Fields in the Semester Schedule

Each section of a course must have a unique Section Code within each Semester. This includes sections of the Course offered by different Schools or Departments. The Section Code schema below, as per the Provost, was designed to capture the percentage of instruction online vs. in the classroom.  

**Eventually, this schema will be phased out with the use of the Method of Instruction field, which will capture more nuanced ratios. 

Section Codes should be set per the following:

Session dates are set by the Office of the University Registrar and School Administrators. Session dates include the standard 13-15-week semester, as well as shorter week-long and partial term sessions. Schools may also have specific sessions available for selection.

The value selected in Term Session will determine the dates set on new Class Meeting records. Dates on class meetings can be changed, but must start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday.

The value selected in Enrollment Status will determine the actions a student is able to take in Vergil Registration. 

When Enrollment Status is set to Open for Enrollment, there is an option to enable a Wait List. 

Note: some Schools/Programs opt to disable Wait Lists for all Courses, and you will not see these fields if this is the case. 

Schedule Administrators will only be able to add Topic Titles to course sections on the Schedule that are in the Course Inventory. A new Proposal may be required by Schools to add new Topics.  For example, a Course Title would be “The Works of Shakespeare” and topics could include “The Sonnets,” “The Comedies,” “The Dramas.” 

**When using Proposal Workflow, the Course should be updated with new Topics before adding a Course to the Semester Schedule. 

If at least 25% of the content of a course pertains to a specific world area, indicate the appropriate region using the drop-down menu. If not applicable, select N/A. This data used for institutional reporting.

Grading Systems are determined by the Department/School mounting a Course.
Courses will be assigned automatically with your School’s "standard" grading mode.

Students cross-registered into your Course will be grading using the cross-registration A-F grading system. 

Changing the Grading Mode to Ungraded | Pass/Fail | R-Credit | Year-Long will apply to all students in your course regardless of x-registration.

If your School has a standard Pass/Fail grading system, select "Standard." Do not change the Grading Mode to Pass/Fail.

Annual reporting by the Office of the University Provost requires reporting on the way classes are taught. Multiple values can be selected in this field. Only values selected/approved in Inventory will be available for Schedule Administrators to select when mounting the Course on the Semester Schedule. 

If the appropriate method of instruction is not available to you on schedule, remove the course and submit a Course Change Proposal requesting to add the additional methods to the Course - then re-add the new version to your schedule. 

E.g., a Computer Science course offered online by the Video Network would have Classroom and Online selected. Both Departments will be able to mount the course on their Semester Schedule with the appropriate Method of Instruction selected.

If you allow Students to elect to take the class Pass/D/Fail, select Yes for this field. This will not set the class to a Pass/Fail grading mode for all students. See Grading Mode for more information. 

Note, even if Students in your Program are not permitted to opt for P/D/F, students cross-registering may be permitted to do this. Your students should be blocked from electing P/D/F using Registration Unit Rules, not through the Course protocols. 

See https://www.college.columbia.edu/facultyadmin/grading for more information about Pass/D/Fail. 

Points are set at the Course-level. Changes to Points between semesters must be done before a Course is added to the schedule (i.e., before cloning). 

Courses with fixed points will have these two values set to be the same. Variable points will be used only for courses where students are able to choose the appropriate points for their enrollment during registration. Non-credit courses will have Points set to 0 (zero).

Course Management introduces a structure for relating courses. Associations are first set at the Course Inventory-level. At the Class Schedule-level, individual sections of associated courses can be joined to assist registration as co-requisites or flagged as a suggested or required prerequisite. See the section on Prerequisites and Corequisites for more information - Prerequisites & Corequisites | Office of the University Registrar

Multiple instructors can be added to a class section and each Class Meeting can be assigned a separate instructor. Instructors must be assigned a percentage of teaching and a role (TCHR is most commonly used in SIS). All instructors listed will be able to see class rosters in SSOL and CourseWorks and submit grades. 

New instructors must be added to SIS and Course Management by the Office of the University Registrar. Please complete this form to add new Instructors and/or Advisors - Adding New Instructors | Office of the University Registrar

The majority of class sections will have a single meeting pattern, e.g., MW 9-10am, and will only require one Class Meeting record. For sections with variable times, e.g., M 9-10am and F 2-3pm, Schedule Administrators will create multiple, separate Class Meeting records. 

For each Class Meeting, Schedule Administrators must specify: 

• meeting days/times (can select from an existing “master schedule” dropdown or create a custom time)
• Instructor
• Room Assignment (either Registrar-controlled room or assign sequestered space) 

Arts and Sciences and Engineering departments should adhere to the Master Schedule of Classes.
For other schools, the most common patterns used were imported for your convenience. 

Note: Review your Class Meetings closely and make sure duplicate or incorrect patterns are removed

Class Notes have increased to 150 characters within Vergil. The Directory of Classes (DOC) and Student Services Online Support and Development (SSOL) will continue to be limited to 59 characters. This text should not be related to the course description and information here does not change course rules or Wait List functionality. 

Sample notes: 

• Students must register for a discussion section (W3XXX)
• First Year students only

*Class Notes were limited to 59 characters in Vergil until 10/23/2023

Independent studies should be created as needed and hidden from the Directory of Classes and: 

• after creating the section, select the instructor and ensure set ‘Hide Class’ is set to Yes. This will not prevent the class from appearing in search results in SSOL. It will also not prevent students from registering.
• send the Call Number to the student(s) for registration
• if the course is variable credit, advise students on what to select for points when they register

See Class Rules for more information

See Class Fees for more information.