Retiring the Class Sessions Tool in CoursePlus

July 05, 2023 | 2 Minute Read

CoursePlus has two mechanisms by which students can access content and see the overall schedule for a course: Class Sessions and Schedule Builder. (Here’s a page which shows you the difference between the two tools.) All online courses use Schedule Builder. Faculty teaching on-campus, blended, or hybrid (non .8x course section) courses decide which of the two tools is used in their CoursePlus site. Only one tool can be used at any time in a single CoursePlus site.

After discussions with academic leadership and the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Class Sessions tool in CoursePlus will be retired on June 30, 2024, in favor of only using the Schedule Builder tool. The Schedule Builder tool is familiar to you if you teach a fully online (.8x section) course, as it has been the default schedule tool for all online courses for over fifteen years.

The primary reason for making this change is to provide students with a consistent, user-friendly experience across their course sites. Advantages the Schedule Builder tool provides students include:

• A clear display of all course events (lectures, assignments, and other learning activities) in tandem with a term’s progression.
• Calendar dates for event meeting times, availability, and deadlines.
• Tracking of completion of activities on the schedule.
• Daily announcement emails of new and due course events.

To create a smooth transition, AY23-24 courses need to transition to the Schedule Builder format this year. CoursePlus provides a one-click tool that automatically converts class sessions to the Schedule Builder format. Here’s how to use it:

1. Go to the main Faculty Tools page in your CoursePlus site.
2. Click the “Switch to Schedule Builder/Page Builder” button.
3. Make any changes to the results as you see fit.

All courses should make the switch before their next offering. Any class offered after the Class Sessions tool is retired (starting in AY24-25) will only have access to the Schedule Builder tool for their site.

If you have any questions about this switch, CTL will be providing one-on-one consultations, drop-in “office hours”, and video walkthroughs, starting this August. In the interim, if you have specific questions about this change, please reach out to the CTL Help team, and we will be delighted to answer any questions you might have.