Courses and Scheduling in openSIS help institutions organize academic offerings, course sections, teachers, students, rooms, periods, and schedules within a selected school year or marking period.
Scheduling connects academic setup with daily classroom activity, attendance, grading, student requests, LMS integration, report cards, transcripts, and portal visibility.
This article explains the key terms users may come across while working with subjects, courses, course sections, student schedules, teacher schedules, rooms, periods, and course requests in openSIS.
The Academic Course Hierarchy in openSIS follows this structure:
Subject → Course → Course Section
This means that Subjects are used to group Courses, Courses define the academic offering, and Course Sections represent the actual scheduled classes where teachers and students are assigned.
Understanding this hierarchy is important because teachers and students are not scheduled directly into Subjects or Courses. They are scheduled into Course Sections.
A Subject is the broadest level of the academic course hierarchy.
Subjects are used to group related courses for organization and reporting.
Examples:
Mathematics, Science, English, Social Studies, Computer Science.
Subjects themselves do not contain scheduling, grading, or attendance information. They act as category labels under which courses are organized.
A Course is the middle level of the academic hierarchy.
A Course represents an academic offering within a Subject. It defines what will be taught and may include details such as course title, course code, subject, program or degree mapping, grade level, credit hours, prerequisites, learning objectives, and academic standards.
Examples:
Algebra I, Biology, English Literature, World History, Computer Science.
Courses are usually created and managed from the admin side.
Found under:
Courses → Course Manager
A Course Code is a short identifier assigned to a course.
It helps institutions organize, search, report, and identify courses more easily.
Example:
MATH101 may be used for Algebra I.
A Course Title is the full name of the course.
Examples:
Algebra I, Introduction to Biology, English Composition, Computer Science.
A Course Section is the operational level of the course hierarchy.
It is the actual scheduled instance of a Course where teaching and learning take place. A single Course may have multiple Course Sections based on teacher, period, room, marking period, or student group.
Example:
Algebra I – Section A
Algebra I – Section B
Teachers and students are scheduled into Course Sections. Attendance, assignments, grades, gradebook activity, GPA calculations, report cards, and transcripts depend on Course Section data.
A Section is a group or division used to organize students or classes.
In scheduling, a section may refer to a specific class group connected to a course. It may also refer to a student grouping within a grade level, depending on context.
A Schedule is the organized list of courses or course sections assigned to a student or teacher.
Schedules help users know which classes are assigned, when they take place, where they are held, and who is connected to them.
Scheduling is the process of assigning teachers, students, periods, rooms, and meeting patterns to Course Sections.
Scheduling ensures that classes are properly organized before attendance, grading, gradebook, report card, and transcript workflows begin.
Scheduling Type is the pattern that determines when a Course Section meets.
openSIS may support different scheduling models depending on the institution’s academic structure.
Examples:
Scheduling Type helps institutions manage different timetable models.
A Fixed Schedule means a Course Section meets at the same time or period on regular school days.
This is commonly used in traditional school schedules.
A Variable Schedule means a Course Section may meet at different times, days, or periods.
This is useful when classes do not follow the same meeting pattern every day.
Calendar Day Scheduling means the Course Section schedule is based on specific calendar days.
This may be useful for institutions that follow rotating academic days or special calendar-based schedules.
A Block Schedule is a timetable model where classes meet in longer time blocks rather than shorter daily periods.
This is often used when schools want fewer classes per day with longer instructional time.
A Rotating Schedule is a schedule where class periods or meeting days rotate according to a defined pattern.
This may be used when institutions do not follow the same class order every day.
A Student Schedule shows the Course Sections assigned to a student.
It may include course names, teachers, periods, rooms, days, marking periods, and calendars. Student schedules are used for attendance, grading, report cards, transcripts, student portal visibility, and academic tracking.
A Teacher Schedule shows the Course Sections assigned to a teacher.
Teachers use their schedule to access assigned classes, take attendance, manage assignments, enter grades, use the gradebook, and review class lists.
Schedule Teacher is the process of assigning a teacher to a specific Course Section.
Once scheduled, the teacher gains access to that Course Section’s attendance, gradebook, assignments, students, and classroom management tools.
Found under:
Scheduling → Schedule Teacher
Schedule Student is the process of enrolling a student into specific Course Sections.
Students must be scheduled into Course Sections before attendance tracking and grading workflows become active for them.
Found under:
Scheduling → Schedule Student
An Assigned Teacher is the teacher linked to a Course Section.
The assigned teacher can usually access the related class from the Teacher Portal.
An Assigned Student is a student added to a Course Section.
Once assigned, the Course Section may appear in the student’s schedule.
Enrollment in Course means adding a student to a Course Section.
This connects the student to the class for scheduling, attendance, grading, report cards, transcripts, and academic records.
Drop Course means removing a course or Course Section from a student’s schedule.
This may be used when a student changes classes, withdraws from a course, or no longer needs to attend a scheduled section.
A Course Period is the scheduled meeting time for a Course Section.
It links the Course Section with a defined period or time block in the school day.
A Period is a defined instructional time block in the school day.
Periods help institutions organize when classes take place.
Example:
Period 1: 8:00 AM – 8:45 AM
Period 2: 8:50 AM – 9:35 AM
A Room is the physical or virtual location where a class takes place.
Examples:
Room 101, Science Lab, Computer Lab, Online Class.
Rooms are used during scheduling to assign Course Sections to specific locations.
A Marking Period is an academic division within the school year.
Schedules may be connected to marking periods so that courses can be offered during a year, semester, quarter, or other academic term.
A Calendar defines the instructional days, holidays, school days, and non-school days for the academic year.
Scheduling depends on the calendar because classes can only be meaningfully scheduled within valid school days and academic date ranges.
A Class refers to the group of students assigned to a Course Section.
Teachers manage attendance, assignments, grades, and classroom workflows for students in each class.
A Class List is the list of students assigned to a Course Section.
Teachers use the class list to review students and manage classroom workflows.
A Prerequisite is a course or requirement that a student may need to complete before taking another course.
Prerequisites help institutions manage course eligibility and academic progression.
Credit Hours represent the academic credit value assigned to a course or Course Section.
Credit hours may be used in GPA calculation, transcripts, degree audit, and graduation requirements.
A Learning Objective is a defined academic goal or outcome for a course.
Learning objectives describe what students are expected to learn or achieve.
An Academic Standard is a defined learning expectation or competency connected to a course or Course Section.
Standards may be used for standards-based grading or curriculum tracking.
An LMS Connection is a link between a Course Section in openSIS and a Learning Management System.
When enabled, course, enrollment, assignment, or grade-related data may be connected with platforms such as Moodle, Canvas, or Google Classroom, depending on the institution’s setup.
A Course Request is a request submitted by a student to be considered for a course schedule.
Course requests help students indicate interest in a course before the administrator finalizes scheduling.
A Student Request is a scheduling request submitted by a student from the Student Portal.
In openSIS, students can request courses from Scheduling → My Request, and administrators can review them from Scheduling → Student Requests.
My Request is the Student Portal area where students can submit and view course requests.
Students may use this area to request courses they want to take.
Student Requests is the admin-side area where administrators review course requests submitted by students.
Administrators can approve, reject, or delete requests from this area.
A Submitted Request is a course request that has been sent by the student and is waiting for administrative review.
An Approved Request is a student course request accepted by the administrator.
When approved, the request data may be inserted into the student’s schedule record.
A Rejected Request is a student course request that has been reviewed and declined by the administrator.
Delete Request is the action of removing a student course request from the request list.
This may be used when a request is no longer needed or was created incorrectly.
A Request Notification is an alert shown to administrators when a student submits a course request.
It helps administrators identify pending scheduling requests that need review.
Clear Notification removes a reviewed schedule request notification from the notification list.
This action does not delete the original request. It only clears the notification so the administrator does not keep seeing it after review.
A Conflict happens when a student, teacher, room, or Course Section has overlapping schedule details.
Example:
A student cannot attend two Course Sections scheduled during the same period.
A Schedule Change is an update made to a student or teacher schedule.
This may include adding a course, removing a course, changing a section, changing a room, changing a teacher, or updating a period.
Courses and Scheduling terms are important because Course Sections connect many openSIS workflows. A Course Section can affect teacher access, student attendance, gradebook visibility, report cards, transcripts, LMS activity, and portal views.
Understanding these terms helps administrators build cleaner schedules and helps teachers, students, and parents understand class assignments more clearly.