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Enrollments Table

Enrollments

Relevant Topics

Classes.  The name of the Class appears on the student's transcript. Classes are sometimes called courses.  However,  PEMS does not use the term 'course' in any of its modules. In general, the word 'course' can refer to a specific class, like Algebra 1, or it may also refer to the set of classes that lead to a degree or certificate.  For example, "I followed a course at the University in wine making" could mean a series of classes. The world "class" also has a secondary meaning.  A student can be in the "second grade class" which would mean all students in a particular classroom.  PEMS uses the word class to mean the subject of study for which units are earned, commonly called a course, such as "Algebra I". A class that is a subject of study for units can have different curriculum that fulfill it.

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 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.

Enrollment is the process of signing up for a class.  An enrollment record in the PEMS is the class as student takes in a specific term, and stores the student's final grade.  The set of completed enrollments is the information displayed on the student's transcript.

Student Terms.  There is one term record for every term the school operates.  A student term record contains student-specific information about how the student performed academically in the term, such as the student's grade point average for that term. All the classes a student takes (enrollment records) are linked to the student term.  A student has a term record created for each term they are in attendance. 

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.

In Moodle, Groups are used to break up groups of students enrolled in a course.  Moodle can enroll hundreds of students in one course, but the teacher would be overwhelmed to grade all the work.  Therefore Moodle provides the group option. When teachers and their students are enrolled in the same group, the teacher only sees their own students. In PEMS, Moodle groups are used to block teachers from seeing students that belong to a different location.  However, Moodel groups are not defined at the system level in Moodle, they must be defined in each and every course.   In Summary: 1) Moodle uses Groups to hide students enrolled in the same course from other teachers.  2) Both the teacher and the student have to be in the same group.  3) Groups MUST be defined for each and every course, Groups can not be defined at the system level.

Enrollments Table Overview

The enrollment record is key to tracking the courses a student takes, when they take them, and what grade the received in the course.  The enrollment record is created and managed in the SIS, but controls all the information needed to automate the enrollment of the student in the correct Moodle course.  The enrollment record also contains the correct information to be displayed on the student transcripts.

Data Relationships

Enrollment records are created by mapping information from the template records associated with the assigned plan. They are not linked to the template records. Enrollment records are also linked directly to the student plan record.  The student plan records functions as a historical log of what plan the student took and when the enrollment was taken.

Note: Jan 2024 the enrollment is incorrectly linked to the Program plan record, not the student plan record.

Fields

Status - the status of the student in the class. Active is enrolled in Moodle Course and working towards completion, completed is the end of the term after the grade has been entered from Moodle, planned is an enrollment record that was made for a future enrollment, suspended if the student was suspended from school, dropped if the student dropped the enrollment after starting the class. Plan change drop if the reason for the drop was an assignment of a new plan. 

  • "Not selected" option is no longer required and should be deprecated.

Letter Grade - The letter grade is selected from a pick list created and updated from the  Marks System table - 'Letter Mark' field' in the schools module.  There is no need to link to the Marks System table, this field just uses a list from the defined records.

Numeric Grade - If letter grades are not used, then numeric grades can be typed in.  Numeric grades do not need to use the mark system table. Change the name of this field to Grade Points.

Weighted Points - entered from the Marks System table according to Marking Rules described below.

Alternate Grade Points - entered from the Marks System table according to Marking Rules described below.

Alternate Weighted Grade Points - entered from the Marks System table according to Marking Rules described below.

Grade Import - the raw grade imported from Moodle.

At grade - the grade level the student is at when taking the course.

Units Attempted - the number of units this course will award. The class record has the number of attempted units for this enrollment.

Units Earned - the number of units earned. A passing grade is required for all units. 

Actual Start Date - sometimes students start coursed mid-term. The actual start date is the day the student was granted access in Moodle to the course.

Grading Workflow Summary

To mark the enrollment complete, the user fetches the grade from the associated Moodle course, then sets the status to complete in the enrollment status field. The student's dis-enrollment from the Moodle course is then triggered.

All completed enrollment records appear on the student's transcript.

Create Enrollment Records Workflow Summary

When a student is assigned a plan, the enrollment records are created from information in the template records associated to the assigned plan.  By creating all future as well as current term enrollments, the student can be auto-enrolled in Moodle courses without further user action.  The user selects the student’s plan, and then the enrollment records are created.

This approach allows the user to easily see what classes the student has left to take in order to complete the program by looking at all incomplete enrollments.  Student progress towards graduation is very difficult to assess with most traditional Student Information Systems.

For the current term, the students are auto-enrolled in Moodle.  Students are not enrolled in Moodle courses for any future terms.

Enrollment records can only be created if there are student term records and a student plan assigned.  To create the enrollments, a plan has to be selected for the student. 

Enrollment Grade Points Marking Rules

All the grade points fields are entered based on the fields corresponding to the letter grade field in the Marking System table.
The transcript tag on the curriculum related to the enrollment record indicates whether the GPA can be increased (weighted). If it can be increased, then the weighted GPAs are from the Marks System Table are entered into the weighted points fields.
If the curriculum does not specify to weight the grade points, then the unweighted grade points from the Marking System table are entered into the enrollment weighted fields.
The class record controls whether the GPA should be excluded from the standard calculation or the alternate calculation.
If the class is to be excluded, then the grade points are zeroed.  There are two types of exclusions, one for the standard and one for the alternate GPA. Both exclusions must be selected to exclude from both types of calculations.
To complete the logic - a student term level exclusion will need to be applied, where the term is excluded base on at_grade. This has not been specified yet, but will be added after above logic is implemented and vetted.

Action Items Jan 2024

1-MVP | TRANSCRIPT | Create the fields: Weighted Grade Points, Alternate Grade Points, and Alternate Weighted Grade Points in the enrollment record.  Change the name of numerical grade field to Grade Point. This will simplify creating the transcript.  Change link in enrollment record to student plan, not programs of study.

1-MVP | TRANSCRIPT | Build Marks Rules to input all GPAs based on letter grade.

4-MVP |  ADVANCEMENT | In the enrollment table - student plan field is linked to "Program of Study" This field should link to the student plan table. This issue does not affect transcript.

4-MVP |  ADVANCEMENT | Status field - remove the option " not selected " (low priority clean up)

2-MVP | HOMEROOM | Deprecate link to Section - this has been replaced with SIS group (clean up)

4-MVP |  ADVANCEMENT | Deprecate Curriculum Option, Class Option, Preference and Set (clean up)

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