Managing Study Programs

IBS 2.7 > Group Administrator: Academic Functions

A study program is a particular set of courses that you define for your students to guide their studies. These programs may be designed for personal growth or, if your Group offers a certificate program, for certification in a particular expertise. For example, you may define a program that concentrates on a particular area, such as Christian Living or Studies in the New Testament. 

You may define as many study programs as you wish, and you may choose from any of the courses in your Group's course catalog. After you have created and published a study program, any IBS user or guest can view it by selecting Explore Groups and displaying the Group Details page for your Group. Students who have been admitted to your Group and have entered your campus can also see your study program under Students > Shop > Study Programs.

Creating your first study program

To create a study program, select Group Administrators > Academic > Academic Offerings > Study Programs. On the Manage Study Programs page, click Create a new Study Program. The Add Study Program page will appear. Complete the following fields:

• Program Name: The name of your study program
• Description (optional): A brief description of your study program. This description will appear when a student views your study program.
• Type: There are currently two types of study programs. 
• A Personal Development program is a suggested course of study for a student's own personal development. It does not lead to a certification or a degree.
• A Certification program leads to a certificate within your group. You can define the requirements for the certificate any way you wish.
• Language: Select the language that will be used for the courses in this program.
• # of Mandatory Courses: The number of courses which are specifically required to complete the program.
• # of Required Electives: The number of additional courses which a student must complete, selecting them from a list of allowed electives. 
• Student Notes (optional): Use this field for any instructions to the student that you want to display to the student. For example, if any courses needed for the study program are not yet available, you could use this field to communicate this to the student.
• Group Admin Notes (optional): Use this field for any notes you would like to make for your own use. This field is not displayed when a student views the study program.

After completing these fields, you select the courses that will be included in your study program.

• A list of all courses in your course catalog appears on the left side of your screen. (If you need to add more courses to your catalog, see Course Catalog.) To include a course in your study program, place your cursor on the title of the course and drag it to the right column.
• For each course you have placed in your study program, make the following selections.
• Is the course Mandatory or Elective? Be sure that the number of courses you designate as Mandatory matches the number you specified in the # of Mandatory Courses field described above. The number of Elective courses should be equal to or greater than the number specified in # of Elective Courses.
• Can the student take the course as Independent Study, or must the course be Facilitated? To select both of the options, hold down the CTRL key while clicking each  option.
  
  

When you have finished building your study program, click Save at the bottom of the screen.

Publishing a study program
Your study program will not be visible to students until you have published it.  To do so, locate it on the Manage Study Programs page, and under Publication Options, select Published. After publishing, if you find that you need to remove it from the students' view, you can change the publication option to either Pending or Withdrawn.

Defining a new study program by copying an existing study program
After you have defined your first study program, you may wish to define another one that is similar to it. If so, you can copy the existing program instead of creating a new program "from scratch". To do this:

1. On the Manage Study Programs page, locate the study program you want to copy.
2. In the Edit Options column, select Copy from the dropdown menu.
3. Enter a new name for the copied program. Make the appropriate changes to all other fields.
4. If necessary, add new courses as described above. Be sure to make the appropriate selections (Elective or Mandatory; Allowable Class Study Types) for each course in your new program.
5. To remove a course from the program, place your cursor on the title of the course and drag it to the left column.
6. When you have finished building your study program, click Save at the bottom of the screen.

Editing a study program
If you need to make a change to a study program after you have saved it, simply locate it on the Manage Study Programs page, and in the Edit Options column, select Edit from the dropdown menu. Make the change(s) and click Save at the bottom of the screen.

Viewing a study program
To see how a study program will look to the students, locate it on the Manage Study Programs page, and in the Edit Options column, select View from the dropdown menu.

Printing a study program
You can create a printer-friendly version of the either the GA’s view or the student’s view of the study program

• To print the GA’s view, locate the study program on the Manage Study Programs page. In the Edit Options column, select Print from the dropdown menu. Use the print function on your browser (File>Print) to print the study program.
• To print the student’s view, follow the instructions in "Viewing a study program" (above) to display the student’s view. On the View Study Program page, click Print (located above the top right-hand corner of the table).  Use the print function on your browser (File>Print) to print the student’s view.

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