Manage the Course Tree

Courses are created and organized in the Manage Course Tree interface. The tree allows courses to be organized by schools, grade levels, content areas, or any other method of organization your district may desire. The Course Tree is the foundation for which all curriculum entry begins.

There are three types of entries in the tree, which are:

Root Entry - Visualized by the global icon and represents the entire district. This entry cannot be deleted. The district name, however, can be changed by double-clicking the icon, making changes and then clicking out of it.

Organization Folders - These are the folders that contain other folders or the courses themselves. Districts can organize these folders as they choose by using schools, grade levels, content areas or other methods for organization.

Courses - Courses are the lowest denominator in the course tree. Courses are going to have the Learning Standards applied to them for teachers to use when building their lesson plans.

 

Build the Course Tree 

The default course tree has the top level structured into school level folders: elementary, middle, and high. The elementary level breaks the courses down into grade level folders. The middle and high levels divide the courses into their respective subject areas. This method of organization is simply one example. These can easily be reorganized to match your district. 

Rename the root entry:

• Double-click on the root entry
• Change the text of the root entry
• Click off of the entry

Create a folder:

• Select the root entry or another folder
• Click the New Folder button on the toolbar
• Enter the folder name
• Click the Save button

*Note: a folder cannot be created inside a course.

Create a course:

• Select a folder to place the course
• Click the New Course button on the toolbar
• Enter a name for the course
• Click the Save button

*Note: Only published trees are available for assigning and editing learning standards.

 

Copying Courses

The two types of copy options are outlined below:

Deep Copy -   A deep copy creates a new course and duplicates all learning standards and associated TEKS courses. This would be most appropriate for courses like Algebra I, where a middle school curriculum might be different than the high school course.

Mirrored Course -  A mirrored course places the exact same course in multiple places in the tree. Any changes made to one course will impact any mirrors. Again, this might be appropriate for courses like Algebra I, where the curriculum will be the same at the middle and high school levels.

To Copy a Course:

• Select a course to be copied
• Click the Copy button on the menu bar
• Select the type of copy operation to perform
• Select a destination folder
• Click the Paste button

*Note: Courses may be copied to various parts of the course tree, but may not be copied directly beside the original course. While Forethought offers tremendous flexibility in organizing courses, using options like mirrored courses should be used sparingly to keep long-term management simple.

 

Delete a Course

Courses should only be deleted when absolutely necessary. This most often occurs when initially experimenting with structure and design. Instead of deleting courses not taught, it may be easier to simply hide them in case they are needed later.

• Select a course and click the Delete button.

This will toggle the course to be deleted when the course is next Published. To toggle the course to not be deleted, simply select the course and click the delete button again. This is an extra safeguard to make sure you really do want to delete that course.

 

Hide a Course

The preferred method for making a course unavailable in the district scope and sequence is to hide the course. This preserves all learning standards and activities if the course would need to become active sometime in the future.

• Select a course and click the Hide Course button.

The course icon will become gold indicating that the course is no longer visible. A course can become visible again by selecting the course and click the Hide Course button again. 

 

Moving Courses and Folders

To move a folder to another area in the tree:

• Select the folder to be moved
• Click the Cut button (scissor icon)
• Select a folder to place the course
• Click the Paste button

You can also simply drag and drop it into another folder. This will prompt you to confirm your action. You can also use the blue arrows to shift courses and folders up and down in the tree as well.

Moving a folder will also move any other courses or folders within it. Moving a course will keep all course content (standards and activities) with it as well.

 

Publishing the Tree

As an extra safety mechanism for both the Course Tree and all individual courses, Forethought creates two copies of the Course Tree. All work is conducted on the draft copy of the tree. All changes and edits occur on this copy thus leaving the published copy unaffected. All teachers and curriculum editors use the published copy to find courses in the tree. To finalize your changes and make edits public, you will need to publish the tree. This not only finalizes your changes, but it also creates a future fall-back point for removing unwanted changes.

The latest date and time of publishing will appear on the bottom status bar.