flexible starts how sessions link to programs for accurate transcripts and analytics if you're already using 4 week or short sessions, this guide will help you transition to a simpler structure that's easier to maintain and report on the right way to think about sessions before you start creating or editing sessions, it’s important to understand what they actually represent in ampeducator a session isn’t just a date range or a label — it’s the time container that holds all the academic activity for a specific period think of ampeducator’s structure as a hierarchy program → session → courses → students programs define what a student is enrolled in — the overall curriculum, outcomes, and completion requirements sessions define when those programs or courses take place — for example, “fall 2025” or “2025 academic year ” courses are the individual classes offered during that session students enroll into the courses within a session as part of their program this structure keeps data connected and consistent reports, transcripts, and attendance all understand how each piece fits together common misconception many schools set up a new session every time a short course starts — for example, every 4 or 6 weeks that might seem logical at first, but it leads to dozens of small, isolated sessions complex reporting fragmented transcripts instead, sessions should represent a full term or year , and you can manage multiple program intakes inside a single session if your school has frequent course starts this keeps your structure simple but still flexible example sessions done wrong vs sessions done right even though both of the setups below technically “work” in ampeducator, only one of them keeps your reporting, transcripts, and workflows clean and efficient ❌ example 1 — too many 4 week sessions in this setup, each 4 week course has been created as its own session while it might seem logical to match each course’s duration, this creates unnecessary complexity dozens of sessions to manage each year fragmented transcripts (one per short session) complicated enrollment and reporting over time, this structure becomes very difficult to maintain — especially when you need to generate consistent academic or attendance reports ✅ example 2 — one yearly session with program intakes in this version, the entire academic year (2026) is set up as one session within that session, there are 13 program intakes , allowing students to start every four weeks without needing separate sessions this method keeps data unified one session for all courses and reporting cleaner, single transcripts easier enrollment and academic tracking each intake represents a new group of students, but everything still rolls up into the same academic year best practices for session setup a well planned session structure keeps your transcripts, reports, and enrollments simple and accurate the key is to design your sessions around your academic calendar and reporting needs , not around course length use term or yearly sessions sessions should represent your academic calendar , not your course lengths most schools create either one yearly session (january–december), or three or four term sessions (e g , winter, spring, summer, fall) short 4 week sessions may seem flexible, but they quickly create clutter and make transcripts, reports, and enrollments harder to manage use program intakes for flexible starts if your school runs new courses or student starts every few weeks, don’t create a new session for each one instead, use program intakes within a single session to represent each start date or cohort this gives you all the flexibility of frequent enrollment without breaking the academic structure you can have one clean yearly session — for example, “2026 academic year” — and add multiple intakes like “2026 intake 1,” “2026 intake 2,” and so on keep session names simple and consistent clear naming makes reporting and navigation much easier use straightforward labels like 2025 term 1 fall 2025 2026 academic year avoid internal codes or complex names remember, your staff and reports will use these names often, so consistency matters more than creativity create a new session each year or term every new academic period should have its own session — don’t extend an old one this keeps your data clearly separated by term or year, and it makes reporting easier when you need to compare performance across years academic sessions academic sessions are created and stored under institution config → academic sessions ampeducator supports multiple ways to structure sessions, depending on how your institution’s academic calendar is organized the example below illustrates several ways you can organize sessions — by term, calendar year, or school year here’s what this example shows "2026" yearly session covers january 1 to december 31 ideal for schools that operate on a calendar year basis or offer continuous enrollment "winter, spring, summer, fall 2025" term based sessions divide the year into several fixed academic terms perfect for institutions that issue grades or transcripts at the end of each term "2024–2025" school year session runs from september through august, overlapping two calendar years common for vocational programs that follow a september start no matter which approach your school uses, the setup steps in ampeducator are the same — only the dates differ the key is choosing the structure that best matches how your institution reports academic progress and awards credentials addding a new academic session to create a new academic session, click add academic session a modal will open where you can enter the basic details for your new session in this window, fill in session name — the title for your academic period (for example, “2026 academic year” or “winter 2026” ) session start / session end — the start and end dates for the session these should match your academic calendar — for example, jan 1, 2026 – dec 31, 2026 for a full year session current session — check this box only if you want this to become the active session immediately you can always set or change your default session later from the list view once the information is entered, click add to create the new session customizing the session profile once you’ve created an academic session, you can edit its settings through the session profile this is where you’ll customize how the session functions — including academic policies, attendance rules, fees, intakes, holidays, and the session calendar to open the profile, go to institution config → academic sessions , then click the edit (✏️) icon next to the session you want to update at the top right of the page, you’ll see several tabs, each focusing on a different area of configuration details — core settings like session dates, academic and attendance rules fees — add or adjust fees that apply to this specific session program intakes — organize student intake groups within the session holidays — add breaks or non instructional days that apply to all courses calendar — view and share the session’s key dates through an ical link each tab works together to define how ampeducator tracks academic progress, registration, and reporting for that period session details the details tab defines the core structure and behavior of your academic session here, you’ll configure key information such as session dates , registration periods , academic thresholds , and attendance settings these settings directly affect reports, transcripts, and how student performance is evaluated current session this field shows whether the session is currently active in your system it can’t be changed from within the profile — it’s controlled from the main academic sessions list to make a session current, return to that list and click the ✔️ checkmark beside the session you want to activate status the status indicates whether a session is active or completed keep a session marked as active while courses are ongoing when grades and attendance have been finalized, change it to completed — this locks the data for reporting and prevents accidental edits session name the session name appears throughout ampeducator in menus, reports, and student records use clear and consistent naming conventions that reflect your academic structure for example, 2026 academic year , fall 2026 , or 2024–2025 school year session start and end dates these dates define the academic period for your session they should align with your academic calendar — not individual course dates for example, a term based school might have sessions like winter 2026 (jan–mar) , while an annual setup might use jan 1–dec 31, 2026 registration start and end dates the registration period controls when students can be added to courses within this session you can set these dates to match your term schedule or keep them open for the full session if your institution has multiple program intakes within the same session, make sure your registration end date extends past the last intake’s start date this ensures that all new students — even those beginning later in the year — can be enrolled without running into registration restrictions academic thresholds the academic threshold determines how student performance is evaluated these values control what qualifies as “good standing,” “marginal,” or “review” status by default, ampeducator uses your institution’s settings from academic , but you can replace them here for this specific session for example if the academic threshold is 70% , students above that are in good standing if the marginal value is 60% , students between 60–69% are marginal, and those below 60% may be placed under review or probation this flexibility allows you to apply custom academic rules to certain sessions without changing your global settings attendance settings attendance settings control how student attendance is tracked and evaluated during the session by default, these values come from attendance , but you can customize them by selecting override defaults once you check override defaults , the following fields can be edited marginal attendance % — the attendance percentage considered marginal review attendance % — the attendance percentage considered review marginal attend courses — the number of courses a student can have with marginal attendance before their overall attendance status changes to review review attend courses — the number of courses a student can have with review level attendance before their overall attendance status changes to review attendance average calc — defines how student attendance is averaged across courses in the session options include weighted equally by course – each course contributes equally to the attendance average weighted by course credits – courses are weighted according to their assigned credit value weighted by course hours – attendance is calculated based on the total scheduled course hours for each course this option uses the hours planned in the course setup, rather than the hours actually delivered, to create a consistent weighting across sessions weighted by course hours delivered – attendance is calculated based on the total hours actually delivered during the course this provides the most precise reflection when courses vary in their delivered hours due to cancellations, holidays, or schedule adjustments 💡 tip if your attendance policy doesn’t change from term to term, leave these fields at their institutional defaults consistency keeps your attendance summaries and reports clean across sessions distinction group this setting lets you link the session to a distinction group that defines how academic honors are awarded distinction groups are created in academic if no distinction groups have been set up, the dropdown list will be empty 💡 tip linking a distinction group means student achievements, like honours, can automatically appear in reports or transcripts based on their academic performance within this session notes the notes field can be used to record any session specific information or reminders for internal reference these notes are visible only to staff members session fees the fees section lets you associate any tuition, registration, or material costs with a specific academic session if your institution already has fee classes configured under fee classes , those categories (for example, dom for domestic and int for international students) will automatically appear here each fee class listed in this section appears as its own category for example, if you have dom (domestic) and int (international) fee classes configured, each will have its own section where you can add and manage fees specific to that group click the + icon beside a fee class to expand the list and view fees within that category adding a new fee to add a new fee, click new fee in the add registration fee window, complete the following fields description enter a clear name or description for the fee revenue account choose the accounts where this fee’s revenue will be tracked fee class — select the fee classes that this fee applies to (for example, domestic or international ) amount — enter the fee amount for this session taxes — select any applicable accounts from your preconfigured tax list once saved, the new fee appears under the relevant fee class in the list you can edit or delete fees at any time using the icons next to each item program intakes program intakes define when students start their programs within a specific academic session they’re used to organize students into groups (or cohorts) based on their start and expected end dates — for example, winter 2026 intake or 2026 intake 1 instead of creating short sessions to match the length of individual courses, schools can set up longer sessions (such as yearly or term based) and use multiple program intakes to manage frequent start dates this approach keeps reporting, transcripts, and academic tracking much simpler, while still allowing flexibility for rolling or frequent program starts when enrolling students, assigning them to a program intake keeps cohorts organized and makes it easier to filter, report on, or manage groups throughout the program adding a new program intake to create a new intake, click new intake in the add program intake window, complete the following fields intake code enter a short identifier for the intake, such as win2026 or 2026 01 intake name enter the display name of the intake, for example, winter 2026 or 2026 intake 1 intake date choose the start date for students in this intake expected end date (optional) enter the anticipated program completion date for this group leave blank if not required once saved, the new intake will appear in the list for the session you can edit or delete intakes at any time using the icons next to each record holidays the holidays tab is where you add non instructional days or breaks that apply to all courses within the academic session adding holidays ensures that course schedules don’t conflict with days when classes shouldn’t run when you later add courses to the session, ampeducator converts their schedules into attendance events if holidays have already been set up, those days will automatically be skipped — meaning no attendance events will be created on holiday dates this helps keep attendance accurate and saves time adjusting schedules later add a new holiday to add a new holiday, click new holiday the add holiday window will appear, where you can complete the following fields holiday — enter the name of the holiday, such as new year’s day or spring break start date — select the date the holiday begins end (optional) — if the holiday spans multiple days, select an end date; otherwise, leave this blank for single day holidays click add holiday when finished the new holiday will appear in the list and automatically apply to all courses, instructors, and programs in this session 💡 tip add holidays before creating or adding courses to a session this ensures attendance schedules automatically skip the holiday dates when they’re generated calendar the calendar tab provides a direct link to the session’s calendar feed, which includes all scheduled course events and holidays for that academic session this link can be used with any external calendar application that supports the icalendar ( ics) format — such as google calendar, outlook, or apple calendar the calendar url displayed in this section is unique to the selected academic session you can copy the link and add it to your preferred calendar application to view session events alongside your other institutional or personal calendars this is particularly helpful for staff or administrators who want to track course activity and holidays without needing to log in to ampeducator if any changes are made to courses, holidays, or other scheduled events, those updates will automatically sync to the external calendar the next time it refreshes next steps programs with your academic sessions set up, the next step is to review and properly configure your programs programs define the overall structure of study — how courses, grades, and attendance are grouped for each student — and work alongside academic sessions and intakes to organize enrollment and reporting in part 2, we’ll go through how to set up and manage programs so they align smoothly with your session structure and make transcripts, progress tracking, and enrollment much simpler