Overview

Course Approvals tool takes a step away from Terra Dotta’s traditional CER (Credit Equivalency Request) functionality to provide a fully electronic course approval process focused on approving specific courses for a student’s study abroad experience. From the application page in the Applicant Experience, an applicant can select their desired foreign courses to take at a partner institution, indicate the home course equivalents as known, select an approver, and submit an electronic course approval form. Each approver receives an email notification containing a link to view, amend, and confirm a status (i.e. approve or deny) for each respective request. This status update is noted within the software, triggering an email alert to the applicant that the course approval process has been completed.

Discover more about this paperless, streamlined process below.

Important Considerations:

• The Applicant Experience must be enabled on your site in order to use Course Approvals. Clients are encouraged to review these important considerations with their functional office before enabling this feature on their production sites. To enable this feature, navigate to Settings > System Features > Interface Settings. Check the "enable" box next to Modern Applicant User Experience. Click "Update" to preserve your changes.
• For clients with Terra Dotta's Study Abroad license, it is possible to use Course Approvals through the actual course approval request process when a decision is made by an approver. To maximize the benefits of Course Approvals with Nominations and the TD Network, clients will need the Terra Dotta Agreements Management license.
• The Course Approvals tab does appear in the same interface as some features of the Admin Console. Learn more about the Admin Console.
• Course Approvals is a completely separate system from the classic CER functionality. Data from the CER functionality does not transfer to Course Approvals.
• Reporting options are not currently available for use with Course Approvals.
• The Equivalent Foreign Course Data Import option can only be used for equivalencies as both major and department are required. If there is no home course equivalent, then a foreign course must be manually entered.
• Currently once a decision is made on a course approval request, that decision cannot be changed.

This article covers the following topics related to Course Approvals:

• Understanding Course Approvals
• Settings & Permissions
• Adding Colleges
• Adding Department
• Adding Majors
• Adding Staff
• Adding Home Courses
• Adding Foreign Courses
• Adding Pre-Approved Courses
• Department Management: Settings
• Department Management: Course Approval Rules
• Creating & Submitting a Course Approval Request
• Approving a Course Approval Request
• Study Plans
• Notification Email Templates
• Home Course Search
• Equivalent Foreign Course Data Import Template
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Video Instruction

 

Understanding Course Approvals

Course Approvals is a fully electronic course approval process focused on approving specific courses for a student’s study abroad experience. The Staff > Department Management menu is designed to be a single interface from which an admin can create and manage the connection among a College, Department, Majors, Staff, and Home Courses. The instructions provided in this Knowledgebase (KB) article walk an admin user through manual configuration steps. However, it is possible throughout the Department Management interface to import data. An upload cloud icon will display when such an action via the Maintenance > Data Import/Export permission is possible.

Clients with the Terra Dotta Agreements Management license can maximize the benefits of Course Approvals by choosing to connect to the TD Network. The TD Network is a cohort of institutions who choose to share agreement proposals and nominations with one another.

Theory and Organization Hierarchy

Course Approvals uses a tiered system to organize approvers and courses. It also uses applicant parameter mappings to connect applicants to the right place in your departmental management. 

The chart below demonstrates these connections, noting:

• An applicant applies to a program, which bring in their applicant profile information from an institution's SIS or via manual entry.
• There are four mapping points: colleges, departments, majors, and degree level.
• The top level is colleges, an umbrella category under which you have departments, staff member approvers, and home courses.
• The mid-level is departments, which is the main body of the Course Approvals system. It is an umbrella category for majors, staff member approvers (and their roles), and home courses.
• Outside of departments, you can add in foreign courses. These are the classes that your students take at other institutions. They are added at the program level, and these foreign courses can be connected to equivalent home courses.
• After your office has set up it's organizational system using the connections noted above, you can start to develop course approval and study plan rules which determine to whom the approvals will be sent based on the conditional logic you define.

 

Settings & Permissions

In order to take advantage of the Course Approvals tool, specific settings and permissions are required.

The "Department Management" section of the main "Staff" menu will not appear until these steps have been taken:

• An admin user must have the staff permission of "Department Management Administrators" granted either on the group or user level.

To access the Applicants > Course Approval Requests menu, an admin needs the following permissions:

• Course Approval Module: Course Approval (View): View course approval and study plans requests
• Course Approval Module: Course Approval (Admin): Manage course approval and study play requests

It is possible to remove "Course Approval Requests" from the "Applicants" menu by removing access to these permissions.

Note that the ability to modify text interface for the Staff > Department Management and Applicant > Course Approval Requests menus is not available.

 

Adding Colleges

To create a listing of institutional colleges, follow these steps:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Colleges.

2) Click the "+" icon in the lower right of the page. This action will generate a new line item. 

3) Enter a college name and a college code. For example: College of Science. College Code 123.

4) Click the check mark to apply your changes. 

5) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. Your entry will now display in the "Colleges" tab. To add additional colleges, repeat steps 1-5.

To make an edit, click the check mark next to the applicable line item entry and make your changes. Afterwards, it is necessary to click the check mark again to preserve your changes prior to clicking on the disk icon. Failing to take these two actions will mean that your work will not be saved once you navigate away from your Department Management menu.

 

It is possible to import your list of colleges by clicking on the "Import Colleges" icon. A modal appears from which you can download the required template. After populating the template with data for "College Name" and "College Lookup Code", the saved file can up be uploaded.

Important Note: For clients with the Agreements Management license, a third additional "TD Network" column will appear throughout the Department Management interface. By checking the box for "TD Network" in a line item entry for a college, you are designating that college as one which you want to share with the TD Network. The column for "TD Network" will not appear for clients with only the Terra Dotta Study Abroad license.

 

Adding Departments

To create a listing of institutional departments, follow these steps:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Departments.

2) Click the "+" icon in the lower right of the page. This action will generate a new line item. 

3) Enter a department name, college name, and department code. For example:

• Department Name: Biology
• College: College of Science
• Department Code: 333

4) Click the check mark to apply your changes. 

5) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. Your entry will now display in the "Departments" tab. To add additional departments, repeat steps 1-5.

To make an edit, click the check mark next to the applicable line item entry and make your changes. Afterwards, it is necessary to click the check mark again to preserve your changes prior to clicking on the disk icon. Failing to take these two actions will mean that your work will not be saved once you navigate away from your Department Management menu.

It is possible to import your list of departments by clicking on the "Import Departments" icon. A modal appears from which you can download the required template. After populating the template with data for "Department Name", "Department Lookup Code", "College Lookup Code", and "Major", the saved file can up be uploaded.

Note that a maximum of ten majors can be uploaded using the import file. 

 

Adding Staff

The "Department Members" section serves as a tool from which to assign a staff member to a distinct department role. After a staff assignment has been made, this information can then be used to create a course approval or study plan rule.

To create a listing of staff within a department, follow these steps:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Departments.

2) Click the "V" icon at the end of the department line item for which you want to add staff. This action expands the display and prompts a "Department Members" section to appear.

3) Click the edit pencil for "Department Members".

4) Select a Member Role. Four roles correspond to the type of course credit that is selected by an applicant during their course approval process. For example: If Applicant Nina selects a course for which she would like Minor Approval, then a staff member with Minor Approver permission would be applicable.

The drop-down menu for member roles is pre-populated with these options: Major Approver, Minor Approver, Department Approver, and General Approver. These are hard-coded choices which are not editable.

Important Note: A fifth role, that of Department Reviewer, is available for use with the Reviewers Management system only. This role should not be selected for use with setting up a reviewer with Course Approvals.

5) Search for a Staff Member. This search does not search a SIS file but instead searches for anyone who is a user in the system as a staff member. After locating and selecting the desired staff member, their name and member role will appear under Department Members. 

6) Click the check mark to apply your changes. 

7) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. A confirmation message of "Departments Updated" will appear at the bottom of your page. To add additional staff members, repeat steps 1-7.

Important Note: It is possible to have more than one person assigned to the same role within a department. For example, you might have three people (i.e. Susie, Ray, and Sal) who each serve as the Department Approver. 

It is not possible to have the same person serve in different member roles within the same department. 

 

It is possible to import your list of staff members by clicking on the "Import Staff Members" icon. A modal appears from which you can download the required template. After populating the template with data for "Department Lookup Code", "Email Address", and "Role", the saved file can up be uploaded.

 

Adding Majors

Majors are used as the criteria which determines how a major approver is assigned to a course approval request. Therefore, it is important to have majors assigned to departments in Course Approvals.

The "Major" field is pulling from the applicant param of "Major" which is configured under the Global Settings > App Params menu.

To Add a Major:

1) Navigate to Global Settings > Applicant Params and make sure that your applicant parameter for "Major" is set up to use one of the acceptable parameter types. See the Managing Applicant Parameters Knowledgebase article for more details on this initial configuration process.

2) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Departments.

3) Click the "V" icon at the end of the department line item for which you want to add a major. This action expands the display and prompts a "Majors" section to appear below "Department Members".

4) Begin typing the desired major into the search field. This action will trigger the related major name to populate (based on your "Major" applicant param value options). For example, if I type "Biology", I will see "Biology" populate as this is a value option for my applicant param of "Majors". Click on the major name to make your selection. The major name will now appear below your search line as an affiliated major for this department. To remove a selection made in error, click on the "X" located to the right of the major name.

5) Click the check mark to apply your changes. 

6) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. A confirmation message of "Departments Updated" will appear at the bottom of your page. To add additional majors, repeat steps 1-6.

 

Adding Home Courses

A home course is that which is offered at an applicant's home institution. As part of Course Approvals, an applicant can choose a home course to serve as an equivalent to the selected foreign course. An administrator can elect to load their Terra Dotta site with pre-approved home course selections via the Maintenance > Data Import/Export utility or manually add each home course.

Important Note: It is possible to import home courses using the "Import Courses" template. After downloading the template file, it must be saved using the ".xlsx" file format.

To manually create a listing of home courses, follow these steps:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Courses.

2) Click the "+" icon in the lower right of the page. This action will generate a new line item. 

3) Enter a course title, course code, department, and credits. For example:

• Course Title: The Living Planet
• Course Code: BIO 300
• Department: Biology. Use the "Department" type-ahead field to locate and select your department.
• Credits: 3.00. Enter a value or use the provided arrows. These credits correspond to the academic weight of this home course.

4) Click the check mark to apply your changes. 

5) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. Your entry will now display in the "Courses" tab. To add additional courses, repeat steps 1-5.

To make an edit, click the check mark next to the applicable line item entry and make your changes. Afterwards, it is necessary to click the check mark again to preserve your changes prior to clicking on the disk icon. Failing to take these two actions will mean that your work will not be saved once you navigate away from your Department Management menu.

 

 

Adding Foreign Courses

A foreign (or abroad) course is that which is offered at a partner institution. A partner institution may provide a list to the home institution which specifies their (foreign) courses offered as part of a program. Thus, foreign courses are tied to the program to which an applicant pplies. An administrator can input foreign course information into their Terra Dotta site so that an applicant can easily search for a foreign course when completing a course approvals request online.

Create a Foreign Course Listing

To create a listing of foreign courses:

1) From the Admin Console, navigate to Program Finder and locate the program for which you want to create foreign courses. Click the edit pencil icon to be taken to Program Wizard.

 

2) Navigate to the "Details" tab of the Program Wizard and locate the "Foreign Courses" section.

3) Click the "+" icon in the lower right of the page. This action will prompt an "Add Foreign Course" display modal to appear. The modal is divided into two sections: foreign course information and equivalent home course information.

Use the fields provided to enter the following information about the foreign course:

• Code
• Title
• Credit Hours
• Date of Expiration
• External URL
• Keywords
• Foreign Course Description
• File Upload 

It is possible to add a foreign course with no equivalent home course. In this case, the foreign course would appear as an option to the applicant on their program application with the notation of "N/A" under the column for equivalent home course.

Add Home Course Equivalents

Next, search your home courses to select a course to add as a home course equivalent. Use the type-ahead field to search for the desired home course. After locating the course, click the "+" icon next to the search field to add this home course.

 

 4) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. Your entry will now display in the "Foreign Courses" section of the "Details" tab in Program Wizard. To add additional foreign courses manually, repeat these steps.

When a foreign course has an equivalent home course assigned, then an applicant is able to select this pairing from the "Course Approvals" tab of their program application. If this specific pairing is not pre-approved, then the request would need to be submitted by the applicant and remain in "pending" status until approved accordingly.

 

Adding Pre-Approved Courses

Pre-approved courses can be added only by an admin user for use in Course Approvals. These pre-approved courses can be entered manually or via an import. When a home course has been pre-approved as an equivalent for a foreign course - and an applicant's selection meets this criteria, then the applicant's request will change from "draft" status to "approved" status immediately upon submission. No further action will be required of the applicant. 

Manual Entry

To manually enter a pre-approved course:

1) Navigate to the "Details" page of your desired program in Program Wizard.

2) Under the "Foreign Courses" section, click the "+" to open the builder page.

3) Two panels appears.

The first panel is used to add foreign course information. The second panel is used to add the equivalent home course information using the steps outlined above.

To mark this equivalent home course as pre-approved:

1) Check the box in the "Pre-Approved" column to populate it with a check mark. This action will trigger a row of these configuration options to appear:

• Credit Type: Select the type of credit for which this course is pre-approved. Choose from the following: Major, Minor, General Elective, Language Credit, or Other.
• Search for Departments: Search and select the desired department for which this course is pre-approved based on the credit type.
• Date of Expiration: Select the date on which the pre-approval should expire.

2) Click the disk icon to preserve your changes.

If a credit type and/or a major department are not selected, then this home course will be pre-approved for all applicants. 

Important Note: It is possible to have multiple pre-approved courses for one foreign course. 

 

 

Import

To import a list of pre-approved courses:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Home Courses.

2) Click the "Import Equivalent Foreign Courses" icon.  

 

 

A template file is available for download from the import window that appears. After you've updated this file with your data, drag and drop your file before clicking "Upload".

See the Equivalent Foreign Course Data Import Template section of this article for more details. 

Important Note: In order for a department chair to be able to import foreign courses, they would need to be granted the appropriate permissions to do so. In addition, they would need to know the program name and ID.

 

Department Management: Settings

The "Settings" menu is comprised of two key sections: Application Parameter Mapping and Course Approval Settings.

Applicant Parameters Mapping

There are four applicant parameters in the Department Management interface (College, Department, Major, and Degree Level) that each need to be mapped to a corresponding applicant parameter in the Global Settings > App Params main menu before they can be used with Course Approvals. Though the applicant parameters in Global Settings > App Params don't have to share the same name as those to which they correspond in Department Management > Settings, they do need to be configured with the necessary value options and set up as one of the following types:

• Data Lookup 
• Single selection
• Multiple selection

After you've configured your application parameters in Global Settings > App Params, you can set up your applicant parameter mappings in Settings > Department Management with these steps:

1) For the mapping "College", click the arrow to the right of this line item under "Applicant Parameters Mapping". This will open a drop-down menu that will display all of your applicant parameters configured under Global Settings > App Params. Select the applicant parameter which should correspond to "College".

Important Note: In the image below, the applicant parameters use the same name as their corresponding mappings. However, this might not be the case for your office. For example, your site might use "Field of Study" for the corresponding mapping of"Major".

2) Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. Repeat steps 1-2 to configure the mappings for the remaining three parameters.

Course Approval Settings

A single default approver can be set under the "Course Approval Settings" section of Department Management > Settings. In the event that an applicant submits a course approval request that does not meet the criteria of a course approval rule AND the applicant has not selected a preferred approver prior to submitting their request, then the course approval request will be sent to this default approver. 

To set a default approver, begin typing the desired name into the search field below "Default Approver".  Their name will populate if they are a user in the system. Use your mouse to select the populated name. This will trigger the user's email address and name to populate. Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. 

Study Plan Settings

A single default approver can be set under the "Study Plan Settings" section of Department Management > Settings. In the event that an applicant submits a Study Plan request that does not meet the criteria of a rule, then the request request will be sent to this default approver. 

To set a default approver, begin typing the desired name into the search field below "Default Approver".  Their name will populate if they are a user in the system. Use your mouse to select the populated name. This will trigger the user's email address and name to populate. Click the disk icon to save and preserve your changes. 

Language Settings

An office can elect to display a "Language Skills" section in the "Profile" tab on the applicant home page by checking the box next to "Show Language Skills on Student Profile". This feature allows an applicant to provide information on a specific language proficiency level based on one of the following language frameworks: Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR). 

Instructions

An admin can create Course Approval instructions that are site-wide. These, when configured, will appear to applicants regardless of the program as long as Course Approvals has been enabled for use with that program.

 

Department Management: Course Approval Rules

Course Approvals use a series of logical conditions to determine to whom a course approval request should be sent. 

To create a course approval rule, follow these steps:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Course Approval Rules.

2) Click the "+" icon in the lower right of the page. This action will prompt a "Course Approval Create" modal to appear. 

3) To add a condition, click the "+" icon and select from one of three options:

• Credit Type
• Student's Major Department
• Home Course Department

Important Note: The condition of "Home Course Department" is linked to the home course selected by the applicant. If the applicant is submitting a custom course approval request, then the system will look at the value populated in the field of "Home Course" (and not the value populated in the field of "Department") to determine how to route this course approval request. If no value is populated in the "Home Course" field for a custom course approval request, then the request will be sent to the site's default approver.  

Only one condition can be selected per rule. Depending on your selection, you will be prompted to either choose a department or select the type of credit.

In the example below, the condition type is "Student Major Department". The department of "Biology" has been selected. Therefore, the condition criteria is "If the student major department is equal to Biology".

4) Click on "Step 2: Approved By". Here you have two options form which to assign an approver for this rule.

Department Role

• Select the desired department in the first drop-down menu.
• Then select the appropriate approver for this department.

Individual Role

• Enter in the email address, first name, and last name of the desired approver. 

In the example below, I have selected the Department Role for the Biology department of "Major Approver" as the approver who should be selected when a request is submitted that meets the condition of the student's major department being equal to Biology.

As a reminder while creating this rule, I referenced the "Department Members" section of the Biology tab under "Departments" to confirm who is currently assigned as the "Major Approver" for this rule. 

5) Click on the disk icon to preserve your changes. 

Sequential Course Approval Workflows

It is possible to configure sequential workflows for Course Approvals. This is done during the rule-configuration process.

From the Course Approval Create modal, navigate to step two of "Approved By". Instead of only having the option of one approver, you can use the following approval type options:

1) Simple Approval Type

When this option is selected,  a configuration is made so that the approval request goes to one approver.

2) Sequential Approval Type

When this option is selected, a numbered sequence can be configured in which the approval request first goes to approver number one, then number two, etc. Approver one must approve the request before the approver two is notified of the request. Approver one is able to make edits to items, such as credit hours, and these edits appear to all subsequent approvers. If at any time an approver rejects the request, the workflow is stopped. All approvers must approve the request in order for the course approval request to be approved. 

It is possible to have a sequential and simple workflow happen simultaneously. In the example below, the Biology Major Approver is notified at the same time as the Department 1 Major Approver. 

 

 

Creating & Submitting a Course Approval Request

Important Note: Course Approvals are activated on a program-by-program basis to appear on an applicant's application page for that respective program in the Applicant Experience. This means that in order for any applicant to view and use the Course Approvals feature from a program's application page, that program must have the Course Approvals feature enabled. After the feature is enabled, any applicant to that program will see the Course Approvals form on their application page.

To enable Course Approvals for applicant use (i.e. to enable the display of the Course Approvals tab on the application page) in a program:

1) Navigate to the "Details" tab of the desired program's Program Wizard.

2) Locate the "Foreign Courses" section. 

3) Check the box next to Course Approval. At least one foreign course must be added in order to check this box and enable the Course Approval feature.

4) Click the disk icon to preserve your changes to Course Approval Settings. 

Important Note: Just as one foreign course must be added in order to access the "Course Approval Enabled" check box to enable the feature, one foreign course must also be added in order to access the check box to disable the feature. Removing all foreign courses while the "Course Approval Enabled" setting is checked off will result in this box becoming grayed out and inaccessible.

Batch Enable/Disable

It is possible to batch enable or disable the Course Approvals feature for applicant use for programs that have at least one foreign course associated with them.

To get started, navigate to the Admin Console > Program Finder. 

After filtering for your desired programs, click the top box of the batch action column located to the right of the Program Name column. The "Batch" menu will appear from which you can access the "Course Approval" menu to either enable or disable Course Approvals for the selected programs.

 

Course Approval Instructions

The option to create program-specific Course Approval instructions also appears. Use the WYSIWYG Editor to create your desired message for applicants to this program. Then click the disk icon to preserve your changes. 

In addition, an admin can create Course Approval instructions that are site-wide. These, when configured, will appear to applicants regardless of the program as long as Course Approvals has been enabled for use with that program.

These system-wide instructions can be configured by navigating to Staff > Department Management > Settings. 

Applicant Access: Course Approval Application Tab

An applicant can access the Course Approvals feature directly from the application page after creating an application for a program. The application does not have to be approved in order for the applicant to access the a course approval form.

From the application page, the applicant will now see a "Course Approval" tab.

Important Note: The "Course Approval" tab currently appears on an application regardless of the application phase. 

Clicking on the "Course Approval" tab will bring the applicant to a dedicated interface from which to submit their request. This display appears to applicants as it would to an admin user from their respective Terra Dotta site interface.

Tip: Create and assign a Learning Content to your program application that calls out the Course Approvals feature with any additional information you might want to share with applicants.

Instructions

Applicants are provided instructions on how to proceed with completing the course approval request. After having read this text, the applicant can click the "^" icon to close the window and repeat the action to return to the instructions as needed.

Any saved system-wide Course Approval instructions will appear above any saved program-wide Course Approval instructions. 

The Course Approval page is divided into three main sections:

• Course Offerings
• Custom Course Approval
• Course Approval Requests

Course Offerings

From the Course Offerings section, an applicant is able to view and select from a full listing of available foreign courses and their equivalent home courses for the program. Regardless of whether or not the foreign course has a home course equivalent, the foreign course will be listed.

Pagination allows the applicant to control the number of items listed per page. A maximum of 100 items can be listed at a time.

The "Search" bar can be used to filter results. 

Information is organized into these columns:

• Foreign Course: Listed by title. A foreign course may be listed more than once if it has different home course equivalents. 
• Equivalent Home Course: Listed by title. If an equivalent home course is not available for the foreign course, "N/A" will display in lieu of a course name. No credit type or preferred approved options will appear if an equivalent home course is not available for the foreign course.
• Credit Type: A drop-down menu gives the applicant the option to choose what type of credit to receive for the course (i.e. Major, Minor, General Elective, Language Credit, or Unknown). Future enhancements will give admins the option to configure the credit type options they want displayed.
• Preferred Approver: An applicant can search for and select the faculty/staff member to whom they prefer to send their request. If a Preferred Approver is selected, a system-generated email notification will be sent to this individual, allowing them to view and make a decision on this specific course approval request. Only one Approver per each course approval request may be selected.

An applicant makes a selection by checking the desired box to the left of the foreign course, followed by clicking "Add to Course Approval Requests". The course then moves to the Course Approval Requests section and appears in draft status until the applicant submits the courses.

Custom Course Approval

If an applicant cannot locate a desired course from the Course Offerings section, they can click on "Add a custom equivalent course".

This action expands the Custom Course Approval section which is comprised of two parts:

Foreign Course

An applicant can search and select a foreign course from within this section of the Course Approval Form, organized as follows:

• Search for Foreign Course: Click into this field to search the register of available foreign courses for a respective program, including the course number. If the desired foreign course is not found and an applicant manually enters a course, then the next four fields will display: code, description, URL, and document upload.
• Code: A course code, such as "Econ 100", auto-populates once a foreign course has been selected by the applicant.
• Description: Available space to provide a course description.
• URL: Available space to provide a URL to a course catalog.
• Drop Syllabus/Browse: Upload a course syllabus by dragging/dropping the file or browsing.

Important Note: An applicant has the option to manually enter a foreign course in the "Search for Foreign Course" field and manually enter a course code instead of selecting a course from the search. Adding a description, syllabus, or course URL is optional. This option supports processes where applicants need to create a record of the courses they want to take, even when they don't want create for those courses. 

Course Approval

While not required to submit a foreign course request, an applicant can use the Custom Course Approval section to request the foreign course to be counted as a particular home course or for a particular credit type. The Custom Course Approval section is organized as follows:

• Home Course: Use a drop-down menu to search and select a home course equivalent, if known, of the foreign course selected. 
• Search for Department: An applicant can search for and select a department instead of selecting a home course if the appropriate home course is unknown. Departments are set up under Staff > Department Management > Departments.
• Credit Type: A drop-down menu gives the applicant the option to choose what type of credit to receive for the course (i.e. Major, Minor, General Elective, Language Credit, or Unknown). If an applicant requests to receive credit for a foreign course, a department is required.

Important Note: For a course approval rule, the condition of "Home Course Department" is linked to the home course selected by the applicant. If the applicant is submitting a custom course approval request, then the system will look at the value populated in the field of "Home Course" (and not the value populated in the field of "Department") to determine how to route this course approval request. If no value is populated in the "Home Course" field for a custom course approval request, then the request will be sent to the site's default approver. 

If you are using a course approval rule based on the condition of "Home Course Department" and want to ensure that custom requests get routed to the approver as configured in the rule, then offices might consider creating a generic home course tied to the desired department. Then, add instructions for students so that they are directed to select this home course when creating a custom course approval request.

• Search for Preferred Approver: An applicant can search for and select the faculty/staff member to whom they prefer to send their request. If a Preferred Approver is selected, a system-generated email notification will be sent to this individual, allowing them to view and make a decision on this specific course approval request. Only one Approver per each course approval request may be selected.
• Comment: Ability for an applicant to leave additional details about their request for the Approver. This is especially useful when an applicant manually enters a foreign course and selects their desired home course department and credit type. 

Important Note: In the event that an applicant submits a course approval request that does not meet the criteria of a course approval rule AND the applicant has not selected a preferred approver prior to submitting their request, then the course approval request will be sent to the default approver configured in the Department Management > Settings menu. 

After completing the Custom Course Approval section for one request, the applicant should click "Add to Course Approval Requests". This will move the request down to the Course Approval Requests section of the page. This action also clears the Custom Course Approval section so that the applicant has the ability to continue with creating additional Custom Course Approval requests.

Course Approval Requests

Within the Course Approval Requests section, information is organized into columns that highlight the requested foreign course, department, credit type, home course equivalent, credit hours, and request status. Approver, and request status. All course approval requests appear in "draft" status until an applicant is ready to submit their full request by clicking "Submit Courses". This action sends out an email notification to the respective Approver(s).

The "Action" column can be used to expand the request and view more specific details about the request.

Important Note: Each respective course approval request generates an email to the assigned approver. It is not possible to consolidate course approval requests into a single email when the assigned approver is the same for all requests submitted.

Example: An applicant submits four course approval requests for courses which are all in the French Studies department. You have a course approval rule set up that says when the department is French Studies, then the request should go to the Department Approver. Therefore, the Department Approver for French Studies will receive four separate emails. Each email will contain a unique link that when clicked will allow the recipient to directly access the respective course approval request.

 

Approving a Course Approval Request

When a Course Approval Request is submitted, an email notification is automatically sent to the Approver by the software. The email contains a link, providing direct access to view and take action on the the Course Approval Request without the need to log into your site or sign a hard-copy document.

 

 An Approver with login credentials can also view their Course Approval Requests by navigating to Applicants > Course Approval Requests. A comprehensive digest of course approval requests will appear. Information is organized into columns as follows:

• Student Name
• Program
• Status: This status of the course approval request may be pending, rejected, or approved.
• Term
• Foreign Course: If an applicant has manually entered a foreign course for their request, then the foreign course name will appear as "Manual Foreign Course".
• Home Course: If an applicant has manually entered a foreign course for their request, then the home course column will be empty until an approver has taken action on the request.

Navigate through requests easily using the paginated search results tool or available search filters.

Click on the triangle filter icon for each column to search by keyword. The "Status" filter allows you to sort based on the selected status. Clear all filters by clicking the "clear" icon at the far right of the display.


Once you've located a pending request to take action on, click on the expansion arrows to the right of the row to view the full request. A series of tabs appears that include:

• Details: This is where an approver will spend most of their time to review the specifics of a request and take action.
• Comments History Log
• Approvals
• Related Course Approval

The "Details" tab is structured as follows:

• Application Information: An approver can directly view available information about the applicant and their program application, including its status.
• Course Approval: This display mirrors the course approval request form that the applicant viewed and completed on the application page. It is here that an approver can make any necessary updates, including home course, home credit, and credit type.
• Comments: An additional space allows an approver to leave request-related comments.

When an approver is ready to make a decision on the request, they can click "Approve" or "Reject" accordingly. This action will trigger an email notification to the applicant with a status update of their Course Approval Request.






Important Note:

• The Approver can enter equivalent home credits, change the credit type, and add additional comments in the Course Approval Requests section for requests to which they've been asked to review and make a decision.
• An Approver only has the ability to approve courses that they have explicitly been assigned to review by an applicant. However, an Approver is able to view all other Course Approval Requests that the applicant has made. This additional context helps to provide the Approver with a more complete scope of what coursework is of interest to the applicant, etc.
• An applicant is able to view when a decision has been made on a Course Approval Request.
• An admin user can access a Course Approval Form by navigating to the Admin Console > Application Finder > View Full Application (click the icon of the desired application) > "Course Approval" tab.

 

Study Plans

With the use of Study Plans, an admin can define a set of rules which checks that a minimum/maximum number of credits or courses for a set of an application's course approvals has been met before this request is sent to an approver.

To create a Study Plan rule:

1) Navigate to Staff > Department Management > Study Plan Rules. Click the "+" in the bottom right corner of the page to open a new creation window. Give your Study Plan Rule a relevant name, and use the "Active" toggle switch to set the status of your rule.

2)  The Study Plan rule creation process has three steps. Step 1 requires that you define a condition. Select "Degree Level" and/or "Term". This is the beginning of the logic that the Study Plan rule will be working from: If W and/or X is true - and Y has been validated, then send this Study Plan submission to Z.

 3) Step 2 requires that you select a minimum and/or maximum number of credits or courses that must be validated. Click the "+" icon to view the validation options. After selecting an option, you will be prompted to enter a numerical value. For example: a minimum of 9 credits and maximum of 12 credits.

4) For Step 3, you have two options from which to assign an approver for this rule.

Department Role

• Select the desired department in the first drop-down menu.
• Then select the appropriated approver for this department.

Individual Role

• Enter in the email address, first name, and last name of the desired approver to whom a Study Plan submission should be sent for approval when it meets the conditions of this rule. Click the disk icon to then preserve your changes. 

 

A default approver can be entered under Staff > Department Management > Settings. In the event that a Study Plan submission doesn't meet any rules and a preferred approver is not entered by a student, the request will be sent to this default approver.

 

Study Plan Requirement

An admin has the option of configuring whether or not a study plan is required before an applicant can submit their program application. This can be done by navigating to Step 5: Application Lifecyle of the Program Wizard for the program.

From the "Study Plan Requirement" drop-down menu, the following options appear:

• No Study Plan Required
• Study Plan Needs to be Submitted
• Study Plan Needs to be Approved

From their application page, an applicant will be notified of their study plan requirement and can click a link for direct access to the Course Approval tab.

 

Print to PDF

After an applicant has submitted their study plan, they have the option to print a PDF version of the study plan. This can be shared with respective offices as needed. 

 

Notification Email Templates

The following email templates, found under Process > Notifications > Email Templates, are used with Course Approvals:

• Course Approval Pending Review 
• Course Approval Request Approved/Denied
• Course Approval Request Pre-Approved
• Study Plan Approved/Denied
• Study Plan Pending Review

 

Home Course Search

With the Home Course Search feature, applicants can better plan their study abroad experience. As applicants search for a program, they can elect to search home course equivalencies by credit type, department, and pre-approval status.

For program searches made using Program Discovery, the Home Course Search offers a consistent visual user experience.

The Home Course Search must first be enabled in order for it to appear from the program search page. Navigate to Global Settings > System Features and click on the "Programs" tab. Check the box next to "Course Search" under the section of "Program Listings" and save your updates.

To use the Home Course Search:

1) Click on "Course Search" from the program search.

 

2) Use the keyword search to locate a desired home course by name, code, or department. More filter options are available which allow an applicant to narrow down results by credit type, department, or pre-approved status.

Results display the home course along with programs which offer an equivalent foreign course. Information on pre-approved status and credit type is also provided, if available. Applicants can directly access the program brochure.

 

 

Equivalent Foreign Course Data Import Template

The information below provides a reference to the data fields used in the Equivalent Foreign Course Data Template for Course Approvals. As a reminder, this option can be used if you want to assign a foreign course with a home course equivalent to an existing program. If your foreign course does not have an equivalent, then you must manually enter that course.

Column details include the required data type, default values (if any), whether or not each field is required, and a short description (as applicable) of what a data field represents.

Important Note: Review these reminders before getting started:

• Always run a test import with a small sample set of rows before importing a large file.
• Do not double-click the "Import/Update Data" button. This may cause your request to be processed twice.
• Keep all columns, including those that are optional that you don't intend on populating with data. e
• Use "clean" text, meaning no pipe or tab characters, return carriages, etc.
• Do not alter the name of the columns. They must remain exactly as they are in the data template.
• Files should be saved as .xlsx files.
• Enable "Import/Export" permissions only for qualified, experienced administrative users who have read and understood the documentation.

Equivalent Foreign Course Data Template Table

Column Header	Importing New Courses	Updating Existing Courses	Value Type	Additional Information
Program ID	Required	Required	Numeric	The Program ID must represent the existing program that this course is associated with when importing a foreign course with its home course equivalent.
Program Name	Required	Required	String (200 characters max)	The Program Name must represent the existing program that this course is associated with when importing a foreign course with its home course equivalent.
Foreign Course Code	Required	Required	String (100 characters max)
Foreign Course Name	Required	Required	String (200 characters max)
Foreign Course Description	Optional	Optional	String (500 characters max)	A description provides a brief overview of the course.
Foreign Course URL	Optional	Optional	String (100 characters max)	Including (http://). Link to course description page. If there is already an external URL listed for the course, an update will null it out if it is omitted from the file.
Foreign Course Keywords	Optional	Optional	String (100 characters max)	List of word(s) used to help describe the course for searching. If there are keywords already listed for the course, an import will replace the current list of keywords with the values in the import file which could be an updated list of keywords or a null value. If the column is completely omitted from the import file, the keywords will be replaced with a null value. Keywords can be separated by commas.
Foreign Course Hours	Required	Required	Numeric	If the value is omitted when using the import tool to update a course, it will null out any existing value for this field.
Home Course Code	Required	Required	String (100 characters max)	When importing foreign courses, the home course code column will be checked for the list of home course IDs. If the column is not present in the import file, no changes to the foreign course home course equivalencies will be made. If the column exists, the foreign course will be updated with the home course equivalencies provided. If there is a home course equivalency that is in the list in the import file but not currently an equivalency to the foreign course, it will be added to that foreign course's equivalencies. If there is a home course equivalency that is not in the list in the import file but currently is an equivalency to the foreign course, it will be removed from that foreign course's equivalencies.
Credit Type	Required	Required	Major, Minor, General Elective, Language Credit, or Unknown	The value type used must be one of the five listed.
Students Major Department Code	Optional	Optional	String (100 characters max)	The value type used must match the Department Code listed under Staff > Department Management > Departments.
Pre Approved	Required	Required	Yes or No
Foreign Course Active	Required	Required	Yes or No

 

Frequently Asked Questions

1 - How can I remove a pending request from the Applicants > Course Approval Requests menu?

A pending course approval request can be changed to the status of "Approved" or Rejected" accordingly. Afterwards, this request won't appear when the filter of "Pending" status is applied. The request will instead only appear when you apply the respective status filter. If you need to maintain a record of the request, then this is the recommended action.

If you want to permanently remove a request from your site, you would need to scrub the application associated with the course approval request. However, this action is irreversible and will permanently remove all requests, regardless of their status, and all requirements associated with the application.

2 - I can't turn off Course Approvals for a program. What should I do?

In order to enable Course Approvals for a program, you must first have at least one foreign course added for that program. Then you can access the "Course Approval Enabled" setting box in the "Details" tab of Program Wizard. Checking the box enables the feature while unchecking the box disables the feature.

After you have enabled Course Approvals for a program, this setting box will become grayed out and inaccessible if you delete all foreign courses associated with the program. Because the feature is enabled, the Course Approvals tab will continue to appear on applications for this program. Just as one foreign course is required to enable the Course Approvals feature, one foreign course is required to disable the feature.  

3 - Do applicants need to populate the field for "Home Course" when submitting a custom course approval request?

If your site is using a course approval rule with the condition of "Home Course Department", then the system is looking at the field of "Home Course" (and not "Department") to determine how to route this request. Therefore, an applicant would need to populate this field when submitting a custom course approval requests. Otherwise, if the field for "Home Course" is left blank, then the request will not be routed to the approver designated in the course approval rule. 

4 - What happens if a single course approval request meets the condition of multiple course approval rules?

It is possible that an applicant could submit a course approval request that meets the condition of more than one active course approval rules. If this occurs, then the approvers for each rule would be notified. The first approver to act on the course approval request and make a decision would be the only decision needed to complete the request.

 

Video Instruction

Looking for video instruction? Check out how to get started with setting up your site to use Course Approvals below followed by a second video offering an overview of both the applicant and approver experience.