Program structure, specializations and the pathway
What students must satisfy to graduate, and the order they would take it in.
A program says two separate things about its courses: what a student has to satisfy — the structure — and the order a student would take it in — the pathway. They are edited in different places because they answer different questions.
The structure
On the program form, under Program structure: credits to graduate, then the requirement groups. A group is one thing a student must satisfy — core requirements, a communication requirement, business electives, a work term.
- Courses in the group
- Named courses, where the requirement is specific ones.
- Subject and level rules
- Where the requirement is a choice rather than a list: any subject or a particular one, at any level or at a level and above — "at the 2000 level or above".
- This is a specialization
- Marks the group as a major, minor, concentration or stream, with a line about what it prepares students for. Specializations appear as their own section in the catalog and on the information sheet.
- Other program requirements
- Anything that is not a course — a practicum, a portfolio, a language requirement, a residency rule.
The courses
Courses are linked from either side: the course form’s Programs section, or the program’s Courses tab. For each one you choose whether the program follows the course’s current version or stays pinned to the version it was approved with — which is how a program keeps the calendar it published while a course moves on.
The pathway
The Pathway map tab lays the program out as a student takes it: by year, or by term using your institution’s own term structure. Put the program’s courses in each column, add elective slots where students choose, and add a term off where they take a break — study terms are renumbered around it. Arrows run from a prerequisite to the course that needs it, so an impossible sequence shows itself.
- The summary line above the map adds up what you have laid out: study terms, terms off, how long the program takes and how many credits are placed.
- A print-friendly version produces the sheet advisors hand to students.
- The pathway is part of the record, so on an approved program it changes through a revision or an admin’s correction, like anything else.