Who this is for
College Administrator
The Courses tab holds your catalog: every course you offer through DualEnroll, and the sections students actually register for. Understanding how the two fit together, and which settings control what students can see, explains most of what happens on this tab.
Courses and sections
A course is the catalog entry: its title, number, credits, description and requisites, plus the categories and programs it belongs to. A section is one offering of that course: a term, an instructor, a location and campus, meeting times and a capacity. Students browse courses in the Course Finder, but what they register for is always a section.
Where the catalog comes from
Most catalogs are populated automatically, by a scheduled import from your SIS (student information system), a file upload, or your own software calling DualEnroll's API. Adding records by hand is for the exceptions: a course the import missed, or a late change. A new course needs a title, number and credits; a new section needs a section number and a term, so your academic terms must exist first. You can also clone an existing section, which copies most of its details and asks you to pick the term.
If imports run at your college, a section you edit by hand can be overwritten the next time the import runs. Lock it first: see Stop imports from overwriting a course section.
Who can see and register for a section
Four settings on the section decide this. None of them change the section's data.
Setting |
What it does |
Typical use |
|---|---|---|
Allow Registration |
Makes the section available for registration at all. Unchecked, staff can see it but students cannot register. |
A section still being set up |
Allow High Schools |
Left blank, every high school can see and register for the section. Checking schools restricts it to them. |
A section reserved for one partner high school |
Student Capacity + Check Capacity |
With Check Capacity on, the section stops accepting registrations once they reach the capacity. |
Capping a lab at the seats available |
Wish List Only |
Turns the section into a placeholder students can register for before the real sections exist. |
Opening registration before the schedule is final |
Special kinds of sections
Register as Group makes one section act as a container for others. The group section lists its component sections, and when a student chooses it, one registration covers the whole bundle. Colleges use it for lecture/lab combinations, sequential fall/spring courses students commit to up front, and Academies taken as a unit. A checkbox on the group, Launch Group as Registrations, launches each component as its own workflow instead, for example when every course needs its own approval.
Wish list sections let registration start before the schedule is settled. Students choose the course while the section is a placeholder, and your staff attach the real section later in the registration workflow. Colleges that run whole terms this way can ask DualEnroll to switch the student course list to a wishlist display, which hides instructor and meeting detail that placeholders do not have.
Organizing the catalog
- Course categories are created on the Admin tab and applied on each course. A category does nothing by itself; it groups courses for other parts of the product, most visibly the student course filter: see Turn on the Course Finder category filter.
- Programs selected on a course display it to students taking those programs.
- Action dates put named date windows on a section, such as a section-specific drop window, a census date or a payment deadline.
- Course fees are entered per section, against the fee types your college defines on the Admin tab, so tuition can differ by section.
- IGNORE FOR CA on a course keeps it out of instructor credentialing.
Checking a term's schedule
The Course Sections report lists every scheduled section for the terms and high schools you pick, with its instructor, meeting times and capacity. Running it before registration opens is the quickest way to confirm, for example, that every fall section at a partner high school has an instructor.
How this affects what students see
The Course Finder only shows a course when it has a section the student could register for: Allow Registration is on, the student's high school is allowed, the section's term is visible to students, and, with Check Capacity, seats remain. Categories appear as a student filter only where you have included them.
Common scenarios
Situation |
What happens |
|---|---|
The import missed a course |
Add it by hand, create its sections, and students can find it immediately. |
A section fills up |
With Check Capacity on, it stops accepting registrations. Raise the capacity, or add another section. |
You fixed a section's meeting times, and overnight they reverted |
The import overwrote them. Lock the section from imports and re-enter the change. |
Registration must open before the schedule is final |
Create wish list sections, then attach the real sections in the workflow once they exist. |
A partner high school gets a dedicated section |
Check that school under Allow High Schools; every other school stops seeing the section. |
Need to change this?
To protect hand-edited sections, see Stop imports from overwriting a course section. To surface categories to students, see Turn on the Course Finder category filter.
Need help with your courses or sections? Contact the Help Desk.