WUCRSL: OVERVIEW
The Washington University Course Listings system, commonly referred to as ‘WUCRSL’, is an automated client/server system enabling academic departments to create and edit their own course information. WUCRSL also enables Dean’s offices to perform online reviews, edits and approvals on these same course offerings. The course information maintained in WUCRSL serves as the source of record for all university wide course based publications, web based displays (i.e. SIS, Course Listings, school Bulletins), student course registration and advising (i.e. WebSTAC, WebFAC, WebAdvising), academic planning (i.e. the WebSTAC Registration Worksheet, Plan-IT, WUachieve, Course Evaluations), the learning management system (i.e. Canvas) and the academic classroom reservation booking system (i.e. EMS, CPI).
Access is limited to select users and is protected by WUSTL Key authentication.
BASIC FEATURES AND CAPABILITIES
- Inquiry and update capabilities for both current and past semesters, with numerous reporting options.
- Security controlled access to course records, allowing departments to enter information and dean’s’ offices to subsequently review, edit and approve course data
- A centralized collection point for course information for all schools and departments, available from a single database, enabling the publication of a university-wide course listings book each semester, as well as making possible postings to the web and on-line registration
- WUCRSL is capable of exchanging course information with other university information systems, including the Student Information System (SIS), the internet accessible WebSTAC for student access, WebFAC for instructor, Canvas and the university’s classroom and event scheduling system, EMS.
“CURRICULUM-SEMESTER-SECTION” SEQUENCE EXPLANATION
The Curriculum File contains records with the most basic information for all courses that can potentially be offered by an academic department or school, whether or not the courses are actually offered in a given semester. Think of Curriculum courses as the place where all active courses your area could potentially offer at any given time live. Think of Curriculum courses like clothes in a big closet. Some clothes you only wear in the fall and some clothes you only wear in the summer. However, all of the clothes are hanging in the same closet. All courses in a department’s most current CURRICULUM file will be included in and considered part of the department’s BULLETIN information, unless a course’s “exclude from print/web” fields are checked. (See the Curriculum File information for further details on the exact contents of the semester records).
- Before creating a course offering for a specific semester, the basic course record information must FIRST be defined in the WUCRSL curriculum file. Once a curriculum record exists, the course’s “semester course update” screen/page can be entered (see paragraphs below), then followed by entry of what is called the “sections” screen/page.
The Semester File (also called “semester course update” on the WUCRSL menus) includes course records only for those courses actually offered in a given semester (i.e. your fall only clothes or your spring only clothes). Semester specific course descriptions, valid grade options for students enrolling in courses, and an indicator for whether or not a lab or subsection is required, are all fields maintained in the semester file records. (See the Semester File information for further details on the exact contents of the semester records.)
Note: It is very possible to have a course in the curriculum file for a given semester, but with NO corresponding record for that course in the semester file. This means the course is considered part of the department’s overall curriculum, BUT it is simply not being taught during the current/given semester, and thus, has no semester file information.
The Sections File contains detail records with information on each individual section, lab, subsection, and/or discussion group for all courses offered in a given semester. At this level, class meeting days & times, building & room location (and/or requested room attributes), and teaching instructor data are maintained. In addition, enrollment limits and seating needs can be specified on the sections screens/records. When sections for a course are created, they are identified by a number (‘01’, ‘02’, ‘03’, etc). When the course also has sub-sections and/or labs and/or discussion groups, then an alphabetic character (‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, etc) is entered into the field identified on the screen as “section/subsection number”, and in such cases, the “section type” field should also change from “Section” to any one of the other appropriate choices (i.e. “Subsection”, “Lab”, or “Discussion”). (See the Sections File information in this user’s guide for further details.)
INITIALIZING AND STARTING COURSES FOR A NEW SEMESTER
When it is time to begin working on courses for a new semester, the prior semester’s information is rolled or copied forward into the new semester. This is done in order to prevent you from having to re-key all of your courses. Your job, then, is to review the copied information, updating the days and times of courses, adding in any new ones, and deleting others that won’t be offered during that particular semester. Before deleting records, make certain you understand the “Curriculum/Semester/Sections” sequence described throughout the documentation. Also, see information under CURRICULUM for further details on adding and deleting courses.
- CURRICULUM records are copied forward from the most recent semester’s set of approved courses (e.g., the FL2016 curriculum is used to create the new SP2017 curriculum file).
- SEMESTER and SECTION page records are copied forward from the most recent corresponding academic semester (e.g., Fall to Fall, Spring to Spring).
- SUMMER course information is an exception, and BOTH the curriculum and semester/sections re-cords are copied forward from the prior Summer term records.