As of July 12, 2021, this "Learn Veracross" site has been deprecated. It will remain live through December 2022, but will no longer be updated. All knowledge content has moved to the new Veracross Community. Please update your bookmarks.
Overview
Courses are used to identify the curriculum offered by a school. Though classes within a course may be offered multiple times per year and may even be taught by different teachers, the course itself represents the set of academic material being taught in each of the individual classes. Courses and classes should not be confused. Courses identify the curriculum; classes hold section-specific information. Many settings made at the course level filter down into the class.
Course Type
The Course Type identifies the context of the course as well as the course’s associated detail screen. For example, a course with the course type of Academic contains tabs that display grading method information. A course with the Athletic Program course type will have a much simpler detail screen, containing only a few tabs without any grading information. There are nine course types in total: Homeroom, Advisory, Academic, Non-Academic, Athletic Program, Other Program, Extended-Care, Summer, and Dorm. Ask your Veracross Account Manager if there are questions about selecting the appropriate course type for any particular course. Below are descriptions of each course type.
Homeroom
The Homeroom course type should be used only for courses where associated classes will be homeroom classes. Setting the Homeroom course type on a course facilitates homeroom schedule and automatically populates the list of homeroom classes on student and class detail screens. Learn more about Homeroom scheduling.
Advisory
The Advisory course type should be applied when teachers of the associated classes should be listed as advisors to students in the classes. The Advisory course type should not be confused with the Homeroom course type, as there is no scheduling functionality tied to Advisory courses.
Academic
Setting the Academic course type triggers a course detail screen with tabs pertaining to grading configuration. The majority of a school’s courses will fall under this course type.
Non-Academic
The Non-Academic course type should be applied to courses that meet during the school day but are not considered part of the core academic curriculum. Courses in the Non-Academic course type can range from graded curricular material (i.e. band, chorus, art) to more functional areas (i.e. lunch, morning attendance).
Athletic Program
The Athletic Program course type is used to track sports courses. Applying the Athletic Program course type classifies all associated classes as “teams” rather than classes. Configuration for sports and teams should be handled largely through the Athletic Program module. Learn more about Athletic Program configuration.
Other Program
The Other Program course type is used to track extracurricular programs. The detail screen for an Other Program course is very similar to an Athletic Program course in that there are only a few tabs for configuration. Learn more about Other Programs configuration.
Summer
Handled just like Other Program courses, the Summer course type is used to track extracurricular programs. The key difference between Other Program courses and Summer courses is that Summer courses are designed to meet between academic school years, whereas the Other Program courses are designed to meet during the academic school year.
Extended Care
The Extended-Care course type is used to track after school programs. While similar to Other Programs, classes associated with the Extended Care courses are geared more toward daycare rather than extracurricular learning.
Dorm
The Dorm course type is used only for schools with boarding programs. Setting a course to the Dorm course type will make the teacher of associated classes a dorm head, and the students in the class are often in the same dorm building.
Grading Related Settings
Include in GPA
If a course should be included in GPA calculations, the “Include in GPA” flag must be checked on the course detail screen. This flag can be checked regardless of course type.
AP/Honors
If a course offered by the school is an AP or Honors course, the AP or Honors course classification flag must be set on the course record. These flags can be found on the Classifications tab on the course detail screen of an Academic or Non-Academic course. If AP or Honors classes receive GPA bumps, it will be necessary to set the Default Grade Conversion scale on the Other tab of the course. The Default Conversion Scale triggers the system to include the appropriate bumps in the GPA.
Qualitative Grades
Qualitative grading rubric criteria are associated with classes at the course level, and can be added to each course via the Qualitative Grading tab. Depending on the school’s configuration, the Qualitative Grading tab will have either an input grid or a checkbox list.
Document Related Settings
Include on Report Card
If the classes within a course should be included on report card documents, be sure that the “Include on Report Card” flag is checked on the course.
Include on Transcript
If a course should be included on transcript documents, be sure that the “Include on Transcript” flag is checked on the course.
Scheduler Related Settings
Available for Request
If a course should be made available for course requests, be sure the “Available for Request” flag is checked on a course. Learn more about Course Requests.
Include in Scheduler
If a course should be included in the Schedule Builder, be sure the “Include in Scheduler” flag is checked on a course.
Course Classifications
Course Classifications work like tags to enable courses to be filtered in different areas of the system. With Course Requests, students can choose to view Courses by Classification when browsing the list of available courses from the Student portal. For example, schools may find it helpful to allow students to filter the list of available courses by AP, Honors, Core or Elective tags. Classifications could also be added for each grade level your school offers so students can opt to only view courses that apply to their grade level. Current course classification options are listed in the “Course Classifications” query on the System homepage. Course classifications can also be used to create custom GPAs that only include courses of a particular classification. Learn more aboutconfiguring a GPA using course classifications.
Schools can customize the classifications list to best fit how they categorize their list of courses. To add a Course Classification, use the green ‘+’ next to the Course Classifications query on the System homepage.
Note: If your school uses the Veracross Scheduler, be sure to indicate a Scheduling Sort Key when adding classifications. The Scheduling Sort Key indicates the order in which each classification should be scheduled. Classifications will be scheduled in numeric order, beginning with 1. If a classification should not be included in the scheduling process, set the Scheduling Sort Key to 0.
Once classifications have been added, courses can be tagged with new classifications from the Classifications tab on each course. Courses can have multiple classifications if necessary.
Course Relationships
Course Relationships are used to associate two courses together by specifying a course to course relationship. For example, course relationships can be used to relate prerequisites with their subsequent classes or labs with their main classes.
To link two courses together with a course relationship, open the Related Courses tab for the two courses you would like to pair together. On the first course, search for the other course and specify the Relationship between the two. After the first relationship is entered, open the second course, search for the first course and specify the reciprocal relationship to that course.