Course Coding Schemes

The Course Code is the unique code that identifies the course. Your course coding scheme should aid in generating reports and registering students. For those reasons, ACEware strongly suggests generating course codes using the following format:

Course Code Example: 24FYSUP103A

Year	Semester	Audience (Optional)	Department	Class #	Section
24	F	Y	SUP	103	A

1. Year designated by a two character code (i.e. 24-2024, 25-2025)
2. Semester designated by a single character code that will make the semesters fall in chronological order within a school year. (i.e. F-Fall, S-Spring, U-Summer, W-Winter).
3. Audience (if used by your organization) designated by a single character code (e.g. Y-Youth, A-Adult).
4. Department designated by a three character code (i.e. SUP-Supervision, BUS-Business).  Note:  this code may be four character--if--your organization is not using the audience code.
5. Class number designated by a three/four character code (i.e. 103, 3065)
6. Section number designated by a single character code (i.e. A, B, C; or 1, 2, 3).

Coding Scheme Rules/Tips

While we feel the ACEware course coding scheme is the most efficient system, organization's can devise their own procedure as long as they follow these rules:

1. The maximum size of the course code is 12 characters.
2. Each different course record entered must have a unique course code.
3. Keep all codes the same length (i.e. use four digits for all department codes).  If you number your courses from 1-999, fill in the starting numbers with leading zeros (e.g., 001, 099).
4. You CAN ONLY USE certain characters in your course codes.