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Incomplete Courses in Degree Audit

Niklaas Schalm

February 24, 2020 17:21

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We have noticed that a course marked Incomplete shows in the Completed section of a course group in the degree audit, and does not show in the Not Completed section. This looks misleading to a student not paying enough attention to the status column indicating complete or incomplete next to each course. We feel it would be more helpful and convenient for our students if courses marked incomplete did not show in the Completed list, and instead showed in the Not Completed list, to make it clear that the student has not fulfilled that requirement, and to make it easily visible to them which course they need to re-take.

I see that on Jan 7, 2012, Kerry Petty posted a request titled "Display Incomplete Courses in Degree Audit", where she indicates that their school uses Incomplete to mark when a student is given an extension on a course. Our school uses Incomplete differently (when a student is given an extension, we simply leave the course as In Progress for that student). An Incomplete is a special grade given by us to a student who has not and will not complete a course, without designating it as a Fail or Withdrawal. As such, students need to re-take any course they receive an Incomplete in. For this reason, it does not make sense for it to appear in the Completed section of the course group in the degree audit.

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7 comments

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  Evan Donovan February 24, 2020 20:45

  I would agree with Niklaas - ideally, courses with a grade of Incomplete should show as Not Completed for Degree Audit.
  
  Courses should only show as Completed when the student has been given a passing grade in them. Otherwise, I believe it can create confusion.

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  Nic Toney February 24, 2020 21:56

  I could see the benefit of both options.

  Why not have the option in Populi settings to choose what default you want for all students?

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  Evan Donovan February 24, 2020 21:58

  Nic, yes that would be ideal.

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  Adam Sentz February 24, 2020 22:15

  Niklaas Schalm - I don't think I've heard of a school using Incomplete to mean a course that will definitely never be completed.  The reason Incomplete courses show in the Competed section of the Degree Audit is that, usually, the Incomplete status indicates that the course could still be completed successfully by the student. So they wouldn't want to register to take it all over again while that option was still available. 

  Given your policy, it would probably make more sense to have a custom withdraw status of "Incomplete" (or whatever you'd like to call it) instead of using the built-in Incomplete status. If you'd like to explore that route or have questions about it just reach out via a support request and a rep will help you out.

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  Evan Donovan February 25, 2020 02:06

  Adam Sentz: But I thought that the courses in the Completed section counted toward the total on "Satisfied" - is that not the case?

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  Adam Sentz February 25, 2020 18:07

  Evan Donovan - When you are filtering a degree audit in a course group by Completed, courses that have a status of completed they count towards earned units. Courses with a status of In Progress or Incomplete do not. In Progree or Incomplete courses are, generally, course that the student could pass, so they are shown in that section while they are in that state.

  If you have further questions about the Degree Audit please open a support request.

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  Niklaas Schalm February 25, 2020 22:13

  Thanks Adam, I will send a support request. Your solution makes sense, given that we use Incomplete differently.