Understanding the Course Planner

Introduction

The Course Planner (formerly 6SP) is a tool used for course planning and instructor assignment six (or more) semesters ahead. This tool is extremely important in helping adhere to the Collective Agreement requirements that a 2-year plan be made for Continuing faculty members. The Course Planner also links into other modules of the system, such as Budget Planning and Contracts. This tool helps give better insight into the future and identifying areas where more hiring may be needed. The Course Planner will benefit Course Offerings Planners and Academic Administrators for future course planning, Budget Planners for budgeting purposes, and any other course planning personnel involved. Ultimately, the Course Planner will benefit all course planning personnel as it integrates information across academic units. This means that if certain courses are required by students of different departments, Course Offerings Planners from both departments will be able to collaborate in the planning process.  

How Does the Course Planner Work? 

The Course Planner generates a calendar-like grid for all the courses in your department. Rows in the calendar represent these courses while columns represent terms. Each cell in this grid represents an offering for the corresponding course and term. Through this tool, course offerings can be planned for future semesters and existing course offerings can be edited. For every offering, the planner also allows for instructor assignment, enrollment updating and course offering setup details such as Section Number, Component Type, Delivery Mode, and Campus. After the course plan is finalized in eTRACS, then data entry into SIMS for the upcoming semester can begin. 

Who is Responsible for Course Planning?

Program Directors, Chairs, Area Coordinators and other course planning personnel in the academic unit are responsible for assigning courses and instructors to the Course Planner. The Course Planner must be kept as up-to-date as possible so that you can plan ahead and provide accurate information for students as they plan their degrees. This is generally done on a rolling 2-year term for compliance with the SFUFA collective agreement.

How to navigate to the Course Planner

The Course Planner can be located with the following steps:

1. Navigate to the menu dropdown under Course Mgmt > Course Management

2. Select 'Course Planner'