Leverage relationship demographics (Cross-listed courses)

Leveraging relationship demographics is a method in Blue for managing cross-listed courses. This method involves having courses already merged at the datasource level, and the distinctive cross-listed IDs are included in the course-student relationship demographics (and displayed to students only when completing their surveys). To learn more about alternative methods for managing cross-listed courses, see comparing three methods for managing cross-listed subjects.

What is a cross-listed course?

Institutions often assign multiple course IDs to the same course. For instance, a mathematics course might be identified as BUS345 in the School of Business and as ENG318 in the School of Engineering. Despite the different IDs, these represent identical courses attended by both business and engineering students. Depending on the reporting requirement, data may need to be reported separately for each course listing, or it may be aggregated for the course as a whole. Such courses are commonly referred to as cross-listed courses within institutions.

How to display different course names to students for a cross-listed course

Scenario: William, a student majoring in Anthropology, and Paul, a student majoring in History, both register for the same course, Bioarchaeology. Despite enrolling in the same course, they notice a discrepancy in the course names listed on their fillout forms. For William, the course appears as "401826 Bioarchaeology," while for Paul, it's listed as "401827 Bioarchaeology." They wonder why the course name differs when they're both attending the same lectures, participating in the same discussions, and completing the same assignments. This is because Bioarchaeology is a cross-listed course, offered under both the Anthropology and History departments. From the perspective of the instructor, the original cross-listed course name is displayed as "401826/401827 Bioarchaeology," encompassing all departmental offerings under this single course. Thus, while students may see slightly different course names based on their departmental registration, the instructor views the course under its original cross-listed name.

Example of two student fillout forms for the same course displaying different course names:

Example of two student tasks for the same course displaying different course names:

Example of subject management task for cross-listed course displayed to instructor:

Example of courses datasource

Step 1 - Prepare a relationship datasource with demographics

To take advantage of relationship demographics, additional data must be added to the datasource. At the bare minimum, a field must be added that contains the course name that will be displayed to students for a cross-listed course. You may add additional fields for reporting purposes such as program, department, and course reason. To learn more about importing a relationship datasource, see Add a relationship datasource.

Example of course-student relationship datasource with demographics

Step 2 - Create custom field mapping symbol for student course display name

In order to display different names for cross-listed courses to students, you must first create a custom field mapping symbol for the field that lists the student course display name in the course-student relationship file. To learn more about custom field mapping symbols, see Create custom field mapping symbols.

Get started by navigating to Configuration - Field Mapping when signed in to the Blue Administration Console.

1. Select New to open the Field Mapping Edit window.
2. Choose the relationship datasource containing the cross-listed course information from the Source Name drop-down.
3. Choose the field that contains the cross-listed section data from the Field Name drop-down.
4. Create a unique name to easily recognize the field mapping symbol in the Mapping Symbol text box. For the purposes of this example, we have chosen to use COURSENAME.
5. Include a brief description of the field mapping symbol.
6. Select Add to add the field mapping symbol to Blue.

Step 3 - Configure fillout task settings to display student course name

After creating the custom field mapping symbol for student course display name, you must then add it to the task titles in the Fillout task. To learn more, see Fillout (FO) task.

Get started by navigating to your project's Tasks - Task configuration - Fillout settings.

1. Enter the custom field mapping symbol for student course display name in the Task title using the following format: [R$(custom field mapping symbol)]. This will change the task title to display the student course display name in the form itself.
2. Enter the same field mapping symbol in Displayed task name using the following format: [R$(custom field mapping symbol)]. This will change the task title to display the student course display name in the task list.

3. Click Apply.
4. Save to finalize your changes.