To access Academics Settings, go to the 'Settings' link in the left navigation panel. You must be an Admin user for your institution to change academic settings.
Quickly find the setting you are looking for by determining the category in the left sidebar or by using the search bar.
General Tab
Grade Modes
These are the available grading options defined in the SIS, if applicable. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Meeting Type to Room Type Mapping
As users are identifying rooms for sections, it can be useful to limit the list of rooms to ones that are most likely a good fit for the section. A common use case for this is the ability to map the meeting type of a section to specific room types. This setting maps which room types are available for each meeting type. This will limit the room drop-down list by the room types listed for the section’s meeting type. Multiple room types can be selected for each meeting type.
Meeting Types and Meeting Type Contact Hour Field
The Meeting Type is a field that describes the valid general meeting categories for courses and sections. Examples include Lecture, Lab, Discussion, or any other category used by your institution. If academic section data is being imported from a student information system, meeting types will be automatically added to the list. However, meeting type records can also be manually added and edited directly as well. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. The external ID field is the code or ID for that field in your SIS and often matches the name. To ensure consistency with your SIS during section editing and publishing, do not modify the external identifier. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Optionally, you may limit your meeting pattern choices based upon the section’s contact hours and display those contact hours on the section. To ensure we use the correct section meeting level contact hour value, users are able to configure whether a given Meeting Type is considered a Lab, Lecture, or Other. Likewise, the contact hours must be entered for your meeting patterns in Ad Astra.
Click here for information related to Meeting Pattern setup
Section Attendance Codes
Available attendance codes defined in the SIS, if applicable. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Section Delivery Methods
Delivery methods represent the various course offering formats. Examples include "On Campus", "Blended", "Online", etc. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. The external ID field is the code or ID for that field in your SIS and often matches the name. To ensure consistency with your SIS during section editing and publishing, do not modify the external identifier. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Section Instructional Methods
Available section level instructional methods defined in the SIS, if applicable. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. The external ID field is the code or ID for that field in your SIS and often matches the name. To ensure consistency with your SIS during section editing and publishing, do not modify the external identifier. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Section Meeting Instructional Methods
Available meeting level instructional methods defined in the SIS, if applicable. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. The external ID field is the code or ID for that field in your SIS and often matches the name. To ensure consistency with your SIS during section editing and publishing, do not modify the external identifier. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Section Statuses
Available section level statuses defined in the SIS, if applicable. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Sessions
Available sessions defined in the SIS, if applicable. The list of options is initially populated from your data during import. You may manually manage the list by editing, adding, or deleting as desired to affect the drop down lists when editing sections or meetings in Ad Astra. To revert back to only those values represented in your SIS data, click the Reset Setting option in the upper right corner. This will clear the list, and it will be reestablished from scratch after the next import.
Predict Tab
Default Campus
Predict will calculate campus-specific demand for a course. In order to do this, Predict will determine a student’s preferred campus by analyzing where they took courses historically. In cases where there is no history (i.e., new or transfer students), a student’s demand will be placed on the campus set here. The Default Campus will also be used as a tie-breaker if a student’s history suggests equal preference between the default and one or more other campuses. (Otherwise, if there is equal preference between non-default campuses one is chosen at random)
Grades
There are two configuration settings for grade codes that allow Predict to more accurately process academic history and forecast demand.
For Predict to determine future demand, it first will determine what students have successfully completed in the past. When applying students’ academic history, Predict needs to understand which grade codes should not be considered satisfactory for courses.
To configure unsatisfactory courses, enter them here and check the "non-applicable" option.
For Predict to interpret prerequisites that include minimum grade requirements, it must understand grade points associated with applicable successful grades.
To configure successful grade points, enter them here and include the points associated with each grade code. (this is an optional configuration and only required for processing min grade prerequisites)
You may use the "Reset Settings" option by clicking the three dots icon in the upper right corner to return to the default grade codes and points. Using this option will delete any manually added grades and remove any other customizations.
Ideal Credit Load
Predict analyzes a student's history to determine average credits taken in previous like-terms and then uses that average and round up to one of the defined Ideal Credit Load Breakpoints. Predict rounds up to recommend enough seats to not artificially depress demand.
Ideal: A student's targeted number of credits per term.
Minimum: A student's lowest number of credits per term
Is Default: If a student's historic credit load cannot be determined (i.e., new or transfer students) Predict will fall back and pick an Ideal Credit Load Breakpoint
Not Offered Courses
Courses that are not offered within the analysis term but have Predict demand are considered Not Offered Courses. This setting determines if a toggle appears within Align for a user to choose to display this group of courses. By default, this setting is enabled.
Predict Weighting
Ad Astra’s recommendations come from two analyses; Historical and Predict. Historical looks at the trend of demand in the past while Predict looks at what the current (and future) students are likely to demand in the future.
Predict Weighting (a number between 0 and 1) will control how much each analysis is used to inform our recommendation.
Weight Values:
0 ignores Predictive demand in the recommendation
1 ignores Historical demand in the recommendation
0.5 will take each analysis equally in the recommendation
Student Exclusions
If there are groups of students you would like to exclude from your analysis, such as high school or dual enrollment students, fill out one of the following three options to identify those students.
- Student Campus Exclusions
- Student Level Exclusions
- Student Type Exclusions
Monitor Tab
Switch Quickly Between Align & Monitor Analysis
When this option is enabled, when you open a course details page within Monitor or Align a drop-down menu is provided to toggle to either the Align or Monitor analysis information, as applicable. This option is user-specific.
For example, when you open a course in Monitor to review its registration status if you’d like to view the Align analysis results for that course, select "Monitor Analysis" and toggle to “Align Analysis”.
When finished, you can select "Align Analysis" and toggle back to “Monitor Analysis” to return back. Access to the toggle is provided within both Monitor and Align.
View Section Breakout in List
Learn about viewing section breakouts.
Momentum Year Tab
Identify which courses are considered your English and Math Gateways for Momentum Year progress. Select either an individual course or a course group for each gateway. Selecting a course group will always override an individually selected course. Changes will take effect after your next data ingestion.
Pathway Courses Tab
Configure which attributes and test codes satisfy pathway requirements. Select a course and then select an attribute or test code that would satisfy the pathway requirement for that course.
If a test code is selected, a minimum test score (numeric only) is required. Multiple attributes and test codes may be mapped to a single course.
Once a course is configured, attributes and test codes can be viewed by clicking on the course within the Pathways app or by viewing Course Details within the Align app.
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