Understanding the Three Repeat Checking Methods

Automatic Repeat Checking

Automatic repeat-checking processing occurs when you:

• Post enrollment requests.

• Post grades using the Enrollment Request page or the Quick Enrollment page.

  Repeat checking does not occur when you post grades using the Student Enrollment page or the grade roster.

• Post transfer credit.

With automatic repeat-checking processing, you do not have to run a process through the process scheduler to check for repeats (although that is an option). After you perform a little setup, the system runs the process automatically.

Note the slight differences between the automatic repeat-checking processing through enrollment request grade posting and the automatic repeat-checking batch processing following grade posting and transfer credit posting.

When a student attempts to enroll in classes, the Repeat Rule Checking process scans the student's course history for a course ID or equivalent course ID that matches the requested course ID. If the process finds a matching pair, it can do one of three things: issue a warning that repeat codes might apply and that the enrollment might not count towards the student's degree, prevent the enrollment, or ignore the match. Note that the process does not assign repeat codes to the repeated course at this stage.

When you post grades (using the Enrollment Request page) and transfer credit, the Repeat Rule Checking process likewise scans the student's course history for a course ID or equivalent course ID that matches the ID of the course for which you are posting the grade or transfer credit. If the process finds a matching pair, it evaluates each course of the pair based on the repeat rules that you have created. Because the process can no longer prevent enrollment because the student has already taken the class, it assigns a repeat code. The process assigns a violation repeat code to the repeated course when the repeated course causes the student to exceed the total units allowed or total attempts allowed (as defined first on the Repeat Rule 2 page and later for each rule on the Repeat Rule Detail 1 page). Or the process assigns a repeat code to both courses in the matched pair when the repeated course is in violation of a particular repeat rule.

For example, you can set up a rule for the undergraduate career that allows students to repeat twice those courses in which they receive a failing grade. The Repeat Rule Checking process scans the student's history to identify other instances of this particular course ID or equivalent course ID. When the process finds a repeat and establishes the matched pair, it evaluates the current course to see if it violates the repeat rule's total attempts allowed and total units allowed. If either maximum has been exceeded, the Repeat Rule Checking process assigns a violation repeat code to only the current course in the matched pair. However, if the process determines that the repeat violates any of the established rules, it assigns repeat codes to the matched pair of courses.

Because automatic repeat checking during peak enrollment and grade-posting periods can negatively impact the performance of your system, you can temporarily suspend automatic repeat checking for the entire academic institution on the Academic Institution 5 page, for an academic career on the Repeat Checking page (Academic Career Table component), and for academic programs on the Taxonomy/Campus page (Academic Program Table component).

Automatic repeat checking is optional when processing transfer credit. You set this repeat checking control on the Academic Institution 5 page.

Repeat Checking in Batch

Run the Repeat Rule Checking process in batch through the Repeat Checking page or set up the Process Scheduler to run the process automatically. After grades are posted, you can run repeat checking in batch whenever you want in the term. However, you should not run the batch process more than once per term because codes that have been set in the first run can be inadvertently changed in subsequent runs.

When you use the grade roster to post grades, you must run the batch process to check courses against your repeat rules. The automatic Repeat Rule Checking process runs only when grades are posted using the Enrollment Request page. Therefore, one way to use the repeat checking in batch functionality is to run the batch process after most of your grades have been posted on the grade roster. Then, you can run repeat checking on grade input for individual students whose grades are posted after the batch process has been run.

You can run repeat checking in batch for all students in an entire academic career, for an academic program within an academic career, or for individual students. Repeat checking in batch can also be term-driven, running from a specific term and moving back in time.

Assigning Repeat Codes Manually

You can manually assign repeat codes to a student's record. For special individual cases, you can go into the student's record through the Student Enrollment page, the Quick Enrollment page, or the Enrollment Request page, depending on your security access, and select a value for the Repeat Code field. You can also use this method to change the repeat codes that the automatic process assigned. Assigning repeat codes manually affects academic statistics just as it would if the repeat codes were assigned using the Repeat Rule Checking process.

In addition, repeat rules contain certain exemption conditions. You can set up exemption codes on the Repeat Rule 2 page and manually assign these codes to a specific class on the Student Enrollment 1, Enrollment Request, or Quick Enrollment page. When the Repeat Rule Checking process finds a repeat, and the repeat rule specifies that an exemption exists, the process looks to see whether the repeat code that is exempted is assigned to the student's record.

For example, a repeat rule might demand that a repeat be approved by petition. Thus, an Approved via Petition repeat code would be listed as an exemption so that when a student received the approval, you could assign the appropriate repeat code to the student's enrollment record. The Repeat Rule Checking process would identify the enrollment as a repeat, but when it found the exempted repeat code on the current class, it would allow the enrollment. Exemption codes function for both front-end and back-end repeat check processing, allowing overrides to the total attempts allowed and total units allowed maximums that are established on the Repeat Rule 2 page.