Course Section File | HelioCampus Assessment Management Knowledge Base

Course Section File Format

Course Section File Considerations and Best Practices

This file is required if you are using any of the following modules: Programs, Assessments, Surveys, Faculty CV, Syllabus.

This file provides the Course Sections within one term.

If using traditional terms (no partial terms): If you included “TermCode” and “TermDesc” fields, the Course Section file is a term based file so it should only contain one term code. If there is more than one term in the file, the client should create a separate file for each term.

If using partial terms: The “TermCode” and “TermDesc” fields must be provided to ensure accurate placement into the correct partial term. Additionally, the Course Section file should only contain partial term(s) that belong to the one parent term provided in the file name. If there are partial terms within this file that do not already exist or are associated with a different parent term, the records will not be imported.

Before submitting the file to HelioCampus, please confirm the following:

Make sure that all required fields are included in the files.
Make sure that the data in the field matches up with the header it belongs to. For example, email addresses are in the email address field.

Make sure that there are no duplicate CourseSection Unique IDs

Tip: You can quickly find duplicates by doing the following in Excel:

Highlight the entire CourseSectionUniqueID column
Click Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values > Click Ok
Select the entire sheet > Click Sort & Filter > Custom Sort
1. Click My data has headers
2. Sort by: CourseSectionUniqueID
3. Sort on: Cell Color
4. Order: Click on the red block
  1. If there is no red block you can stop and click Cancel because there are no duplicates
5. Click OK
Work with your team to resolve the duplications shown highlighted in red.

Choose a small set of CourseUniqueIDs and verify that they exist in the Course Catalog file
Make sure that at least one Instructor field is present in the file, and each row should contain data populated for at least one instructor
1. This can be PrimaryInstrUnivid and/or SecondaryInstrUnivid field
2. These fields can contain multiple instructor university IDs separated by a comma
If an LMS connection is planned, verify that the ExternalLmsID is included and populated.
If cross-listed sections are included through the feed, the following fields should be populated:
1. ParentSubjectCode
2. ParentCourseNumber
3. ParentSectionNumber
4. In order for the cross-listing to work the following rules must apply
  1. The parent section must refer to itself in the fields above
  2. The child sections must refer to the parent section in the fields above
  3. See the table below for an example

CourseSectionUniqueId	CourseUniqueID	SubjectCode	CourseNumber	SectionNumber	ParentSubjectCode	ParentCourseNumber	ParentSectionNumber
HIST101A	HIST101	HIST	101	A	HIST	101	A
ART101A	ART101	ART	101	A	HIST	101	A
ART101B	ART101	ART	101	B	HIST	101	A

File Format:

Please note when creating the Data File in a text editor each column must be surrounded by double quotes and separated by a comma.

Example:

“CourseSectionUniqueId”, "CourseUniqueId", "SubjectCode", "CourseNumber", ”SectionNumber”, ”TermCode”, ”TermDesc”, "Title", “PrimaryInstrUnivId”, “SecondaryInstrUnivId”, "ProcessDate", “ExternalLmsId“

If a double quote needs to be used for the values then the escape character should be in a double quote.

e.g., "This is a ""value"" with double quote."

Example File Name: institution_sections.csv

File Splitting: If you plan on sending us multiple terms at the same time during you daily uploads, we request that you send us multiple versions of this file, each version containing one term only.

We suggest prepending or appending the TermCode to the file name.

Example: institution_sections_Fall18.csv

Required Data

Data Field	Data Type	Required \| Optional	Description	Impact
CourseSectionUniqueId	String	Required	Unique identifier assigned to the course section. This identifier is used to identify the course section. Thus, should be unique system wide.	Used as unique identifier. This may not be duplicated system wide including different terms
CourseUniqueId	String	Required	Should match the CourseUniqueId provided in the Course Section File	Used as unique identifier
SubjectCode	String	Required	Subject of the course; i.e. MATH, MEM etc.	Needed as part of the unique identifier
CourseNumber	String	Required	Course Number; i.e. 101, 700 etc.	Needed as part of the unique identifier
SectionNumber	String	Required	Section within a course; i.e. 001, 062, A, etc.	Needed to create course sections and syllabi
TermCode	String	Required	TermCode to identify term in the system (200915 or can be alphanumeric)	Needed to create course sections and syllabi
TermDesc	String	Required	Description of the Term; i.e. Winter Term 2009, 2012-2013 Fall Quarter	Needed to create course sections and syllabi
Title	String	Required	Course Title	Used for syllabi / sections that might have titles that differ from the course. i.e. Course Title = 'Special Topics' - Syllabus Title = 'A Specific Special Topic'
PrimaryInstrUnivId	String	Required*	Comma separated list of the University ID of the Course Section Directors	Course Section Director role will be assigned and the users will be able to see evaluation results of other instructors and TAs
SecondaryInstrUnivId	String	Required*	Comma separated list of Instructor University IDs.	Instructor role will be assigned and the users will be able to see evaluation results of TAs
ProcessDate	datetime	Required	Date in which the data was extracted (exported) expected format: YYYY-MM-DD; i.e. 2020-01-13	Needed to validate that consecutive data loads should update existing records
ExternalLmsId	String	Required**	ID of Course section from institution's LMS (See below for which ID should be provided per LMS)	Used to identify connection between Course Sections and the Institution's LMS Courses
Blackboard ExternalLmsID:			Blackboard Course ID
Canvas ExternalLmsID:			SIS ID
D2L ExternalLmsID:			Course Offering Code - This is the data is populated in the Code field that your institution sends in the data feed to D2L
Moodle ExternalLmsID:			Course ID number - This is the unique course section value provided to Moodle
CoursePlus ExternalLmsID:			Course ID - This is specific to CoursePlus

* Either PrimaryInstrUnivId or SecondaryInstrUnivId is required.

**ExternalLmsID is only required if you will be integrating Blackboard, Canvas, or D2L

Optional Data

Data Field	Data Type	Required \| Optional	Description	Impact
SectionName	String	Optional	For UI Display. If blank, display will be generated as Combination of SubjectCode, Course Number and Section i.e. MATH 101 001	Optional -- If not provided, will be display a Combination of SubjectCode, Course Number and Section i.e. MATH 101 001
LongDescription	String	Optional	Full Description	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
ShortDescription	String	Optional	Short Description	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
Credits	numeric	optional	Credit hours	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
TeachingAssistantUnivId	String	Optional	Comma separated list of Teaching Assistant University IDs.	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
SessCode	String	Optional	Session Code: U=Undergraduate Classes, G=Graduate Classes	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
SessDesc	String	Optional	Description of the Session Code.	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
DeliveryModeCode	String	Optional	Delivery Mode Code	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
DeliveryModeDesc	String	Optional	Delivery Mode Description: Online, Campus, Pathway	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
SchdCode	String	Optional	Schedule Code: L=Lecture, LB=Lab, R=Recitation, IS=Independent Study	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
SchdDesc	String	Optional	Description of the Schedule Code	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
SchdDetailText	String	Optional	Course schedule detail formatted as text for all schedule entries for this course in the form of a string. For UI Display. i..e. M-W-F 10AM-11AM, T-TH 4PM-5PM	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
numberofStudents	numeric	Optional	Number of student enrolled in course	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
maxNumberofStudent	numeric	Optional	Maximum number of students permitted in course	Optional -- If not provided, will appear blank in UI and reports where this data is displayed.
ParentSubjectCode	String	Optional	Parent Course Subject Code	Optional -- Used when crosslisting courses
ParentCourseNumber	String	Optional	Parent Course Number	Optional -- Used when crosslisting courses
ParentSectionNumber	String	Optional	Parent Course Section Section Number	Optional -- Used when crosslisting courses
CampusCode	String	Optional	Primary Campus Code	Optional -- If not provided, will be assigned to main campus
CampusName	String	Optional	Primary Campus Name	Optional -- If not provided, will be assigned to main campus
SurveyAssignmentFlag	bit	Optional	Boolean field to decide whether course section is automatically assigned to Course Evaluations or not	Optional -- If not provided, the objects will be assigned based on the settings
ConnectorCode	String	Optional	Code of the LMS. Each LMS instance should have its own code. *Only applicable if multiple LMS is used	Optional -- Please consult Onboarding Team before supplying the data

FAQ

What happens if a section drops from the coure section file? If a section is dropped from the course section file the section will be dropped from the site.
Why would a section drop from the course section file? Clients may drop a section if it is canceled.
What makes a section unique in the site? The CourseSectionUniqueId is the unique identifier. There should be no duplicate CourseSectionUniqueId.
What field and file does CourseUniqueId have to match? The CourseUniqueId must match a CourseUniqueId record in the course catalog file.
Can course section details be updated via the course section file? Yes! Section code (SectionNumber) and name (Title) can bot hbe updated via the data file.
What should I do when a section only has a primary instructor? In this case, SecondaryInstrUnivId can be left blank
What should I do if no instructor(s) have been assigned to a section? There are two options in this scenario. Either the section can be left out of the file or a dummy value can be submitting in the PrimaryInstrUnivId - Please note documentation and risks when using dummy values.
Why can’t I see sections for a term with a Status = Pending? The platform does not show sections associated with terms that have a Status = Pending. To populate these sections, the term’s status must be Active which can be adjutsed by the Activation Date.