Creating and managing subjects - FAQ

The subject controls the assessments part of MySchool. Students cannot be enrolled directly into a subject but they are enrolled on a course which is attached to a subject for their class level. Subjects are important for transcripts, grade reports, and national reporting (DQSE, TRAX). They are not rolled over on a yearly basis, whereas the assessment criteria you create for grade reports will be. If you have any questions regarding your curriculum and assessment needs then speak to your CSM for more information.

How to access

Subject management is restricted to Administrators or Subject Administrators. Find the option under the Administer menu header, Advanced Options, then open Subject management. Users will need to have permissions set for create, edit, view and delete if appropriate. Please make sure users understand that deleting subjects is not possible when data or course enrolments are attached. This is for all years. It is preferable to archive them in the subject list view.

The list of subjects is listed in alphabetical order, it can be filtered by class level on the right-hand panel. Click on the subject to open the edit screens.

You can also edit the following criteria directly from the list screen, by selecting the box next to the subject name. The MORE menu appears next to the delete icon. 

A slide-over panel will appear with the selected fields listed. All the selected subjects will be updated once the slide-over window is saved. Some of the options listed are connected to the BC Canadian settings, and will not apply to other marketplaces.

Please note that you may need to filter the subjects by class level to use the multi-update function.

Creating a new subject

Open a New Subject with the action button at the top right-hand corner of the subject list page. There are four tabs to configure subjects;

• Configuration
• Promotion & enrolment
• Assignment
• Other details

1. Name/Level/Code

Create a name for the subject, this will appear on grade reports, then attach it to a class level. These are the two mandatory fields needed to create a subject. If you do not wish to add more detail you can save it at this point. The code appears on grids and reports where the full name is not needed.

2. Curriculum/Category

If a curriculum has been created then the subject can be attached from the drop-down menu field. To add new or edit the curricula then select the option. The same applies to the category. This feature allows schools to collect and then extract data relating to internal and external reports.

3. Credit/Capacity

If you have a system of course credits in place then these can be entered here. Equally, if there is an optimal capacity then this can be controlled from here. This is important in the BC region when calculating TRAX data.

4. Administrators

Certain members of the Teaching staff or Heads of Subjects can be allocated to subject management. Enabling them as Administrators will allow them to manage assignments, and learning outcomes, and configure settings in connection to the subject.

5. Is active/Available for admissions

To set the subject as being active then select this box here, otherwise, it will not appear on the grade report or be available for courses. Subjects can be incorporated into the admissions process, and students can apply directly to enrol on subjects within your educational establishment. 

6. Description

Use attachments, and hyperlinks, and set out guidelines for educators to follow. The description section will be viewed by the Teaching staff within your school.

7. Period per week/lesson & index

Set the number of periods for the subject, and the index number when it appears in a list. 0 is the default value, then subjects are classified by alphabetical order.

Promotion & Enrolment

You can set the promote to feature when creating a subject, this will make the rollover automatically create these subjects, and allow the promotion of students attached to these subjects.

By setting the enrolment rules, then MySchool will automatically place the subject within a class level, and if selected will make it mandatory for students within that class level. Simply add an enrolment rule for other levels if applicable. 

Setting the assignments

Assignments are the regular coursework given by Teachers. These are managed via the subject, to ensure that all Teachers of the attached courses are applying the same teaching standards to their courses. There are four settings that control the grade grid, and eventually, the marks applied within the grade report. 

1. Grade average calculation

These settings are linked to the assignment configuration page, you can select the assignment average individually in the subject.

2. Assignment categorisation

This is the Topic setting, it is used to group assignments and VLE content. Configurable by Teacher means that each Teacher can create their own topics within their course, or define the topics centrally from the subject.

3. Assignment types

Determine which assignment types can be added to the subject. These will be available on the assignment create page. These can also be configured and edited via the Assignment configuration feature.

4. Grade scales

Heads of subjects are able to determine what type of grade scale to apply to a subject. The scales are created on the assignment configuration page, and can be used for assignments and grade report assessments. They can be applied in bulk also on the assignment configuration page.

Please do not change scales after assessments have been entered either on the assignment grade grid or assess grid. 

5. Continuous assessment

If you wish to use the continuous assessment functionality then you have to enable the grade grid on a subject level. Have a look at this article for further details on how to configure this.

6. Include in GPA

Enable the subject to be included in the default GPA calculation available with the MySchool default assessment template. This will only work with numeric grades and is a simple average of Grade/Total grade/Nbr of subjects. You can choose a weighted average which uses the subject credit field as a weight.

7. LO calculation method

By default, the assignment grade grid will show a numerical % as an average. This will not use the same average calculation weights as the Average by learning outcome. It will simply calculate the average of all points given / All graded Learning outcomes. It will then round the numerical average to the nearest point score, and show the relevant achievement scale associated with that point score.

BC settings

For our British Columbian marketplace, you can automate your TRAX and PSR reports. Enter the correct TRAX code from the ministry website, and determine the FTE count within the subject tabs. Using subject specifications, you can then select a primary grade when using the populate page.

Managing the curriculum

Within MySchool we have created systems which are both interdependent and dependent. A subject needs to have courses attached, which again can have Assignments linked to specific learning outcomes. For basic use, the system does not need to be configured with everything linked. To obtain maximum monitoring, then we advise looking into the options and creating the links. Making subjects work for your school will make it easier when applied to Assignments, Grade grids, and Grade reporting. 

Use the Subject Specifications/Learning outcomes to monitor and assist Teachers in monitoring students' efforts. Include standards, and attach teaching guidelines for the course Teachers to follow.

New subjects can be imported via the import tool, and if needed we can assist with advice on how best to implement changes. If it is a whole new curriculum then talk to our support before entering the information.

If a course has been attached to the wrong subject, and assessment and assignment data has been entered, then you will not be able to retain these entries. They will be wiped. We advise manually extracting the data before proceeding with the change.