Course Catalogs
Customer Administrators need to understand how course catalogs are set up before copying
courses to their district and school domains.
“Course Catalog” refers to the list of courses that your school or district will use. Your catalog is a
subset of the National or State Catalog offered by Pearson Virtual Schools.
The National and State Catalogs
Programs in all states* except FL, TX, MD, VA, NV, WY, GA, NC receive the National Catalog:
- PCx-1-National
Programs using the National Catalog will also receive a State Catalog (where applicable) to
complement the National Catalog:
- PCx-2-CA-State Content (California example)
Programs in FL, TX, MD, VA, NV, WY, GA, NC receive only a State-Specific Catalog which is
organized by grade band:
- PCx-3-TX-Grades K-5 (Texas K–5 example)
Create a course by copying one that already exists, or create a new one from scratch or from a course template.
Copy an Existing Course
- Select Courses from the Main Menu.
- Select New.
- Choose one of the following tabs:
- Copy From Your Domain
- Copy Shared Course– This is the preferred copy method as it will provide course options from your school's subscription.
- Provide the Original Course name or ID of the course you are copying. Select Next.
- Choose the type of copy to create. Pearson limits the types of copies users can make based on the state of the course they are copying and provides a recommended default (see the Course copy limitations section). You might see any of the following options:
- A Derivative Child Copy is an exact copy of the Master Course and inherits changes to the Master. This option works best when you are copying a course with only content and no students enrolled because, once a Derivative Child Copy is made, you can no longer access student enrollment information in the Master Course.
- A Derivative Sibling Copy is an exact copy of a Derivative Child Course that continues to inherit changes to all unaltered elements of the Master Course. This option works best when you want to make a copy of an active course in which students are enrolled because, after making a Derivative Sibling Copy, you can still access the student enrollment information in the Master Course.
- Select Next.
- Provide Title, Term, and if you have multiple roles in the domain, the Role you want to have in the course.
- Added custom Course Metadata fields (Course Retirement in this example) appear here; complete, then select Next.
- Indicate whether you want the course dues dates to be organized as:
- Range (by the course author). If you choose this, indicate if Connexus EMS will automatically Adjust due, visibility, and grade release dates based on course start date by checking the box or leaving it unchecked.
- Continuous (automated for self-paced learning). If you choose this, specify for how many days the course will run in the Days field.
- Provide the desired Term. If your domain has Grading Periods set up, the Term field is replaced with a School year (as seen in the example). Select the current year to align your new course with the domain-level Grading Periods.
- Specify the course's date range (Start date and End date).
- All course activities must be completed by the End Date; your students have read only access for two weeks after that date.
- If your domain has Grading Periods set up, these dates are populated for you based on the School year.
- Select Next.
- If your domain has Grading Periods set up and you're copying a course that already has its own Grading Periods, use this section to map the previous periods with the domain-level Grading Periods.
- Select Create.
Create a new course
- Select Courses from the Main Menu to manage courses in your domain.
-
Select New in the toolbar.
- Select Create New and choose a course Template from the drop-down menu (if enabled) to bring over everything from that template. A template is selected by default, so select (Blank) if you don't want to use one.
- Select Next.
- Provide Title, External ID, and if you have multiple roles in the domain, the Role you want to have in the course.
- Added custom Course Metadata fields (Course Retirement in this example) appear here; complete them and select Next.
- Indicate whether you want the course dues dates to be organized as:
- Range (by the course author); if you choose this, indicate whether you want Pearson Connexus to automatically Adjust due, visibility, and grade release dates based on course start date by checking the box or leaving it unchecked.
- Continuous (automated for self-paced learning); if you choose this, specify for how many days you want the course to run in the Days field.
- Provide the desired Term. If your domain has Grading Periods set up, the Term field is replaced with a School year (as seen in the example). Select the current year to align your new course with the domain-level Grading Periods.
- Specify the course's date range (Start date and End date).
- All course activities must be completed by the End Date; your students have read only access for two weeks after that date.
- If your domain has Grading Periods set up, these dates are populated for you based on the School year.
- Select Create.
Course copy limitations
Pearson Connexus limits the types of copies users can make based on the state of the course they are copying. This table outlines which states allow users to make which types of copies. To learn more about copy types, review Master and Derivative Courses.
Manage existing courses
From the Courses tool, you can:
- Import courses using tab-delimited or comma-separated files.
- Use Bulk Update to make permanent changes to their:
- Fields, including Term (or School year if your domain has Grading Periods), Type (continuous/range), number of Days running, Start Date, or End Date.
- Template settings, including General Course-Grade View, Grade Scales, Grading Categories, Grading Periods, Options, Enrollment Completion, Formative Assessment, and/or Remediation Assessment.
- Select a Course ID to make changes to the Title, External ID, Term (or School year if your domain has Grading Periods), Public visibility, and Scheduling settings.
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