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Annotation of loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Domain_Configuration_Cataloging_Courses.tex, revision 1.6

1.1       raeburn     1: \label{Domain_Configuration_Cataloging_Courses}
1.4       raeburn     2: The availability of a course/community catalog, as well as the type of 
                      3: catalog provided are both domain configurations.  A choice of catalog can be set  
                      4: for two contexts: (a) public-facing web page (i.e., unauthenticated users),
                      5: and (b) web page for authenticated users.
1.1       raeburn     6: 
1.4       raeburn     7: For each context the options are:
                      8: \begin{itemize}
                      9: \item Standard catalog (the only type available pre-LON-CAPA 2.11), which
                     10: contains both self-cataloging courses, and manually cataloged courses. 
                     11: 
                     12: \item Domain-only catalog, which is the same as the standard catalog, 
                     13: except no domain selector is available to switch to display course
                     14: listings in other domains.
                     15: 
                     16: \item Code-search form, which provides a web form to search for a 
                     17: course by the unique six character code, which can be set to be
                     18: assigned at course creation.
                     19: 
                     20: \item No catalog
1.5       raeburn    21: \end{itemize}
1.4       raeburn    22: 
                     23: In the standard and domain-only catalogs, self-cataloging uses the 
                     24: institutional course code assigned to the course when it is first
                     25: created, or when the course is modified by a Domain Coordinator via
1.6     ! raeburn    26: {}``Modify a course''. If a course has no institutional 
1.4       raeburn    27: code it will not appear in the category:
1.1       raeburn    28: Official courses (with institutional codes).
                     29: 
                     30: A hierarchy of categories and sub-categories can be defined which
                     31: are independent of institutional course codes. These categories might
1.6     ! raeburn    32: be used to catalog courses in the domain to which the {}``official courses''
        !            33: designation does not apply, or they might be used to provide 
        !            34: alternative ways of cataloging official courses.
1.1       raeburn    35: 
                     36: Besides definition of the hierarchy of categories and sub-categories,
1.6     ! raeburn    37: the {}``cataloging of courses'' screen provides two
1.1       raeburn    38: options to be set for the domain by a Domain Coordinator, which control:
                     39: 
                     40: \begin{itemize}
1.2       bisitz     41: \item Who may hide a course from the course/community catalog, if the course would
1.1       raeburn    42: ordinarily appear by virtue of having an institutional course code,
                     43: or having been assigned to a custom category/sub-category.
                     44: \item Who may assign a custom category/subcategory to a course
                     45: \end{itemize}
                     46: In both cases, the choice is between a Domain Coordinator and a Course
                     47: Coordinator. For the former, hiding of courses and assignment of categories
1.6     ! raeburn    48: will be via ``Modify Course'', while for the latter
        !            49: these operations will be via ``Modify Parameters''
        !            50: {}``Set Course Environment'' option in sub-menu).
1.1       raeburn    51: 
                     52: Definition of custom categories is by the Domain Coordinator. The
1.6     ! raeburn    53: {}``Cataloging of courses'' interface allows custom
1.1       raeburn    54: categories and sub-categories to be defined and reordered. There is
                     55: one category listed at the top level in the hierarchy which behaves
1.6     ! raeburn    56: differently to the others - the category: {}``Official courses
        !            57: (with institutional codes)''. This is the category which is
1.1       raeburn    58: used for self-cataloged courses: the option is to either display or
                     59: not display.
                     60: 
                     61: Although sub-categories can not be defined via this interface for
1.6     ! raeburn    62: this {}``system'' category (unlike the other {}``custom'' 
1.1       raeburn    63: categories), customization of two routines in localenroll.pm - \&instcode\_defaults()
                     64: and \&instcode\_format() are used to automatically generate linked
1.2       bisitz     65: select boxes which will be displayed when the course/community catalog is shown
1.1       raeburn    66: to allow users to include limits to their searches for official courses.
                     67: If these routines have not been customized, the catalog for official
                     68: courses will display all courses with institutional codes, which have
                     69: not been specifically hidden.
                     70: 
                     71: When \&instcode\_format() has been customized it will populate perl
                     72: structures (hashes and arrays) which LON-CAPA will use to generate
1.2       bisitz     73: the Javascript code embedded in the course/community catalog page which is used
1.1       raeburn    74: in the functioning of the linked select boxes. The contents of the
                     75: hashes and arrays are determined from the complete list of institutional
                     76: course codes used in the domain. For example at MSU, the following
1.2       bisitz     77: linked select boxes are displayed for the official course/community catalog:
1.1       raeburn    78: Year, Semester, Department, Number.
                     79: 
1.2       bisitz     80: The course/community catalog is useful in domains where Course Coordinators
1.1       raeburn    81: have opted to allow self-enrollment in their courses. In such cases,
                     82: students can include a flag to only display courses allowing self
                     83: enrollment when they display courses from the catalog. Course Coordinators
1.2       bisitz     84: will be advised, when enabling self-enrollment, if a course is currently
                     85: unlisted in the course/community catalog (and therefore difficult for students
1.1       raeburn    86: to locate), and the action to take to rectify the reason why there
                     87: is no listing, which could be because: 
                     88: 
                     89: \begin{itemize}
                     90: \item the course is hidden 
                     91: \item the course has no institutional code 
                     92: \item the course has not been assigned to any custom categories 
1.3       raeburn    93: \item the course has an institutional code, but the 
                     94: course/community catalog has been set to not display self-cataloged 
                     95: courses.
1.1       raeburn    96: \end{itemize}