Certificate Programs
Student Manager provides support for setting up and tracking registrations in certificate programs (i.e. programs in which a student must complete a set minimum of courses, CEUs, or hours in order to earn a certificate). The key components used are: Course Grouping Codes, Name Interest Codes, Prerequisites and some Special Report Functions within the reporting area.
Certificate Program Grouping Code
Create a Grouping Code for the Certificate Program. For example, if you offer a Management Certificate Program, your code might be MANCRT. Once you create the Grouping Code, assign it to all courses in the Certificate Program.
Note: the Grouping Code field is an optional Course field. If you don't see it on your Course screen, enable it on Course Preferences.
Interest Codes
Create two Interest Codes that will be assigned to Certificate Program participants when enrolling in and completing the Certificate Program, e.g.:
MCPENROL - Enrolled in the Management Certificate Program
MCPCMPLT - Completed the Management Certificate Program
Another option is to use Name Credentials to track Certificate milestones and completion.
Certificate Program Courses - Enrollment/Matriculation ProcessDepending on the design of your Certificate Program, there may be a formal application/matriculation process that may or may not require a fee/payment (e.g. individuals are assessed a fee when enrolling in the Certificate Program). Which course option you choose will depend on whether there are associated fees:
Enrollment Fees
If individuals are assessed a fee when enrolling in the Certificate Program itself, we suggest you create a Certificate Program course in which you register individuals when they enroll in the Certificate program and assess them the appropriate fees. This allows to you more easily track the fees associated with the Certificate program.
We also suggest you create a separate course for each year. e.g 05MANCRT, 06MANCRT, etc. This allows you to track Certificate Program participants by year (e.g. how many enrolled in the certificate program in a given year).
When you create the Certificate Program course(s), assign the Certificate Program Enrollment Interest code you created (e.g. MCPENROL) as the Course Subject Code. This code will be assigned to individuals who register in the Certificate Program Course with the date it was added to their Interest Code list. This will help you in tracking when Certificate Program participants enrolled in the program and if they have completed within the time limit.
No Enrollment Fees
If you do not have a fee based enrollment process, you may choose to simply add the Certificate Program Enrollment Interest code (e.g. MCPENROL) to the individuals' Interest Code list when they enroll in the Certificate Program.
Note: even if there are no associated fees, you may still wish to create a course to facilitate Certificate Program participant tracking and assign it the Certificate Program Enrollment Interest code (e.g. MCPENROL) as the Course Subject code so that it will be added to the individual's Interest Code list when they enroll in the Certificate program. Course Prerequisites
If your program has courses that are sequenced, you should set course prerequisites on all the advanced courses in the Certificate Program. Then enable the Prerequisite Checking option on Registration Preferences. The system will check if individuals has enrolled in the prerequisite courses. If they have not, the Registrar is notified that they have not met the prerequisites. ACEweb users: you can set up ACEweb so that the user will not be allowed to enroll in courses if they have not met prerequisites.
For example, if participants must take Introduction to Management before they can take any other Certificate Program courses, set the Introduction course as a prerequisite on all other Certificate Program courses.
Reports
There are many report functions that can help you track your Certificate Program:
Certificate Wizard - allows you to print transcripts for students who meet specific certificate criteria.
GRADREPT - returns a count of courses, or a sum of hours/ceus assessed to participants. This function can be used to scope by Grouping Code, so you can get a count of courses or sum of hours/ceus Certificate Program participants have taken in the Certificate Program.
ADDINT - returns a Yes/No if the individual has the specified Interest Code assigned. It can also be used to return the specified field from the Name Interest Code table for the specified Interest Code. This function can be used to return the Interest Code Date for the Enrolled in and Completed Interest Codes, so you can run rosters to see how many people have been accepted into the program and how many have completed.
STAMPINT - stamps the specified Interest Code into all records in the report. This function can be used to assign the Completed Interest Code to all participants who have completed the Certificate Program.
FINDINT - allows you to query by Interest Code in most Registration reports. This function can be used to return only those Certificate Program participants who have completed the program (i.e. who have the Completed Interest code).
FINDGRP - allows you to query by Grouping Code in most Registration reports. This function can be used to return only those courses which are in the Certificate Program.
HASCLASS - returns either True/False or Yes/No if a student has taken a course which meets stated condition. This function can be used to check if participants have taken specified courses. For example, note if participants have taken the Introduction and Intermediate courses.
GRADSPEC - returns individuals who have taken required courses. This function can be used in report area such as Transcripts and Certificates to filter out participants who have not taken the required courses. For example, only return participants who have taken 3 or more Certificate Program courses.
GRADSPEC2 - returns individuals who have taken required courses within 2 different course groups. For example, only return participants who took 3 course in group 1 and 5 in group 2.
GRADCRED - returns individuals who have completed a specific # of ceus/hours. This function can be used in report area such as Transcripts and Certificates to filter out participants who have not taken the required number of hours/ceus. For example, only return participants who have completed 20 hours in the Certificate Program.
GRADCRED2 - returns individuals who have completed a specific # of credits/hours within 2 different course groups. Primarily used within Transcripts. Allows reporting for certificate program completion of dual level certificates.