Course Details

Once you've created and added courses, you can click on any course name to open it and access a variety of customization options. In addition to the pre-defined settings in Course Templates, you'll find configurable options across several tabs. Each tab contains menu sections that you can click on or scroll through. Instructions at the top of each section provide helpful guidance for configuration. This section of the guide will walk you through all the available options in the Course Details tab.

In the Details section of the course, certain fields like the Location, Academic Session, and Course Code are fixed from the initial course setup. You can then customize additional details, such as the Course name, description, hours, credits, capacity, passing mark, attendance thresholds, and more.

In the Status section, you can mark the course as 'Complete' when it's finished. This action finalizes the course, updates student marks, grants credits, and ensures the course appears on the student’s transcript.

Additionally, under the More Actions tab, you can 'Lock' the course. This option is useful for roles like the registrar when auditing the course, as it prevents any changes while reviewing and finalizing course details before completion.

In the Instructors section, you can add new instructors to a course. When adding an instructor, you’ll need to specify the level of access you want to grant them. The New Instructor pop-up includes an explanation of each access level and what it allows the instructor to do. You can add multiple instructors, each with different access levels as needed.

In the Schedule section of the Course Details, you can set up a weekly schedule by adding dates, times, attendance hours, and resources for the course. You can also input identifiers, which are unique labels or tags used to track or categorize different aspects of the course, such as session numbers or department codes, often used for reporting. Once the schedule is created, you can generate schedules for students and staff. Additionally, the schedule can serve as a template for adding attendance events for the course.

Note: In order to use the schedule for taking attendance, you must first add it to Attendance Events (discussed below). The schedule itself simply creates a timetable for the course within the academic session.

You can customize resources for your courses by going to Institution Config / Resources / Add New Resource. Resources can include things like materials, equipment, or facilities needed for your courses. Customizing and adding resources helps ensure that all necessary items are properly tracked and assigned to the right courses, streamlining your course management process.

When creating or editing a course, you can manage fees in the Fees section. Fees set here will be applied to enrolled Students based on their fee class. You can create different fee classes for domestic and international Students, and the correct fee class will be assigned automatically based on whether a Student is marked as an International Student in their profile.

To add a fee, click New Course Fee, then select the Fee Class, Revenue Account, Description, Amount, and select any applicable taxes. You can add multiple fee items within each fee class, with default accounts available for Tuition, Registration Fees, Materials, and Other, ensuring all course-related fees are properly structured.

You can set prerequisites for your courses to prevent Students from enrolling if they have not completed the required prerequisite course. To add a prerequisite, click New Prerequisite, then select a course from the list of Course Templates—only courses listed as templates will be available.

Additionally, Enforce Prerequisites must be enabled in Institution Account / Courses / Defaults for prerequisites to be enforced during enrollment.

The Grading Schema in ampEducator allows you to define how different components of a course contribute to a student’s final grade.

When entering the Grading Schema, you will encounter 5 Grade Link Types: Assignment, Attendance, Evaluation, Test, and External LTI Tool. Each type corresponds to different fields that you'll need to fill out. The specific fields that appear will depend on the Grade Link Type you choose. For more detailed information on setting up and using these link types, refer to the LMS section of the guide.

Each grade type can be assigned a specific weight, and you can configure them based on your grading requirements. The schema can be customized to match your institution’s grading policies, ensuring that each grade component is accurately reflected in the final course grade. Once set up, the grading schema will automatically calculate and assign grades based on the criteria you've defined.

Note: Be sure that the total of all the grade components adds up to 100% to ensure accurate grade calculations.

Grade Groups in ampEducator allow instructors to organize their grade items into categories, making it easier to manage and track student performance. This feature is especially useful for courses that have multiple types of assessments, such as tests, assignments, and evaluations. Grade Groups help you organize these items into logical categories, set weighted values, and track the overall performance of students within each group.

To create a Grade Group, go to Course / Grading Schema / More Actions / New Course Grade Group. Here, you can add a name for each group (e.g., Assignments) and assign a weight that reflects its value in the overall course grade.

Once a Grade Group is created, you can add individual Grade Items (e.g., specific tests or assignments) to the group. Each grade item can be given a weight that contributes to the total group weight. The weight of all grade items within a group must total the group’s overall weight, ensuring the total percentages align.

You also have the option to configure the Take Best feature within a group. This feature allows you to specify that only the best scores (e.g., top 4 out of 5) will be counted towards the final grade for that group.

Once set up, grade groups are displayed in the Gradebook, showing both individual grades and group totals.

In the Grading Scale section, configure the relationship between letter grades, percentages, and grade point averages (GPA) for the course. You can disable any letter grade you don’t use for the course. Each letter grade represents a range between the mark assigned and the letter above it. For example, if A = 85% (3.7 GPA) and A+ = 90% (4.0 GPA), any mark between 85-89% would be assigned an A (3.7 GPA). Once updated, recalculate the course totals to apply the changes to existing Student grades.

You can further customize the grade range and how grades are rounded in the next section, 'Custom Grading Scales.'

In the 'Custom Scales' section, you can create your own grading scales. You have the flexibility to choose whether you want grades to round to the closest value, round up, or round down.

The Average Grade Distribution provides a visual representation of how students' grades are spread across different ranges in your course. This chart helps you quickly assess the overall performance of your class by showing the percentage of students falling into each grade bracket. It includes key metrics like the average grade, median, and standard deviation, offering valuable insights into the overall performance, variability, and trends within the course. This can help you identify areas where students may need additional support or where the class is excelling.

The Attendance Events section allows you to manage and track attendance for your course. If you’ve already set up a course schedule, you can easily add the attendance events by using the More Actions menu. If you haven’t set up a schedule or need to manually input attendance events, simply click the New Events button to add them.

This section is crucial for recording student attendance, as events must be created in order to take attendance for the course.