Q: Why isn't my uploaded file producing a visualization on the website?
We're always here to help you troubleshoot, but if you'd like to check for yourself, these are the most common reasons why you don't see the visualization on a degree plan:
Q: What is a requisite cycle?
A requisite cycle occurs when two courses both list the other course as a corequisite or strict-corequisite. Essentially, it creates an infinite loop, or "cycle", in the graph. This prevents us from calculating metrics and generating visualizations.
To fix a requisite cycle simply remove one of the corequisites. For example: Course A lists Course B as a corequisite, and Course B also lists Course A as a corequisite.
This can be visualized as Course A <---> Course B.
To remove the cycle, only one course should list the other as a corequisite. This can be visualized as either of the following:
Course A ---> Course B
or,
Course A <--- Course B
Q: What is a key error and why can't I see my curriculum?
A key error is most often followed by a number.
For example, you see the message: Key Error: key22 not found.
This means that in your CSV file, the course with an ID of 22 has an error associated with it. Usually it's a place where the course is referenced, such as in the list of prerequisites.
Let's say there is a course with ID 29, and it has a prerequisite of course ID 22.
It's possible that after reviewing the file you notice there is no course with ID 22 listed (either it was omitted or the prerequisite was entered incorrectly).
If you are still having issues understanding a key error, please reach out to us at help@damoursystems.com and we will get back to you shortly.
Q: How do I represent OR prerequisite relationships? (i.e., course A OR course B is a prerequisite for course C)
For the purpose of computing the complexity of a curriculum, OR relationships are usually irrelevant. All that matters is that you place one of the two courses belonging to the OR relationship into the curriculum so that the prerequisite structure is captured in the curriculum graph.
Caveat: If the two (or more) courses involved in the OR relationship have their own prerequisites, and these prerequisites differ, then there is the potential that the course you choose to include in the curriculum will slightly change the overall curricular complexity.
In this case, the complexity of the curriculum is actually a range, and not a single value. To determine the range, simply create a different curriculum for each of the possible selections of the OR’ed prerequisites that lead to differing curricular complexities; the minimum and maximum curricular complexity values obtained will give you the curricular complexity range for the curriculum.
Q: How do I treat electives? For example, students in a Business Administration program are required to take 24 credits of business electives.
An elective can be filled by some number of possible courses, so the complexity of the curriculum may vary depending on requisites of the chosen courses.
For this reason, an elective can be treated as a normal course with no requisites, and each is often 3 hours.
In this case we recommend creating “Business Elective 1”, “Business Elective 2”, etc until the total number of hours are filled.
Alternatively, you can choose the most common courses taken to satisfy the electives, and this will give you an idea of the pathway and complexity that “most” students are following.
Q: How do I treat General Education or Core Requirements?
Some core requirements, like humanities, may have long lists of available courses. In a case where a core requirement does not have a specific course required in the curriculum, you may use a general term like "Humanities Core Requirement 1", "Humanities Core Requirement 2", etc.
Other core requirements have a specific course to fulfill that requirement, for example every student may be required to take US History, HIST 101. If this is the case, please use the specific course that is required instead of a general name, such as "History Core Requirement".
Finally, core requirements under a specific curriculum may utilize one specific course of a list to complete the Core Requirement. For example, a social work curriculum may require Introduction to Social Work, SW 101, and that may complete the Social Science Core Requirement. In that case, list the course "SW 101" instead of something more generic like "Social Science Core Requirement".
Q: How do I determine if my complexity score is too high/low?
Each complexity score is relative to the program and institution. If you are interested in how your Accounting program score compares to others, you can use the website to review other Accounting programs. Generally speaking, however, there is no "magic" number to achieve or scale to compare.
For more information regarding this topic and many others related to the project, this Youtube video is an excellent source of information: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou5h0tg-5q4) Some of the questions during the video are helpful in the metrics and how they are calculated.
Q: The website was recently upgraded. Why?
This is being done for a number of reasons, including:
Q: What new features are now available?
The primary improvements are in the areas of:
If you would like to serve as a beta-tester for any of these services, please send a request using the subject “Tester” to: help@damoursystems.com.
Q: How do I access the new features?
Simply log in using your old username and password, and you will be presented with a dashboard organized around these new features. If you can’t remember your password, there are now “forgot my password” as well as “change my password” options.