This guide goes through the full process of adding a course that does not yet have planning data entered in IPT.

If you need help with editing a course that already has planning data entered in IPT, consider reading the Course page - Overview guide first before returning to Parts 2–7 of this guide for comprehensive help.

To open a Course page, you must have Curriculum Management permissions, which can be set by your IPT administrator.

In this guide

• Add course planning data
  • Part 1: Access the Add Course page
  • Part 2: First table section
  • Part 3: Second table section
  • Part 4: Third table section
  • Part 5: Add TAs to lecture
  • Part 6: Discussion or lab section planning
  • Part 7: Comments field
  • Part 8: Save, Cancel, and other actions
• Need more help?

Add course planning data

When adding course planning information in IPT, the only required fields are the term, course number, and section number. The remaining fields can be filled out or left blank depending on how much information you are prepared to enter. The Course page can be edited later at any time.

For help filling out the first section of the Course page (starting with the “Term” field), go to Part 2. For help filling out the second section of the page (starting with the “Instructor(s)” field), go to Part 3. For help filling out the third section of the page (starting with the “Initial Enrollment” field), go to Part 4.

Part 1: Access the Add Course page

Select “Academic Year Planning” from the IPT navigation menu on the left. 

On the Academic Year Planning page, select “Add Course” at the top. You do not need to select an Academic Year from the dropdown.

Part 2: First table section

To fill out the first section of the Course page:

1. Select the Term you are entering the course for. 

2. If the course has a non-standard Session Code (anything other than A1), enter the code. If the code is A1, leave this field blank. 

3. In the Program field, select whether the course is associated with the Full-Time program (FTP) or Part-Time program (PTP). 

   1. If you are using a new instance of IPT, this field may be blank. Program subgroups are optional and can be created by your IPT administrator(s). For more information, refer to Admin Tools - Create and manage program subgroups.

4. In the Course field, select the course number from the dropdown list, then enter the three-digit section number on the right. 

   1. The Meets With field is for Section-Level Meets With (SL) courses. This field will be left blank or N/A for most courses.

   2. If you are entering a cross-listed (XL) course, refer to Academic Year Planning - Add cross-listed courses. 

   3. For more information on combined course sections, refer to SIS - Combined Sections: Types and Definitions in the Office of the Registrar KnowledgeBase.

5. Ignore the checkbox below the Course field. This checkbox is only used to indicate when a course should be removed from the timetable for a certain term. For more information, refer to Course page - Mark a course for removal from timetable.

Part 3: Second table section

To fill out the second section of the Course page:

1. In the Instructor(s) field, select an instructor from the first dropdown list. Select their title in the next dropdown list. 

   1. The middle field can be used to enter a custom title, which will override any selection in the title dropdown. This title will be used only for this course. It will not change the instructor’s title in the IPT system list.

   2. Select the “tentative” checkbox if you are not certain the instructor you’ve selected will be teaching the course. Alternatively, you may select a Placeholder from the instructor dropdown list (if your IPT administrators have pre-added Placeholders to the system list). 

   3. If you select “Add Placeholder,” this will open the Add an Instructor page in a new tab. Use this link only if you intend to add a Placeholder to the IPT system list of instructors. For more information, refer to Instructor Management - Add an instructor or placeholder to system list. After adding an instructor, select “Refresh Lists” at the top of the Course page to update the instructor dropdown list.

   4. Select the “Add Instructor” button if the course will be taught by more than one instructor.

2. You may select the “Temp Increase” checkbox to add the course to your department’s annual STS (short-term staff) request.

3. In the Funding field, select the appropriate funding string from the dropdown list. 

   1. You may select the “Split Funding” checkbox to add two funding strings and allocate the percentages as needed. 

   2. If you select “Add Funding,” this will open the Edit Funding page in a new tab. Use this link only if you intend to add a new funding string to the IPT system list of funds. For more information, refer to Edit Funding - Overview. After adding a funding string, select “Refresh Lists” at the top of the Course page to update the funding dropdown list.

4. Select the percentage of a full-time equivalent (FTE) that is satisfied by teaching the course. 

5. Select the Course Load number that will count toward the instructor’s academic year standard load. 

   1. Summer courses should have a Course Load number of zero unless it counts toward the instructor’s academic year standard load.

6. Select the number of discussion and/or lab sections, if applicable. Once you add discussion or lab sections, the bottom of the Course page will populate with additional form fields so you can enter details about each section. (Refer to Part 6 for help with these fields.)

   1. You may select the Enrollment checkbox to indicate that students are allowed to enroll in the lecture and the discussion/lab section separately. Typically, this will not be the case — most discussion or lab sections will be linked so that a student will be automatically enrolled in the lecture upon enrolling in a discussion or lab.

7. In the Assign Instruction Mode field, select “Classroom” (fully in person), “Online (some classroom)” (hybrid), or “Online only.”

8. In the Room Cap field, enter the projected room capacity (maximum number of students) for the lecture. 

9. In the WaitList field, enter the maximum number of students who will be allowed to join a wait list for the course during enrollment.

10. In the Final Exam field, select Yes or No from the dropdown to indicate whether the course will have a final exam.

11. The Topic field should be left blank unless it is a topics course, where each time the course is taught it is on a different topic. 

    1. In SIS, the Add Course Topics field has a 30-character limit. In IPT, this field does not have a character limit, so you can write a longer description if needed, as long as you are aware the topic will need to be shortened when entered in SIS. 

12. In the Class Length field, enter the number of minutes that the lecture will meet for. 

    1. This number should be the duration of a single class meeting.

    2. You must enter a Class Length number in order to select a day/time in the next step.

13. In the Location & Time field: 

    1. Select the requested room assignment from the first dropdown.

    2. From the second dropdown, select the day(s) on which the class will meet.

    3. Once you select the class day(s), a new field will appear where you can enter the class start time. IPT will automatically calculate the end time based on the Class Length you entered in the previous step.

    4. You may select the “No Dates or Times” checkbox if you do not want the course to appear in the Timetable Planning (calendar grid) view. This option is primarily used for asynchronous online courses and independent studies.

Part 4: Third table section

To fill out the third section of the Course page:

1. In the Initial Enrollment field, enter the number of students that will be allowed to enroll when the enrollment period opens. 

   1. For certain courses, you may consider entering a lower number for Initial Enrollment if you want to leave cap space for students who may need to enroll in the course late.

2. In the Assign Anticipated Enrollment field, enter the number of students that you realistically anticipate will enroll in the course (generally equal to or greater than Initial Enrollment).

3. In the SIS Notes field, enter any information that should be listed in Course Search & Enroll. This information will be viewable by all students in the course catalog. 

4. In Scheduling Preferences, enter any notes you’d like to leave for yourself later when using the Timetable Planning (calendar) view. For example, “This course needs to be on Mondays or Wednesdays.”

5. In the Requisites field, enter any section-level requisites that a student must meet in order to enroll in this course. 

   1. If the course in previous terms had section-level requisites, they will be shown above the “Section-level requisite” header, so you can copy and paste those requisites into the blank text field if they still apply.

6. Enter the number of Credits this course is worth.

7. In the Tags field, select the tag that identifies the type of course or the specific program this course belongs to.

   1. If you are using a new instance of IPT, this field may be blank. Tags are optional and can be created by your IPT administrator(s). For more information, refer to Admin Tools - Create and manage course tags.

Part 5: Add TAs to lecture

Below the Tags field, there is a dropdown that enables you to indicate “Does this course need one or more TAs?” Please note this only adds TAs to the lecture, not any discussion or lab sections.

1. Select “No” if the course lecture does not require TAs.

2. If you select “Yes,” a new form section will appear where you can select: 

   1. the name of the TA (or a placeholder), 

   2. the appropriate funding string, 

   3. the appointment percentage, and 

   4. the number of sections the TA will be assigned to.

   5. To add multiple TAs to the lecture, select the “Add TA” button.

Part 6: Discussion or lab section planning

If you indicated there are discussion or lab sections associated with this course in Part 3, these forms will appear at the bottom of the Course page, just above the Comments field.

1. If you’d like to make these discussion/lab sections stand out visually in Timetable Planning (calendar) view, select the checkbox for “Change section outline color in timetable planning.”

   1. To choose your outline color, select the line color button directly below the checkbox. If you do not choose an outline color, the default is black.

2. Enter the Section Length or Lab Length in number of minutes. 

   1. This number should be the duration of a single section meeting.

   2. You must enter a Section/Lab Length number in order to select a day/time in the next step.

3. In the section form, the section numbers will populate automatically. For each section, you can select:

   1. the name of the TA (or a placeholder), 

   2. the location (room assignment), and

   3. the day(s) on which the section will meet.

   4. Once you select the section meeting day(s), a new field will appear where you can enter the class start time. IPT will automatically calculate the end time based on the Section/Lab Length you entered in the previous step.

   5. You may select the “No Dates or Times” checkbox if you do not want the course to appear in the Timetable Planning (calendar grid) view. This option is primarily used for asynchronous online courses and independent studies.

Part 7: Comments field

The Comments field is where you can leave internal notes for yourself or other department administrators, and view any notes that others have left previously.

1. If you are creating a new course and have not saved yet, you must first select “Save” at the bottom of the page before you can view any prior notes associated with the course.

2. To leave a new note, enter your information in the text field and then select “Save Comment” on the right. You may select the “Permanent” checkbox above the text field if you’d like your note to appear on the IPT course page for every academic term going forward.

Part 8: Save, Cancel, and other actions

To save the course data you’ve entered, select “Save” in the action bar at the bottom or top of the page. For help with the other buttons in the action bar, read the following tips:

1. You may select “Save and Notify” to send an email to the assigned instructor(s) notifying them of the changes made to the course. 

   1. Note: Use “Save and Notify” only when a significant change to Location & Time has been made to the course. Instructors do not see most IPT course data other than Location & Time. 

2. Select “Refresh Lists” when you’ve added a new funding string or instructor to the IPT system lists. Selecting “Refresh Lists” will update the dropdown lists on the Course page while holding any information you’ve already entered on the page.

   1. Note: Selecting “Refresh Lists” does not save the information you’ve entered on the page. 

3. You may select “Go Back” (only at the top of the page) or “Cancel” to exit the Course page without saving any changes. 

   1. Select “Go Back” to return to the IPT page you came from. “Go Back” is not always available on the Course page, depending on how you accessed it. 

   2. If you select “Cancel,” you will not be returned to the IPT page you came from — instead, you will be taken to the Course List page. You must manually navigate back to the page you want using the IPT navigation menu on the left.

Need more help?

For help with other pages in IPT, refer to the following guides:

• Academic Year Planning - Overview
• Timetable Planning - Overview
• Instructor Management - Overview
• Edit Funding - Overview
• Admin Tools - Overview