Customizing Course Catalog Templates

When we onboard colleges and universities to our course catalog software, one of the first things we work on is determining what information they'll need in the templates for each type of content. We customize templates for each client so that both the public-facing information and the back-end data-entry form contain only the information that particular client needs. tNot only do templates save countless admin hours, but they result in a cleaner, more accurate final publication.

Benefits of Templated Content

Typically, having multiple content editors can result in content being inconsistent or incomplete. For example, one Accounting professor may include only the course number and description in their class listing, while an English professor includes the full gambit of course information. This results in course listings varying widely in their completeness. With Clean Catalog software, all new content is created using templates, allowing you to prompt content editors with the exact information that needs to be included, even making certain content required. This empowers your staff and equips them with the tools necessary to edit content independently and confidently. As an example, here are a few fields that are commonly added into course templates:

• Course number
• Course name
• Subject area
• Course description
• Pre-requisites
• Co-requisites
• Credit hours
• Credit type
• Semesters offered
• Instructor name(s)
• Link to Curriculum Guide
• Course outcomes

Customizing Templates

The above ideas are just the tip of the iceberg, as we can integrate any content prompt into your templates. These prompts can also be implemented in a variety of formats, such as open-text fields, checkboxes, course selectors, dropdown menus, and more. This allows catalog admin to quickly complete the prompts and publish new content, or push it through the next phase of your predetermined editorial workflow. Templates can also be customized for different content types, such as table of contents pages, degrees, elective course options, and more. Based on the formatting your institution already has in place, we can build templates that both reflect and support that structure.

By taking the guesswork out of creating new catalog content, your staff will be more confident in creating new courses and your registrar will rest assured that no incomplete or duplicate content is being published. Our workflows tool and revisions panel act as additional safeguards in the editing process, giving even greater peace of mind. If you’d like to learn more about templated content and see how templates work in real-time, feel free to reach out to us.