Hey Lions! Are you ready for the new school year to start? We are too! To start Fall/Winter 2020-2021 on the right foot, today we are going to cover the most basic things you need to know about course codes and your first steps on eClass. This will be especially helpful if you are preparing for your first year – I know how confusing it can be with all these new acronyms. Keep reading this post and we’ll help you decipher those course codes and give you a brief introduction to eClass.
1. Course delivery for the upcoming term
As you already know, this upcoming school year will obviously be a bit different than usual and as a result, course delivery methods at York will also go through some changes. For the most part, Fall courses will be delivered online/remotely. There may be exceptions for a limited number of classes such a labs, tutorials or studios and you can see of list of those courses with in-person components.
When you see a course offered as online (ONLN) it means there is no specific time and day of the week that you have to tune in for an online lecture. All the lectures will be pre-recorded and uploaded to eClass by your professors.
Courses offered remotely include blended (BLEN), lecture (LECT) and seminar (SEMR) courses. This courses will have some or all classes scheduled at a designated time and day during the week where you need to join the live virtual lectures through Zoom or other platforms your instructors specify in the course outline. Corresponding Labs (LAB) and Tutorials (TUTR) for remote courses will also be offered remotely.
2. Course codes
Now maybe you’ve enrolled in your courses already, but the following is a good reminder for next term, and always a good reminder for those still mulling over their course options. At first glance, course codes are a bit tricky to understand and it may just look like a bunch of random numbers and letters, like “AP/ADMS 1000 3.00,” which may not make sense to you. We are going to break it down for you here:
- AP: The first series of letters of every course code before the “/” refer to the Faculty. For example, AP stands for the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. If you are not familiar with the acronyms used for the faculties, departments and more at York, make sure to bookmark the Registration & Enrolment Guide’s Abbreviation list because it will come in handy whenever you’re choosing courses.
- ADMS: The letters after the “/” indicate the department that offers the class. ADMS is the department of Administrative Studies.
- 1000: The 4-digit number is the specific course number. For instance, ADMS 1000 is the only course that is called “Introduction to Business.” Using numbers provides a unique identifier for each course. Some courses have similar course names, but could cover very different material. The first digit of every course number indicates the year you’re recommended to take the course. In this case, ADMS 1000 is recommended to be taken in your first year. If you are trying to enrol in course above your current year level, make sure you have successfully completed the required course prerequisites. In some cases, you may need to get permission to get into a course: we could devote an entire post to those circumstances but you might want to have a look at the York Courses Website FAQs for more information.
- 3.00: These numbers point to the credit value of the course. ADMS 1000 is worth three credits. This also usually means that the normal duration of the course is one term.
3. Section information
Important things to consider when enrolling are the time, date, and duration of the course for those courses that are blended (BLEN). All of this information is also available on the York Courses website along with the course code.
The section information usually looks like this:
- Term W: This means the course is offered in the Winter Term.
- Lect 01: This indicates the type of class. Lecture means it’s an in-person class.
*Please note that for this coming Fall semester, lectures do NOT indicate in-person classes. Most Fall 2020 courses will be delivered online or remotely.
- R: This is the day of the class. R is for Thursday, since T is already taken by Tuesday.
- 16:00: This is the time of the class. For those that aren’t used to a 24-hour clock, that’s 4 p.m..
- 180: This is the duration of class (in minutes).
- R S137: This is the location of the class, though mostly this will be blank for Fall 2020 courses. In this example though, R S137 is the Ross building,room 137 in the South (S) wing. There is a complete list of building acronyms, too if you need it.
- Y87X01: This is the catalog number of the course that you would copy and paste into the Registration & Enrolment Guide to enrol in your courses. If you’re not sure how to use it, there is a great How to Enrol page that can help!
4. eClass
If you are a returning student this coming term, chances are you are already familiar with eClass – a program that most York professors use to make it easier for students to get all the information about a course in one place. If you are new to York U or if you just need a refresher on the platform, here are a few things you should know about eClass:
- If you are a new student and signing into eClass for the first time, use your Passport York credentials and you will be asked to change your password. For returning students, you will also be asked to change your Passport password annually for security reasons.
- Once you have done that first step, the site will take you to eClass with a simple click. You can then see all of the courses you are enrolled in on your page:
When you click on a class, you can then see a bar labelled “Activities” on the right, under which you can find all of your assignments, due dates, submission boxes and more for that particular class:
As you scroll down the eClass page, you can find the class dates. Attached to each date are notes, lecture recordings, assignments, slides and additional course material for that particular class:
Important note: The lecture recordings posted on eClass are usually pre-recorded lectures uploaded by your professors. There are some professors who will host the lectures live through Zoom, which is not the same as the lecture recordings. To find out how the lectures will be delivered, please make sure to read the course outline carefully!
We hope this post has answered some of your questions regarding course codes and logging into eClass. Let us know in the comment section below if you’d like us to cover some other topics that would be helpful to you in the new school year!
