Course Manager

Here's the place where you manage the courses you've done, or plan to do.

Legend

The table below shows the four types of Courses, and the colour associated with each:

Actions

Add a new course by clicking the 'Add New...' button at the bottom of the page.

Edit a course by clicking the 'Edit' link to the right of the course. Editing a course is straight-forward process, but there are three special fields that you should look out for:

• Course Code: e.g. 'FDNT230'. When you begin to type the first few letters, a menu will show up below, allowing you to select an entry. Courses that are not selected in this way may be rejected.
• Semester: like Course Requirement above, you must select from the list. Type in the year that you're looking for (e.g. '2010')
• Location: Where did you do your course? Choose from the list, similar to above.

View the specifics of the course quickly by clicking 'Details'.

'Delete' completely removes a course. Be careful! This action cannot be undone.

Printer-Friendly View

Allows you print screens... stripping away the unneccessary content.

Picker

Browse through the list of courses, and use an available action to quickly add a course, transfer, petition, et cetera.

Course Trackers

Here's some help for the Course Trackers!

At the start of any semester, a lecturer will distribute Course Outlines. A course outline will typically contain the requirements for the course, and the contribution of each to your grade (e.g. Quizzes will carry 20%, Final Exam 30%). You’ll also find the grading structure (e.g. ‘A’ – 95.0% to 100%, ‘A-‘ 90% to 94.9%, et cetera).

The Begin Tracking icon ( ) on the Courses Tab will create a new tracker for the course for the corresponding course, with some default sections and a default grading scheme. You can adjust the grading scheme for your course, and tailor your sections according to the requirements of your course outline. The Continue Tracking icon ( ) will appear in place of the icon above, once a course is already being tracked. Simply click on this icon to continue tracking.

Features

With the Course Tracker, you can

• Add all Sections, along with weight of each section toward your grade. You can reorder sections as necessary.
• Add sub-items to each section (if necessary), and the score attained for each. If sub-items are used, the total score for that section will be automatically updated. You can reorder sub-items as necessary.
• Edit the grading structure for the course. When you create a tracker, one will be automatically created, but you can manipulate it for your course’s structure. The two flags indicate your Current Performance (Green) and Wished Performance (Blue) respectively (see below).
• See your Current Performance.
• Add ‘Wished Performance’ for each section. Use this helpful tool to project or gauge the performance needed to get a particular grade. A good example: when the Final Exam comes around, add a wished performance percentage to that section to see what grade you’ll get. Note that Wished Performance has a separate column from Actual Performance.

Transfers, Petitions and CBEs

Transfer Credits are credits that are given to you by USC for courses you have done at other academic institutions. For example, USC gives transfer credits for each A’ Level course (Cambridge) that you’ve completed. There is a list of approved courses for which you can gain Credit Transfers (not every A’ Level course gains credit!) Check with the USC’s Transfer Credit office for more information.

Petitions are correspondence made to the Academic Office requesting exemption from a particular course/requirement. Exemptions are given under special circumstances (e.g. If you did STAT340, you can request an exemption from STAT285, since it’s a lower-level course). This DOES NOT apply to all courses... see the Academic Office, Faculty Dean or your advisor for more information.

A CBE or Credit By Examination is an option that allows you gain credit for a course by doing an examination, rather than doing the course in a classroom setting. You’ll do this if you believe that you’re proficient enough at the course’s content to pass an examination. Very few courses offer this option! Be aware that taking a CBE does come with some risk, so seek counsel/advice before you undertake this option.

Data Entry

Entering information is a very straightforward process. A Transfer Credit, Petition or CBE must have a Course Code to which it will be applied. (This is so to allow the Degree Viewer to correctly match them with your Degree.) The Course Code field is an autocomplete field – it will suggest courses as you type. Type the first few letters of a course, and a list of possible matches will be displayed.

The entry forms try to closely model the actual forms that you use at the Academic office. When you attempt to save, all fields will be verified - and missing or incorrect input will be indicated for your correction.