Create a category when there is a set of courses that will need to follow the same constraints, or when students can choose between a number of courses. It’s good practice to name categories in a way that’s easy for students to understand, like Math Electives or Science Core. Remember that you can create subcategories within categories to further delineate choices.
Creating Categories
To create a new category, click ‘Add First Requirement’ or ‘add more sub-requirements’. Choose Category, enter a descriptive name and click ‘Add’. Then click ‘edit’ to add your first constraint.
Tip: Requirements must have at least one constraint in order to be filled.
You can now add specific classes within the category, or create a sub-category.
In this example, we’ve created sub-categories since students could choose from two different classes in both Biology and Chemistry to fill the science core.
The constraint ‘fulfill any’ on the subcategories means that once any class from the associated list is completed, the subcategory is filled. The constraint ‘fulfill all’ on the parent level means that you must complete both the Biology and Chemistry categories (one class in each) to fulfill the Science Core.
Duplicating a Category
One major time-saving tool is the ability to duplicate a category. Once a category has been created you can at any time choose to duplicate it by clicking 'edit' and then 'duplicate'.
This will create an exact copy (with 'Copy' added to the parent category name) at the bottom of the audit. You can even duplicate categories before classes are added if you know you'll need similar subcategories but different classes.
Once the category has been duplicated, you can edit the copy just like a normal category.
Shared Category
A shared category is a great tool for programs that share a set of classes with other programs or departments. You can create one shared category, like ‘General Education’ and then add that to multiple different individual audits, saving tons of time in building out each audit.
To add an existing shared category to your audit, click ‘add more sub-requirements’, and then Shared Category’. You’ll be able to search from a list of available shared categories and select the appropriate one. Pick an easy to understand name for the shared category, then click ‘add’.