Plan Requirement

Initial Configuration for Plan Requirement

Before you begin creating Plan Requirement data, review some guidelines.

• You can relate a Plan Requirement to only one parent record. If the requirement is a parent Plan Requirement, the related parent record must be a Program Plan. If the requirement is a child Plan Requirement, the related parent record must be a parent Plan Requirement.

• EDA K-12 Architecture Kit includes validations to make sure that you relate the correct type of parent record and to maintain your hierarchical structures. The Plan Requirement Hierarchy setting, in EDA Settings, is enabled by default from Program Plans under Courses and Enrollments.

• Various Table-Driven Trigger Management (TDTM) rules automates the creation, update, and deletion of Plan Requirement records and related records. Review the classes that affect the Plan Requirement object in Apex Class Descriptions for EDA.

Design the Program Plan's Requirements Hierarchy

You can control a lot about how Plan Requirements are configured. For example, make requirements required or optional. Create parent and child relationships. And relate requirements to a specific Course. When you use these strategies together, you create a hierarchical structure for a given Program Plan. Let's consider some common ways you can set up Plan Requirements to create a hierarchy.

• A required Plan Requirement with a specific Course that students must complete to satisfy a Program Plan.

• A required Plan Requirement without a specific Course that serves as a parent Plan Requirement with the number of credits that must be completed. 

• Child Plan Requirements that are:

  • Required, with a specific Course that students must complete to satisfy a parent Plan Requirement.

  • Required, without a specific Course, but with specific criteria (such as Any humanities course level 200 or above) and a number of credits required.

  • Optional, with or without a specific Course. Students can select which optional requirements they complete to satisfy the total credits required by a parent Plan Requirement.

Prepare Your Program Plan Hierarchy

Before creating Plan Requirement records, make sure to create the required records.

• An Academic Program record to represent one of the offered programs. For example, B.S. Biology. For more information, see .

• A Program Plan record for the current academic year, or perhaps for a previous or future academic year. For example, Biology Catalog Year 2018/2019. For more information, see .

• Course records to represent the Courses that can satisfy the Program Plan's requirements. For more details, see .

Sample Program Plan and Requirements

An Academic Program, B.S. Biology, has a Program Plan called Biology Catalog Year 2018/2019. Students pursuing this degree must satisfy 72 units of lower division requirements and 48 units of upper division requirements.

If we map the Program Plan B.S. Biology's sample degree requirements to our Plan Requirements structure, we can apply these methods row by row, as summarized in this table.

Create a Plan Requirement Record

Represent the required items of an Academic Program by creating Plan Requirement records.

1. From the Program Plans tab, click the Program Plan that you're creating a Plan Requirement for. If you don't see the tab, search for it from the App Launcher.

2. From the Plan Requirements related list, click New.

3. Enter the details, noting the following fields.

   Field	Details
   Plan Requirement Name	Because Program Plans can change every year, it's helpful to reference the Program Plan and academic year along with the name of the course. For example, Organic Chemistry - Biology Catalog Year 2018/2019.
   Program Plan	Because you're starting from the Program Plan record, the Program Plan Name is filled in automatically. If you're creating a parent Plan Requirement, leave the value filled in. If you're creating a child Plan Requirement, clear this field. Child Plan Requirements look up to their parent Plan Requirement only—not to the Program Plan.
   Parent Plan Requirement	If you're creating a parent Plan Requirement, leave this field blank. If you're creating a child Plan Requirement, start entering the name of the parent Plan Requirement, and select it when you see it suggested.
   Category	Your selection in the Category field depends on the type of Course. If the Course is one of multiple required Courses under the parent Plan Requirement, select Required. If the Course is one of multiple optional Courses, select Optional. We recommend that all the child requirements under a parent Plan Requirement share the same Category.
   Sequence	Specify where this Plan Requirement falls in a progression through the Program Plan. For example, enter 1 to indicate Semester 1 or 2 to indicate Semester 2.
   Course	If a single Course satisfies the Plan Requirement, enter the name of the Course, and select it when you see it suggested. If the Plan Requirement doesn't require a specific course, leave this field blank. If this requirement is a parent Plan Requirement that has Courses specified under child Plan Requirements, leave this field blank.
   Credits	Enter the credit units required. For example, a specific, single-Course Plan Requirement for a Course like CHEM 50 requires 4 credits. Make sure this value matches the number of credit hours specified on the Course record. A more general Plan Requirement like General Electives typically requires a total number of credits, such as 20 credits.
   Description	If you're creating a general Plan Requirement without specific Courses, use the Description field to spell out the criteria, such as Any upper division courses. For other Plan Requirements, use the field to provide context for the requirement, such as 1 of 2 required Organic Chemistry Courses.

4. Save the information.