CLSS Scheduler Guide

Getting started

This User Instruction Guide provides information for Schedulers using CLSS to schedule course sections.

Logging in

Navigate to the CLSS webpage: https://nextcatalog.tulane.edu/wen

To login, use your Tulane University login and password. (You do not need the @tulane.edu.)

Having trouble logging in? Contact the Class Scheduling team.

Terminology

Codes for terms: 10 = Spring 20 = Summer 30 = Fall 40 = Year Long Ex: 202010 = 2020 Spring T

A Tulane academic year includes Fall, Spring, Summer terms (in that order)

Instance

A term or semester. Ex: 2019 Fall semester, 2020 Spring semester Instances are further classified into:

Historical: past academic terms
Current: the academic term in session
Future: the upcoming academic terms

Mode

CLSS has two modes, Design and Refine.

Design: When changes to the schedule are saved, those changes will not be validated nor sent through any necessary workflows. Only when the ‘Validate’ button is clicked will the entire entered schedule (for that unit) be validated and sent through workflow for further review and approval.
Refine: Any change made to the schedule can be saved. Changing certain data fields during refine mode will automatically trigger validation and workflow for further review and approval. Save only if you are ready for your changes to be validated.

Phase

Below are the phases used for CLSS

Phase	Mode

Phase

Mode

Plan

Design mode

Proof & Final Submission

Room Assignment & Audit

Review

Publish

Registration

Post-Registration

Refine mode

Scheduling Unit

A department, typically. There may be multiple scheduler builders within a scheduling unit. Example: the French & Italian Department, a single scheduling unit, may have multiple schedule builders – one each for French and Italian.

Schedule Builder/ Scheduler

A person, representing a Scheduling Unit, responsible for inputting section data into CLSS.

Approver

A person or group of people (usually a Department Chair, the Provost, and/or the Registrar) responsible for authorizing/ rejecting requests made by schedule builders as triggered by a CLSS workflow.

Reviewer

A person who has view-only access but cannot make edits to a schedule.

Workflow

A validation process triggered by certain types of data entries or updates from the schedule builder; the data or update cannot go into effect without the authorized approval. This process can vary in the number or type of steps involved, depending on the data.

Filters

A tool that can search for specific sections based on criteria (such as section attribute or meeting pattern).

Heat Map

A visual representation of how many class sections are scheduled during specific hours of the day and days of the week. Heat maps are available to view for specific scheduling units, a selected group of scheduling units, or for all the class sections scheduled during a term. To view a heat map, click the "Visualize" button at the top of your screen.

Section Attributes

The term-specific attributes on a class section at the section level. Only certain types of classes are allowed to add these. Example: the Writing Tier-2 attribute.

Course Attributes

These are attributes on a course at the catalog level. Schedule builders cannot make changes to course attributes in CLSS.

Validation

When a schedule builder is completely finished entering schedule data for a term, they indicate they are done by validating their schedule. During validation, CLSS will check for errors, and prompt the schedule builder to fix any before they can submit their completed schedule.

Viewing department schedule and course offerings

Additional display options

Adding/Editing a section

Edit section field explanation

	FIELD	EXPLANATION or NOTES
1	Title/Topic	Only a course with the Variable Course Title (RVCT) attribute may change its title in CLSS; all other course titles will default to the title approved by a curriculum committee and stored in Banner. (To change a title of a non-RVCT course would require curriculum committee approval and would go into effect for the next catalog cycle.)
2	Section #	The section number will default to the next available number. The number must be two digits.
3	Credit Hrs	If this box is grayed out and un-clickable, the course was approved for only the number of credit hours listed (invariable credit). If the course was approved for variable credit hours, you can click in the box, delete the number, and your options will appear in the box. NOTE: You must select only one credit hour number per section; a single section cannot be offered for 3 OR 4 credit hours.
4	Status	Classes with Active status will be rolled from the previous like term (ex: Spring 2019 to Spring 2020); classes with Cancelled status will not be rolled. Prior to Review phase, you may delete a section that will no longer be offered, but you can’t change to Cancelled status. From Publish phase to Post- Registration phase, changing from Active to Cancelled will initiate a workflow for approval.
5	Special Approval	Either Departmental Approval or Instructor Approval. Both require a Comment to Students of “Register for course in department” so that the required approver may issue an override, allowing the student to self-register.
6	Grade Mode	Dictates what type of grade will be issued. Ex: Standard (S) can issue letter grades A – F. Some course numbers may have multiple grade mode options; the default will be the one to appear in CLSS but can be changed. (Grade mode options are based on curriculum committee approval.)
7	Cross-list With	This refers to which course this section is cross-listed with. You can select a section to cross-list, in the dropdown menu. In the Plan phase, any sections may be cross-listed without a workflow; one section will be the Parent and the other(s) will be the Child(ren). In Review phase onward, to cross- list any section requires a workflow.
8	Part of Term	A session within a term. The default is 1 and has the same start/end dates as the term itself. Any scheduling units with their own parts of term will have access to those from the drop-down menu; the corresponding session dates will be listed. In Publish phase onward, this cannot be changed.
9	Campus	The broad location of the course. Distance-Learning (DS) is the campus for Online (ONL) course types; and Abroad (AB) is usually the campus for study-abroad courses of any course type. If you have questions about campus and location, please contact the Registrar’s Office.
10	Inst. Method	Instructional Method is Non-Traditional (NT) for Online courses, and Traditional (TR) for all others.
11	Visible	Almost all sections are required to select Yes as Visible, so that students may be aware of all possible offerings. Exceptions include non-zero sections of Independent Studies, Internships, and Honors Theses, which are specific to usually one student.
13	Final Exam	This allows schedulers to confirm if the section will require a classroom on the date of its final exam.
14	Section Attributes	Section attributes are populated from the course inventory as approved by your curriculum committee. The editing of section attributes is allowed only for designated courses, i.e. Special Topics, Honors.
15	Course Attributes	These attributes pull from the Course Catalog and cannot be updated in CLSS. They are there for informational purposes only. If something is incorrect, please contact the Registrar’s Office.
16	Instructor	A drop-down menu will include all Tulane instructors. At the bottom is the choice “Other.” Select this to search for an instructor name not listed. If the person you search for has instructor status, the name will appear and you may select it, then click Accept. If the name does not appear, contact either Human Resources (to see if new-hire processing is complete) or the Registrar (for current staff or graduate student Teaching Assistants). Multiple instructors may be listed for each section; in the pop-up instructor window, you may click the green plus sign to add more. All assigned instructors will be visible in the online listings (unless assigned as 0% Responsible). The instructor with the BLUE STAR to the left of their name is the primary instructor.
17	Room	Indicate a room you would like for this section. You have the option of “General Pool Room” if you do not have a preference. If your department owns any rooms, those will be listed for your classes only. For schedule types that do not meet on campus (example: Service), in person (example: Online), or otherwise don’t require classroom space (example: Research), you may select “No Room Needed.” Due to limited classroom space on campus, the Registrar’s Office will do its best but cannot guarantee to meet requests. NOTE: Sections not using a standard meeting pattern that request a General Pool room will not be addressed until all standard meeting sections are assigned.
18	Room Attributes	Not a required field – requestable options for General Pool Rooms only. Click on the pencil icon to request one or more attributes. You may request a campus area (example: Newcomb quad) and a seating style (example: seminar), among others. Due to limited classroom space on campus, the Registrar’s Office will do its best but cannot guarantee to meet requests.
19	Schedule	This allows you to select the meeting pattern(s) for the course. Clicking on the existing meeting pattern or the words “does not meet” will take you to the Schedule Snapper Tool.
20	Enrollment	Enrollment Cap –The maximum number of students able to register for the section. Absolute Max – Should equal Enrollment Cap. (The only exception: Enrollment Cap may be lower than Absolute Max temporarily during freshmen registration, to more equitably distribute seats.) Wait List – The only two options are Available (999) or Not Available (0). Combined Cap –The sum of all cross-listed Enrollment Caps. (See Crosslist). Only appears if a section is cross-listed.
21	Comments to Students	This has two sub-fields, below. (Neither is for internal notes to the Registrar.) Special Topic Description – the course section description of any section with the Variable Course Title attribute; limited to 60 characters. Course Notes – for notes that the department would like to communicate to students which would affect their registration; will display online. This field is not for internal notes.
22	Comments to Registrar	This field is for departments to communicate with the Registrar’s Office. Examples include fees, tuition-waived sections, co-requisites (section-level only), co-ops, SoPA cross-listings, cross-listings with “break-out” meeting patterns, room requests not covered in Room Attributes, and any other special comments. See section on Comments to Registrar for more information. Only the Registrar’s Office can see what is entered into this box.

Cross-list

Only “children” (secondary sections) can ask to be cross-listed with a “parent” (primary section). This is done so that another department does not take over a course section without that section’s permission. A child (secondary) can only have one parent (primary), but a parent (primary) may have many children (secondary); the children are “siblings” of each other.

Restrictions

Restrictions allow scheduling units to limit an enrolling population based on various eligibility criteria, including those listed in the Section Restrictions pop-up window.

Scheduling units are allowed to edit these restrictions throughout all CLSS phases EXCEPT for:

Room Assignment & Audit phase (when no fields will be editable)
Post Registration phase (when students can no longer self-register, after the last Drop Date).

Comments to Students

Any text in either of the two Comments to Students fields will be visible online. This field should include any information that students should know about a particular section before they attempt to register.

IMPORTANT: Comments to Students alone cannot manually enforce anything.

(Example: Listing a pre-requisite here that is not listed as a pre-req in Banner will not prevent the registration of students who don’t have that pre-req.)

Guidelines

Failure to follow these guidelines will result in the section not being set up appropriately.

Sections that rolled from a previous term (if they were listed correctly) should already have their pre-requisites typed in the Course Notes. Any new sections created for the current term will require the scheduling unit to manually type those pre-requisites.

IMPORTANT: Verify your pre-requisites in the catalog before typing them in the Course Notes. Please contact the Registrar if you are unsure that any AND/OR pre-reqs are worded correctly.

Any section restricted to Departmental/Instructor Approval requires the Comment to Students of “Register for course in department.”

Some sections’ restrictions are only temporary; in this case, the date that the specific restriction will be lifted should be included in the Course Notes. Please use the following wording template: “Open only to [restriction(s)] until [time] [full date], when restrictions will begin to be lifted.”

NOTE: The scheduling unit will be responsible for removing the restriction(s) on their selected lift date(s).

For sections occurring in the Special Offerings part of term, it may be helpful to clarify the specific meeting dates in the Course Notes when the meetings don’t occur on the same days in a set pattern (and so doesn’t allow for a Schedule to be entered in the Snapper). Listing dates may also be helpful for hybrid courses, or for Online courses that have synchronous meeting patterns.

This will not be allowed in the Course Notes without prior approval. A more generic note should be used, such as “In lieu of pre-requisites as specified, contact the department for permission to enroll.”

Wording formats

The section	The note
Schedule type possibilities: Studio, Research, Practicum	Meeting pattern to be coordinated between the instructor and student(s).
Restriction: Department/ Instructor Approval	Register for course in department.
Restriction: Major or School	Open to only [restriction(s)] until [time] [full date], when restrictions will begin to be lifted.
Any	In lieu of pre-requisites as specified, contact the department for permission to enroll.
Non-SoPA sections	This section of [SUBJ 1234] will not be made available to Newcomb-Tulane College students.
Subjects: Foreign Language courses	Course taught in [language]. (Can be English)
SoPA sections	SoPA Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) course.

Comments to Registrar

Any text in the Comments to Registrar field will not be visible online; this field is used to internally communicate to the Registrar’s Office any information that is not covered elsewhere in CLSS.

Any text in the Comments to Registrar field should NOT also be entered in either of the Comments to Students fields.

Wording formats

Schedule Snapper

The schedule snapper allows you to “snap” a course onto a pre-defined standard meeting time.

Schedule Snapper basics

Schedule Snapper: Viewing additional course sections

Schedule Snapper: Section with more than one meeting pattern

Multiple meeting patterns

Multiple meeting patterns can be used for different scheduling situations, including:

4-hour credit courses (which usually use one 3-hour standard meeting pattern plus an additional 1-hour meeting pattern). Ex: Math, Foreign Languages
Courses with one standard meeting pattern, plus an additional meeting for film screenings.
Courses that schedule exam times outside of/in addition to their primary standard meeting pattern.
Hybrid sections that do not meet every week.

Entering multiple meeting patterns in CLSS

From the ‘Edit Section’ screen, open the Snapper for your class section (click the linked blue text under ‘Schedule’)
Click on the black ‘Meetings’ button in the bottom-left corner of the Snapper.
Click on the green plus sign (+) to add a meeting pattern.
In the ‘Meeting Details’ pop-up window, select an available option from each of the following drop-down menus:
1. ‘Type’ of class
2. ‘Room’ needed – either a departmental room or General Pool Room (to be assigned by the Registrar’s Office)
3. ‘Dates’ – will default to part of term 1, but you may select ‘Custom’ and enter your dates using the format YYYY-MM-DD for both boxes.
Click ‘Accept,’ and then navigate back to the Snapper by clicking on the new meeting pattern.
Drop down the ‘Patterns’ menu and click ‘User Defined.’
1. Drop down ‘Patterns’ again to enter the times to the secondary meeting pattern you created, using the format of the example: TR 3:00pm-3:50pm
2. Click ‘Add.’ Repeat as needed for any additional meeting patterns.
When all meeting patterns have been entered, click ‘Accept.’
Back in the ‘Edit Section’ screen, click ‘Save Section.’

Examples

A 4-credit course has one shared 3-credit standard meeting pattern, plus one “break-out session”

A 3-credit course has a standard meeting pattern, plus a monthly evening meeting pattern for exams or screenings

A course that meets once a month

A hybrid course meets Tuesday in person and Thursday online

Validating

In the Course Sections screen, clicking the ‘Validate’ button will run all relevant rules on all of a scheduling unit’s sections within the selected term. Validating is a useful way to review which sections have a warning or error note and the types of workflow approvals that these sections will go through.

Within Design Mode (specifically, in the Proof & Final Submission Phase, which is right after the Plan Phase), validating is how a scheduler submits their complete scheduling unit to the Registrar’s Office.

Any part of the schedule that is not complete at that point will automatically be included in the submission, so schedulers should either delete any incomplete sections, or be aware that those sections may later require one or more validation workflows with each additional submission, during Refine Mode.

Flags: Error, Warning, Workflow

Rules are established in CLSS to enforce university policies and assist with managing course schedule changes that may occur in a typical academic year. They are like error reports, except they notify you right away if there is an issue with the section. There are three levels of notification if a class section does not satisfy one or more rules.

Warning

CLSS will alert you that there is a potential error on the section. The section or scheduling unit may be saved, but proceed with caution before completing the full schedule.

Error

The section or scheduling unit may not be saved. A rationale with possible solutions to the error is given. The error must be corrected first, before the ‘Save As-Is’ or ‘Start Workflow’ buttons become available.

Workflow

The section is in violation of one or more rules and must be approved by the Chair, the Department, and/or the Registrar’s Office. The section may be saved, which will trigger the workflow.

In Design Mode, all workflows occurs at one time for the entire scheduling unit.
In Refine Mode, each section – upon its individual submission – will go through a workflow on its own when one is triggered.

Heat map/visualize

TIP: From the Scheduling Units screen, you may click Visualizer to view the heat map for all section offerings for all scheduling units within a term.

This can assist in determining your “prime-time” meeting pattern trends.

Note that the Heat Map displays meeting time densities but is not specific to locations. ANY section (within this scheduling unit) that meets will display here, regardless of room or campus; even online meetings patterns can display here.

Using the framer

The Framer is a useful way to compare terms.

Filtering and reporting

Filtering is a powerful tool to view course sections throughout the university. There are many ways to use this tool, and you are encouraged to experiment with it.

Filtering

Filtering can be run using one or more data fields per filter. These data fields serve as conditions that will narrow the results of a search on your Scheduling Unit’s sections. Key words and symbols can be used individually or in combination, to limit and specify your search criteria.

Filter symbols

Symbol	Description
!	Not
,	Or (matches any of the items in the comma-separated list)
=	Exact match, ignoring other special characters
?	One wild card character
*	Zero or more wild-card characters
>	Greater than
>=	Greater than or equal to
<	Less than
<=	Less than or equal to
::	Range
same	Field's value is the same as the corresponding field in another group
NUM	Numeric
ALPHA	Alphabetic
ALPHANUM	Alphanumeric
[0-9]	Matches one character (Number) from the range given in the bracket
[A-Z]	Matches one character (Capital Letter) from the range given in the bracket
[a-z]	Matches one character (Lower Case Letter) from the range given in the bracket
[A-Za-z]	Matches one character (Any Letter) from the range given in the bracket
[^wW]	Matches one character that is not a W of either case

More examples of filters

Catalog number

For undergrad-only sections (all course numbers at the 4000 level and below).

(Some exceptions: Architecture, Education)

Active/Canceled Sections

Change Status Code to X for all canceled sections.

(Note that in the Design phase, sections are deleted instead of canceled.)

Enrollment

This field can be used to check for low or zero enrollment.

Empty instructor

Sections that do not have an instructor entered will default to “Staff” (ID: 000000000).

(This search method will go into full effect by Fall 2020.)

Exporting filtered results

After entering all the filters, click on the ‘Export’ button.

Exporting to Excel will generate an editable file; exporting to a PDF file will be read-only.

After opening the Excel file, you may further filter out and sort what data you need or don’t need.

Questions and CLSS Access

For access to CLSS or questions not covered by this guide, contact our Class Scheduling team.

Thank You!

Thank you for working with us to ensure the accuracy of the course schedule. The Office of the Registrar and the students of Tulane University greatly appreciate it!