Course And Unit Information

Owned by Katie Macpherson (Deactivated)
Last updated: May 20, 2021 by Serhii Sorokyn (Deactivated)
9 min read

Course information is imported via the Student Batch Load (SBL) process and courses are displayed on the courses tab and the units are totaled and displayed on the Academic Plan tab. As the course information is imported, the system flags disqualified remedial and disqualified repeat courses so that they are not counted as FSA eligible for the determination of eligibility and disbursement of funds. Non-remedial courses flagged as not program applicable are also not counted as FSA eligible.

  • Anticipated units – The number of units that the student is anticipated to enroll in for the term/payment period. This is configured in system setup.
  • Anticipated units for Academic Year 
    • for non-term - less of the number of units that are required to complete Academic Year (Program Setup - Academic Year Units) OR the remaining number of units to complete Program.
    • for term - a total of anticipated units from all Academic Year terms
  • Anticipated units for Payment Period
    • for non-term
      • Payment Period 1 -  half of the Anticipated Units for Academic Year.
      • Payment Period 2 - Anticipated Units for Academic Year minus Progression Units from Payment Period 1. 
    • for term - number of units based on Program Setup - Anticipated Enrollment Level Type

NOTE - Anticipated Academic Year units would be different than Anticipated (Payment Period 1 + Payment Period 2) Units when student progress in Payment Period 1 with more than half of Academic Year Units.

  • Registered units - The number of units that the student is currently enrolled in for the term/payment period as of the current date.  This value is used in the disbursement process for determining enrollment at time of disbursement for Federal loan and other aid programs.
  • Attended units - The number of units that the student attended (has attended = true and/or last attended date is not null) and are not withdrawn for the term/payment period. This value is used to confirm that the student attended the course for the term/payment period. If the student did not attend the course, then they are not eligible to receive Federal funds for enrollment in the course.
  • Census units - The number of units that the student was registered in for the term as of the census date configured in Term Setup. This value is used to determine the enrollment level for awarding Pell Grants to a student. 
  • Attempted units – The number of units that the student was registered in for the term/payment period and had attendance ('Has Attended' is true or 'Last Attended' date is set) and that was not a transfer. 
  • Completed units - The number of units that the student completed (with either a passing grade or a non-passing grade) for the term/payment period.  
  • Progression units – The number of units that the student completed with a passing grade (quality points > 0) for the term/payment period.  These units are used in the numerator for the calculation of the student's academic pace. Progression units/attempted units are also used in determining progress towards grade level and degree completion. A student will not be awarded aid beyond the point where the number of progression units equals the number of units in the academic program.
  • Program applicable courses/units – A student is eligible to be paid for taking courses which are applicable to the student's current academic program plus remedial coursework up to the remedial coursework limit. Non-program applicable courses which are not remedial are not used for determination of enrollment status. 
  • Repeat courses/units – A student in a term-based program is eligible to be paid for retaking a course multiple times until such time as the student passes the course (quality points > 0 AND completed=true), and then until such time as the student completes the course (completed=true) a second time whether they passed or not.  After the repeat limit has been reached, any subsequent repeat of that same course is marked as a disqualified repeat and not used for determination of enrollment status. For Non-Term programs, once the student has passed the course once (quality points > 0 AND completed=true), all subsequent repeats of that course will be marked as a disqualified repeat and not used for determination of enrollment status.  NOTE: There is an optional exemption for graduate students in term based programs from the repeat course limits.  This exemption will be eliminated when updated regulations are published.
  • Remedial courses/units - A student is eligible to be paid for taking remedial course which are not program applicable until such time as the student attempts one academic year's equivalent (ie. 30 semester hours) of remedial coursework. After the remedial limit has been reached, any subsequent remedial course taken is marked as a disqualified remedial and not used for determination of enrollment status.
  • Internal transfer courses/units – Courses/units that the student is transferring from one academic program into a subsequent academic program at the same school/institution. There is a configuration option to Institution Setup called "Exclude Internal Transfers Courses with 0 Quality Points Towards Progression." When this setting is true (checked), transfer courses with zero quality points will not count towards progression, but these courses will be considered as attempted courses for the SAP calculation (for school using Regent Award's calculated SAP capability). When this setting is false (unchecked), transfer units with zero quality points will count towards progression (completion of program and grade-level progression) and will not be considered attempted courses for the SAP calculation.
  • External transfer courses/units – Courses/units that the student is transferring from a different school/institution into their current academic program.  These units are included in the count of cumulative attempted units and also as cumulative progression units (if quality points > 0). 


Managing Repeats

You may count towards enrollment status and award Title IV funds to a student who is repeating, for the first time only (i.e. one repetition per class), a previously passed course in a term-based program. Students enrolled in non-term-based programs may not receive credit for retaking coursework. These requirements apply to Undergraduate programs ONLY; Graduate Programs allow unlimited repeats (ProgramType.graduate=1).
The Course Level Repeat flag is to be set by the Student Information System (SIS) in the SBL file - the system will not set this flag
The system makes the following assumptions regarding the receipt of data from the SIS:

  • Course data will contain a course where repeat = false (the assumption here is that the first time the student takes a course, the SIS would not know that the course will later be repeated)
  • The SIS will mark any consecutive occurrences of the course as repeat = true
  • When a course is flagged as a repeat, Regent will use the Course ID + Program ID + Student ID to locate and match other instances of the course to determine how many times the course has been repeated (the number of times that a student may repeat a course does not reset when the student changes program
  • Repeat courses are considered across all the courses loaded from the SIS for the student (regardless of academic program).
  • When repeat = true on the Course Data, the system:
    • will locate all the repeat instances of the same course Id that exist regardless of academic program
    • will ignore all withdrawn courses; If the student has withdrawn from the course, it is NOT counted in the repeat count.
    • will ignore transfer courses; If the course is an internal or external transfer, then it is not counted as a repeat even if it is marked as repeat=true. This prevents internal transfers from being double counted.
    • will ignore any courses with 0 units.

For Term-based Programs:
Prior to 07/01/2011:
For repeats taken prior to 07/01/2011, a school can choose how repeats are counted using an Institutional configuration option:

  • Option 1: ALL are repeat courses taken prior to 07/01/2011 are counted as qualified Repeats. After 07/01/2011 the student is eligible to receive Financial Aid for two more qualified repeats total, including those taken prior to 7/1/11.
  • Option 2: Only the repeat courses taken up until the first course with quality points > 0 AND completed = true are counted as qualified Repeats. After 07/01/2011 the student is eligible to receive Financial Aid for one more repeat (if they had any prior to 07/01/2011).

If all instances of the course are taken on or after 07/01/2011:

  • The student is paid for 1 passing (quality points > 0 AND completed=true), and one additional repeat whether they passed or not.
  • After the repeat limit has been reached, any subsequent repeat of that same course is going to be mark as repeat Disqualified=true

For Non-Term Programs:

  • Once the student has passed the course once (passing defined as Quality Points > 0 AND Completed=true), all subsequent repeats of that course will be marked as a disqualified repeat.
  • Student is not eligible to receive Financial Aid for a repeat course once the course is passed (complete=true AND quality points > 0)
  • If the original non-repeat course (see assumptions; the system does not expect that the first occurrence of the course will be marked as a disqualified repeat) exists and the occurrence of the course is completed=true AND quality points > 0, then no more repeats of this course are allowed.
  • Once passed, every subsequent instance of the course after will be marked as a disqualified repeat.
  • The only exception is that once the student completes the whole program, the student can receive aid to repeat the program (EXTREMELY RARE). In this case the courses would be taken under a different program (technically), therefore the repeats will be qualified again.
  • After the repeat limit has been reached, any subsequent repeat of that same course is marked as a disqualified repeat.



Overriding a Repeat Flag and/or Adding Course Comments

From the Courses tab, you can override the setting of the repeat flag for a course and/or enter comments regarding the course. To do so, click on the course in the Course Data section of the Courses tab and then scroll down to the bottom of the screen. In the Course Details section, an edit button will be displayed. Click on the Edit button to edit the Repeat Override setting and/or to enter comments regarding the course.

Set the Repeat Override value to true (repeat) or false (not a repeat) and/or enter a comment and then press the Save button.



Managing Remedial Courses

In accordance with Federal regulations, a student may only be funded for up to 1 academic year of remedial coursework (30 semester units, 45 quarter units, 900 clock hour units). The system operates under the premise that remedial courses are not program applicable. A course flagged as both a Remedial and program Applicable course is treated as a normal program applicable course (i.e. this course does not count towards the Remedial Qualified Units/Weeks)
Qualified Remedial Units Totals:
The system tracks the total remedial units that the student has taken by summing the units for courses flagged as remedial on the SBL file. Qualified remedial units are not duplicated in any of the other enrollment counts in the system.
If the remedial course has a withdrawal date, remedial units that were withdrawn ON or BEFORE the census date are not included in any remedial counts. If a course was withdrawn AFTER the census date, it is counted toward the census remedial total for term based programs.
If a course is a disqualified repeat, it is not counted in the total of remedial course units and will NOT be counted in ANY remedial qualified or program applicable totals because it has already been excluded.
The program level remedial qualified transfer units total will be incremented as long as the student has not yet reached their 1 academic year of remedial coursework limit.
If a transfer course is a non-program applicable remedial unit, it will be summed up at the program level and added to the total remedial qualified units to determine if the student has reached their 1 academic year of remedial coursework limit of remedial qualified units (course dates do not matter in this case).
Partial remedials are not handled in an automated way in the system. Any course that pushes the sum of the remedial units over the 1 academic year of remedial coursework will be marked as a disqualified remedial course and those units/weeks will not be counted toward any course enrollment total.
Example: if there are 6 remaining remedial units and two 4 unit remedial courses are imported, only one course will count toward the student's qualified remedial total, and there will then be 2 remaining remedial units left. If another course can be used for the remaining units then use it, otherwise all future remedial courses will be marked as disqualified remedial and their units/weeks will not be included in the course enrollment totals.
The Student- Remedial Units report can be used to identify students in this situation and the course adjustment wizard should be used to manually adjust the units in the situation above so that the student can be awarded and paid for the two remaining units for which they are eligible to receive funds.

Transfer Courses

Transfer courses are displayed along with all other courses on the Courses tab. If you click on the row containing the course, the type of transfer is displayed in the course details at the bottom of the screen. Transfer courses are counted as progression units towards completion of the student's academic program of study. External transfers are courses that the student has taken at a previous institution while internal transfer courses are typically courses transferred from one academic program to another as a result of a change in program of study.
There are four separate indicators related to transfer courses:
The External Transfer flag indicates if the course is considered an external transfer either because the Student Information System (SIS) indicated that it was an external transfer.
The Internal Transfer flag indicates if the course is considered an internal transfer either because the Student Information System (SIS) indicated that it was an internal transfer or because it was determined to be an internal transfer by Regent Award.
The SIS Internal Transfer flag indicates that the Student Information System (SIS) reported the course as an Internal Transfer in the Student Batch Load (SBL) file.
The Calculated Internal Transfer flag is set when a Student Information System (SIS) provided a non-transfer course in the Student Batch Load (SBL) file has an end date prior to the start of the first BBAY for the current academic program. Thus the system assumes it is an internal transfer course and flags it as such.