Curriculum Table

Curriculum

Relevant Definitions

The term Course is not used in any technical sense in PEMS.  Courses are created on the LMS (Moodle) platform for students to take online, but PEMS refers to courses as curriculum.  For example, two different English teachers could be teaching English 9, but they assign different books to read.  The class is the same as far as the school is concerned, the the material and activities the students turn in are slightly different, the classes use a different curriculum.  If the teachers were making their own online courses, the activities would not be the same.  Classes may use different Moodle courses to fulfill learning requirements, as they may use different curriculum.

Curriculum generally refers to the books and exercises used by the teacher to further the student's knowledge. In Moodle, the curriculum is a Moodle Course.  Any class may be taught with multiple curriculum, or different text books,  and so there are multiple Moodle courses that may be used to teach a Class.

The Syllabus is the outline of what a student will learn in the class our Moodle course.  Usually this is handed out the first day of class and informs the students of the learning objectives.  In the US, the course syllabus must be submitted to various regulatory organizations to gain approval.  In PEMS, the class may have one syllabus, and the Moodle course may have a tailored syllabus for the specific curriculum.  The administrator my use both or select one approach.

Moodle Terminology

Moodle Course ID is a unique value assigned to each course developed in Moodle.  Any actions triggered between the SIS and Moodle require matching on the Moodle Course ID.  In PEMS the Moodle Course ID is stored in the Curriculum table "Code" field.

Courses are organized into categories in Moodle.  Moodle can perform various batch functions on all courses within a category.

Curriculum Table

The curriculum table is a list of courses that are created and available in Moodle.  The integration between this table and Moodle is based on the "code" field, which must be an exact match with the Moodle's Course ID value.  In PEMS, when ever the curriculum record is selected, this is noted the specific Moodle course.

It is important to note that the curriculum is what is approved by the various regulatory agencies. While multiple Moodle courses may satisfy a class requirement, maybe only one of those courses has been approved for a specific plan.

Data Relationships

The curriculum record is allowed to be linked to one subject record.  This function is added only to allow planners to more quickly identify curriculum that satisfies the class requirements. This field may be used as a filter on drop-down menus for example. 

It is important to point out that the 'official' subject for the student's program of study is determined by the class record alone.  So if an enrollment record is linked to a class with subject of math, and then linked to a curriculum record with subject English, the student will get math credit for the course.

Transcript tags are the same as compliance tags, and the administrator may select the compliance tags the should be associated to the curriculum.  The transcript shows enrollment records, which are associated to the curriculum record, and so will show all associated transcript tags.

Enrollment records are linked to the Moodle Course and provide additional information about when the student should start the course (which term and which grade level), the enrollment record triggers auto-enrollment in the Moodle course from PEMS.

Curriculum records are linked to template record in the program of study planning process.  One curriculum record may be used in many different templates depending on the program of study.

It is important to note that Curriculum is not directly associated with the Class. This association, and the nature of the association is accomplished only through template and enrollment records.

Fields

Course - the name of the Moodle class as it appears in Moodle.  No logic is based on the name.

Code - the key to integration with Moodle, the code must exactly match the Moodle Course ID value.

Top Category - the category the course is filed under in Moodle, not used for any logical purpose at this time. Moodle has specific functions that may be triggered based on the Course Category, these fields are included in the event these activities will be triggered from the SIS.

Sub category 1 - the sub category the course is filed under in Moodle, not used for any logical purpose at this time.

Sub category 2 - the second sub category the course is filed under in Moodle, not used for any logical purpose at this time.

Course Link - the link to the Moodle course

Syllabus - a link to a Syllabus document, and external link.

Fields to Deprecate JAN 2024

2-MVP | HOMEROOM | Deprecate Fill percent threshold 1 and 2, and automate sections (low priority clean up) 

Note: These fields intended to manage over-enrollment in courses. This information was meant to trigger Moodle Groups creation. However, an alternate method is being developed that groups students by locations, which will be Moodle cohorts, The cohorts will drive the creation of groups.

Action Items JAN 2024

1-MVP | TRANSCRIPT | Transcript tags - fFeld allows multi-select but tags must be next to each other in the list, we need to select multiple list values independently.