By default, Stellic does not allow classes to double count, so courses can only count towards one requirement. You can alter this to allow for double counting on the program or sub-requirement level.
There are two general types of double counting options:
- Between different programs
2. Within the sub-requirements of one program
When courses double count between programs, this will be indicated by the linked circle icon found next to the course within the audit. You can hover over this symbol for more information on where the course is counting.
If a course is double counting within the sub-requirements of a program, no icon will appear.
Double Counting Between Programs
If no double counting constraints are specified on any programs in a student's plan, courses will not double count between programs. This means that if a course (let's use PSYC 100 as an example) is required for the student's major, but PSYC 100 could also be used as an elective for the student's minor, if no double counting constraints exist, the course can only be used for one program. Stellic prioritizes requirements at the top of the audit first, so whichever program appears at the top of the student's audit would use PSYC 100 for the necessary requirement.
Please note that for the purposes of double counting, Stellic considers minors, majors, certificates, etc all to be 'programs'. There are no differences in double counting rules for a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, for example. Both degrees are considered equal 'programs' within Stellic.
When courses double count between programs, this will be indicated by the linked circle icon found next to the course within the audit. You can hover over this symbol for more information on where the course is counting.
- Program A + Program B
- Program A + Program C
- Program B + Program C
This way removing one program will not affect the double counting relationship between the remaining two programs.
Double Counting Between Sub-requirements in the Same Program
The section above describes double counting between two different programs - a major and a minor, two separate degrees, etc. In this section, we will discuss double counting of course within the same program.
By default, a course can only be used for one requirement in a program. So if a program's core requirement and elective requirement would both consider PSYC 100 as an acceptable course to fulfill either requirement, without any double counting constraint present, the course would only count for one requirement. Since Stellic prioritizes from the top to the bottom, PSYC 100 would count for the requirement listed first in the audit.
Stellic supports allowing double counting within sub-requirements of the entire program, or just within a specific sub-requirement. In this first example, one course can count between any of the sub-requirements for the program, so the double counting constraint is placed at the program level. Requirement A and Requirement B are identical for our example purposes - you can see that only one course is double counting between these requirements - ES-0055.
Note: If a course is double counting within the sub-requirements of a program, no icon will appear.
In the next example, one course would only be permitted to double count within the sub-requirement. Note that the constraint has been placed on a sub-requirement level, not on a program level. Here we can see that PHY-0012 is counting between both sub-requirements.
Unlike double counting in programs, double counting between sub-requirements is calculated in an absolute manner instead of pairwise. In the examples above, if there were overlapping requirements between requirements A, B, and C, only one course would be able to count between two requirements. Once a course has been double counted, it exhausts the double counting limit for the rest of the program's audit.
Overriding Double Counting Limits
There are some instances where you may want to enforce a double counting limit and override limits for any other program. A common example of this application is using a universal requirement program as a double check for credits - this is a separate program that exists solely to count the total number of credits a student has taken. Because you want all courses to count both for this universal requirement program and for the student's actually enrolled programs, there is a need to override any other limits that may be placed on the student's other programs.
For this instance, you can enable override double counting limits. Overriding other limits currently only exists once you have enabled unlimited double counting.
Constraints
There are a number of constraints that permit double counting - without adding a constraint to a program, no requirements will be permitted to double count with other programs or other sub-requirements. For details on double counting constraints, please visit our separate article.