Scenario:
1. Next year we are switching to a different term format. How do we do this?
2. How do we change from Trimesters to Quarters?
3. How do we switch from Semesters to Trimesters?
4. How do we change our term format? (ex. from trimesters to semesters)
Solution:
Switching from one style of terms to another (for example, switching from a Trimester system to a Semester/Quarter system) is a two step process:
- First, create your new terms and copy classes to them
- Second, adjust your classes as necessary
Note: To avoid disrupting active classes, Gradelink highly recommends that schools only adjust the format of their terms at the very beginning of the school year or transitioning from one school year to the next.
Part 1 - Create New Terms
In Gradelink, creating terms that use a different style than previous terms is easy because Gradelink defines terms by their Start and End Date, not by a specific 'type' such as trimester or quarter.
Therefore, you can just create your new terms like normal. Once you finish creating terms, you can also go ahead and copy classes to the new terms.
Part 2 - Adjust Classes
There's one aspect of classes that may need to be adjusted depending on which type of terms you're using: units and credits.
Many schools will set the unit/credit count for each class as a fraction of the total unit/credit count based on the number of terms in the academic year. For example, schools that use a trimester system will set the unit/credit count in each term to 1/3 of the total number of units/credits the class is worth. So, if a class is worth 1 unit over the course of the entire year, then it would only be worth 0.33 units each trimester.
However, if your school is switching to a different format, then you may need to adjust the unit/credit count of each class to match the new format. Using the same example, if a school that used trimesters switched to quarters but didn't adjust the unit/credit count for their classes, students would earn 1.33 units instead of 1.00.