Glossary > Mandatory sections

Mandatory sections refers to information that is mandated for inclusion into all CSU Subject Outlines by the Academic Senate policy on Subject Outlines. Mandatory sections must contain information to pass the system 'Compliance Check', e.g. Contact procedures, Schedule, and Rationale and Criteria for all assessment items. This compliance process is part of the in-built Quality Control checking of the Subject Outline tool.

Editable mandatory sections can be identified within the Edit screen - they are editable sections which display a red asterix *.

Blue and white 'Help' question mark icons can be found against each Outline section. Clicking on the Help icon will display brief help within a pop-up box for a quick reference within the tool, also known as 'inline' help. Click on the cross (X) icon in the top right hand corner of the pop-up to close the Help pop-up box. Information regarding mandatory/optional rules which apply to the section can be accessed by clicking on the the 'More help' link within the Help pop-up box.

For a printable summary of editable mandatory sections see Summary of Editable Mandatory Sections.
For a printable summary of all template sections and their associated rules see Outline Template Overviews.

Manual Compliance Check

To check that all mandatory sections contain information, Authors can use the ‘Compliance Check’ function within the Edit screen. If any mandatory section is void of information, a list will be provided to you within a pop-up message once the Compliance Check process has completed.

Tip Once the Author clicks Ready for QA, an Compliance Check will be performed and a successful compliance result must be obtained before the tool will allow the Outline to progress to QA. Therefore, the manual Compliance Check function has been provided to assist Authors while drafting the Outline.

Automatic Compliance Check

Upon clicking 'Ready for QA' a Compliance Check will be automated. If any mandatory section is void of information, a list will be provided to you within a pop-up message once the Compliance Check process has completed. The sections listed must be remedied before the tool will allow the Outline to progress to QA.

Assessment Item Compliance Check

Within the 'Manage Assessment' component of the tool (i.e. the component which enables the creation and management of assessment items), all mandatory sections of an assessment item must contain information to enable the creation or update of the item. This is due to the fact that assessment item information will be used by downstream systems such as EASTS and Gradebook. As such, the Manage Assessment component had to be built according to certain rules to allow assessment item information to be created and managed slightly different to the rest of the Outline information.

IMPORTANT

If an Assessment Item form is left open for a lengthy period, your CSU Interact session will 'time out' and cause any unsaved work to be lost and irretrievable. Please be sure to regularly click 'Save' on an Assessment Item form (as opposed to just clicking 'OK' on an editor). This allows content to be permanently saved.

If the form will not allow you to save the item because mandatory sections are void of information, please enter temporary information (e.g. TBA) to enable the save then re-enter the item to continue working on its content.

If 'Cancel' is clicked on an Assessment Item form any new/changed information will be lost.