ALE Application: Creating a Course

In the ALE Application, a Course can be created and saved, with all of the attached content. Once created, these courses will be available to add to Written Student Learning Plans and to Schedule Class Meetings for in the “Create Class” section.

 

The Course template is flexible, allowing specific learning goals, performance objectives and learning activities to be included in a manner that facilitates monthly evaluation of student progress. Most of the fields are optional, allowing programs to determine which fields they determine constitute a complete “course” record.

 

Several roles have the ability to create a course and this may vary by program.  The “Create Course” form can be found under the “Courses/Classes” menu in the left hand navigation menu.

 

Course Details Tab

When you click “Create Course” you will find yourself on the “Course Details” tab where you will outline all of the basic information about the course.  A brief description of each field follows.  

 

 

Name:  This is your own internal name for the Course that will be used to add the course to Student Learning Plans.  Some clever naming conventions have been used by programs to make courses easily identifiable or filterable:

• An asterisk at the beginning of the name to pull a group of courses to the top of the alphabetical list  
• Including district course codes at the end of the name for easy filtering
• A unique name given to remote courses

 

Subdomain:  If your district has more than one ALE program using our application, the Subdomain is what identifies your program and will be automatically captured when you create courses logged in at your unique URL. Otherwise, you can omit this.  

 

Default Certificated Teacher: Here you will find a list of users in the system who have been given the Certificated Teacher role. If there is one teacher who is always or usually responsible for teaching the content of the course you are creating, you can select that teacher here and when the course is added to SLPs, the teacher will be identified as overseeing the course.  

Is Active: This toggle button will allow the course to display in the application or be “inactive” and therefore hidden from view by default. Courses with this button not checked will not display in the “All Courses” list nor in selectors for Student Learning Plans.

 

Is Parent Template: Checking this box will allow you to display this course as an option for parents to use as a template in the Course Proposal Interface.

Course Type: This selector will list choices that can be configured by each district (in the Data Admin Role) and used to add data to courses for ease of sorting/filtering. (e.g. Remote, In Person, etc.)

 

Subject Area:  An implicit association with a state subject area is created when a state course code is selected and added to the course.  For programs using the generic ELEM or JRHS codes (which are grouped in the Miscellaneous State Subject Area), this selector can be used to select from additional state subject areas to associate to the course.

Description: This is intended to be a short text description of the course.  

 

District Approved Curricula: This is a selectable list of curriculum choices that are managed by the Data Admin Role in the system.  This information is also surfaced on the subject/course record of an individual Student Learning Plan and is customizable there.

 

State Course Codes: This selectable list comes from the CEDARS list of approved state course codes.  Some programs choose to limit the available codes to a shorter number that are most often used.  

 

SIS Course Codes: This selectable list comes from your Student Information System (SIS) and lists codes that can be associated with this course.

 

Grading: This field can be used to record how grading is done in this course.  If recorded here and this course record is attached to a class, this information will be surfaced to parents in the Course/Class Details modal when registering for Classes.

 

Grade Levels: Choose one or more grade levels from a selectable list.  These selections will determine which students this course will automatically display for as an option.  

 

Credit: Can be used to record the standard amount of credit to be earned for completing this course.  If recorded here and this course record is attached to a class, this information will be surfaced to parents in the Course/Class Details modal when registering for Classes. In addition, this will be displayed as “available credits” when this course is added to a Student Learning Plan.  

 

Prerequisites:  Are there any prerequisites required for this course?  If recorded here and this course record is attached to a class, this information will be surfaced to parents in the Course/Class Details modal when registering for Classes.

 

Texts: This field can be used to list any textbooks that are required/utilized in the course. If recorded here and this course record is attached to a class, this information will be surfaced to parents in the Course/Class Details modal when registering for Classes.

 

Additional Resources: Here you can list other resources to be accessed during the class - websites, videos, other learning materials.  If recorded here and this course record is attached to a class, this information will be surfaced to parents in the Course/Class Details modal when registering for Classes.

 

Instructional Materials Needed:  Here you may choose to list the supplies or materials needed by the student to complete this course.   If recorded here and this course record is attached to a class, this information will be surfaced to parents in the Course/Class Details modal when registering for Classes. This information is also surfaced on the subject/course record of an individual Student Learning Plan and is customizable there.

 

Essential Learnings: This field can be used to record any learning information that you don’t want included on the display for parents, does not copy down into the student learning plan and won’t display on the Monthly Progress Interface.  

 

Average Hours Per Week: If there is a standard default number of hours per week for this course that you would like to be copied into student learning plans when added, record it here.

 

Syllabus Tab:

After entering the “Course Details” and selecting save, several additional tabs will become available, the first one being the “Syllabus” tab.  This is a big empty text box.  

 

This is a handy place to copy and paste a syllabus if you already have an electric one created somewhere.  Online programs have sometimes chosen to put a link to the online syllabus for their courses here.

 

While this is a quick and easy option, please note that information contained in this box will be available when creating a printed version of your course description, but information saved here does not flow down into the Student Learning Plan when this course is added, nor does it display in the Monthly Progress interface.  

 

For a more detailed and comprehensive Course, you can choose to use the remaining three tabs “Objectives, Activities and Evaluation” to create a deconstructed syllabus of sorts.  This will take more work up front, but the data input into these various locations will be copied into the student learning plan when this course is added, allowing for individualization.  In addition, several of the fields are surfaced in the Monthly Progress interface, allowing Certificated Teachers to make an informed decision based on the goals and objectives set for the course.

 

Objectives Tab:

This tab allows for outlining the objectives, standards and/or learning requirements of the course.  Four of the boxes are fillable text boxes, while two contain selectable lists that can be pre-configured for easy selection.  All of these boxes do not need to be filled and often, programs settle on just one to meet their program’s needs. All six of these fields are surfaced in the individual Subject/Course record in the Student Learning Plan and are customizable at the student level.  The fields that are surfaced in the Monthly Progress Review Interface are indicated below.

 

Objectives: This fillable text box can be used to type, or copy and paste a list of objectives for the course - often called “Performance Objectives” in the WACs. These are surfaced on the Monthly Progress Review.

 

Objective Selections:This is a selectable list of Objectives that can be pre-configured and loaded into the system.  Filterable by grade level and state subject area, this allows for quick and easy selection of appropriate and typo-free objectives.  

 

Standards: This fillable text box can be used to type, or copy and paste a list of standards for this course

 

Standard Selections: This is a selectable list of Standards that can be pre-configured and loaded into the system. These often include CCSS, Next Gen Science Standards, State Standards for the Arts, Social Studies, etc.   Filterable by grade level and state subject area, this allows for quick and easy selection of appropriate and typo-free standards.  These are surfaced on the Monthly Progress Review.

 

Learning Requirements:  Fillable text box that can be used to list required learning for this course.  

 

Academic Goals: Fillable text box that can be used to list academic goals for this course. These are surfaced on the Monthly Progress Review.

 

Activities Tab:

This tab allows for outlining the Learning Activities of the course.  There is one fillable text box and one selectable list that can be pre-configured for easy selection.  Both of these boxes do not need to be filled and often, programs settle on just one to meet their program’s needs. Both are surfaced in the individual Subject/Course record in the Student Learning Plan

 

Learning Activities: Text box that can be used to list planned learning activities that are a part of this course.  

 

Learning Activity Selections: Selectable list of Learning Activities that can be pre-configured for easy selection.  

 

Evaluation Tab:

This tab allows for indicating how student progress in the course will be evaluated.  In addition, a broad timeline can be established, or more detailed monthly timelines can be defined.  All of these fields are surfaced in the individual Subject/Course record in the Student Learning Plan and are customizable at the student level.  The fields that are surfaced in the Monthly Progress Review Interface are indicated below.

Evaluation: Text box that can be used to list evaluation methods that are used to determine progress in this course. These are surfaced on the Monthly Progress Review.

 

Evaluation Selections: Selectable list of Evaluation methods used to determine progress in this course that can be pre-configured for easy selection.  

 

Timelines: Fillable text box that can be used to list an overall timeline, or overview of the timeline for this course.  

 

 

Monthly Timelines: Ten fillable text boxes are available - one for each month from September through June.  These allow for creating a detailed timeline of activities for a course.  These by-month text boxes are then surfaced on the Subject/Course record of the Student Learning Plan, allowing for individualization for each student.  If utilized, these boxes will also be surfaced on the monthly progress review for the corresponding course and month.  

 

Checklist for Course Fields

This table includes every available field when creating a course, along with whether they display in the following locations:

 

Course/Class Details Modal:  This is the info box that pops up when a user clicks the “i” next to a single Class  on the Class Scheduling Interface.  This can viewed by all users who can access the Class Schedule interface, including parents.  Any field from the “Course” record that is included in this view is indicated in this column.

 

 

 

Subject/Course Record on the Student Learning Plan:  Any field from the “Course” record that is included when that course is added to the Student Learning Plan is indicated in this column.

 

Monthly Progress Review: Any field from the “Course” record that is surfaced on the Monthly Progress Review Interface is indicated in this column.  

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Field Name	Display on  Course/Class Details Modal	Copy Down to SLP for Individualization	Visible on Monthly  Progress Review
Name	X		X
Subdomian
Default Certificated Teacher		X
Description
District Approved Curricula		X
State Course Codes		X
SIS Course Codes
Grading	X
Grade Levels	X
Credit	X	X
Prerequisites	X
Texts	X
Additional Resources	X
Instructional Materials Needed	X	X
Essential Learnings
Average Hours Per Week		X	X
Syllabus
Objectives	X	X	X
Objective Selections	X	X
Standards	X	X
Standard Selections		X	X
Learning Requirements	X	X
Academic Goals	X	X	X
Learning Activities	X	X
Learning Activity Selections	X	X
Evaluation	X	X	X
Evaluation Selections	X	X
Timelines		X
Monthly Timelines		X	X

 

 

*One important thing to note here is that when a printed Course Description is generated from the system, any of the available fields can be included and this format can be individualized for each program to meet your unique needs.