Adding Terms for your institution

Super users will add additional terms to VIAS as the school calendar continues on. Please note these important steps when adding terms.

Terms:

VIAS uses terms to organize all pieces of data within our information system.  A term is a period of time for institutions to map courses, attendance, financial aid, program plans, and etc.  It is not advised to use terms to group students. Using terms to group students can cause inefficiencies across several departments. Using VIAS’s cohort feature could increase efficiency  and raise productivity for all roles within the institution.

Term sequences:

Think of terms sequences as a file cabinet drawer.  Think of term dates as files within the file cabinet drawer. All files (term dates) within that drawer must be in consecutive order with NO overlapping dates within the sequence. 

Term sequences cannot be created by the user.  To add more term sequences, the super user must enter a help ticket to VIAS. 

In this example term sequences, all dates are in consecutive order from start and end date.  The start date of the next term and CANNOT come before the end date of the previous term.  A VIAS Client Support Team Member can help super user's organize term dates within term sequences. 

How to add a term into a term sequence 

1. Go to Academics > Terms. 

2. Click Add New Term.

3. Choose the school campus.

Definitions 

• Term Code: The name of the institution's term.  VIAS highly recommends to begin your term with a date or year.  Then your term list will be in chronological order. 
• Start Date: The beginning/start date of the term 
• End Date: The end date of the term 
• Sequence: The organizational group in which a set of terms is organized consecutively without overlapping dates 
• Season: Optional field - Tells the season the term falls into 
• Season #: Optional field - the number of which the term falls within the calendar year 
• Finals start date: optional field - Used for record keeping so all departments know the finals date for the added term. 
• Finals end date: optional field - Used for record-keeping 
• Schedule Advanced Days: Optional Field - Enter the number of days the institution would like for students to view this terms course sections within the student portal
  • Note:  Input a number here, up to 99 days, to allow a student's schedule to be viewed on their portal before the term start date.  For example, input 30 to allow the student to view their schedule up to 30 days before their next term starts.  
• Is Active: Must be checked for the term to be an active term for the institution.  Please contact VIAS before deactivating terms.