Configuration Options: Domain Setup

Configuration Options: Domain Setup

Synopsis

Domains are organizational units within your Concourse system; their default labels are Campus, School, and Department, but your institution is able to rename these organizational units if you wish. In addition to organizing courses for the sake of good data management, domains perform several key functions within your system. Most end users notice domains because they appear at the top of each syllabus to visually indicate how the syllabus is nested within a hierarchy. Some users may use domains as criteria to narrow results when they search for a syllabus or syllabus set. High-level users (domain users) may be assigned to edit, audit, or report upon all syllabi within a domain, so determining your domain setup thoughtfully supports appropriate access and permissions. Domains can also be used to guide the development of linked templates and ensure that policy language cascades to all courses within a domain; note that your template hierarchy does not have to match your domain setup. 

How you structure domains depends on the urgency of your implementation, the complexity of your system, and the approach you wish to take to role-based permissions. The approaches for structuring domains presented in this article are representative of some of the possibilities; your institution may select one of the presented options or determine that a combination of elements is more appropriate for your system. Continue reading to learn more about the factors that lead up to this choice.

Key Terms

  1. Domain: an organizational unit within Concourse; default domain labels are Campus, School, and Department.
  2. Course: the artifact in Concourse that contains the syllabus.
  3. Template: a course whose syllabus contains standard item content that will be cloned into non-template (i.e., live/section) syllabi; instructors and students are typically not registered to templates.
  4. End users: typically students, instructors, and other syllabus managers. End users typically engage with syllabi individually and do not need large-scale access to system data for management or reporting purposes.
  5. High-level users: typically academic leaders (e.g., deans) and IT staff (e.g., LMS admin) who need access to system and user data.
  6. Domain Permissions: the permission to view, manage, report upon, and/or modify syllabi for entire domains; four types of domain permissions are available: administer, edit, audit, and report.
  7. Domain Structure Report: a report that presents each domain combination in your institution; the Domain Structure Report is useful for evaluating the overall organization of your system for regular maintenance or growth.
  8. Domain Permissions Report: a report that presents a list of users with domain permissions; each user’s assigned permission(s) and the domain(s) where it applies are included in the report.

Important to this Decision

Before making decisions about how your institution uses Concourse, you should consider how stakeholders, systems, timelines, and other factors are impacted. Review the important elements below to be better prepared to make changes to your Concourse configuration or implementation.
Key Players
Prior to making this decision, you should consult your institution’s SIS admin and registrar, as well as academic leaders and staff whose work is related to accreditation and compliance or the syllabus development process. 
Consideration
It’s important that you consider how courses are organized in your other systems as well as how permissions to edit, audit, and report upon domains will be distributed. Many institutions set up their Concourse domains to mirror their institutional organization per accreditation requirements, but you may wish to establish additional units to assign more granular domain permissions (e.g., a template domain).
Timing
This decision is typically made during the implementation phase, but domains can be added, removed, or modified afterward if your institution’s needs change. Adding domains later tends to be less difficult than modifying or removing domains. The effort to move courses across domains can be extensive; we encourage you to be circumspect and deliberate with this decision to avoid future technical debt.
Connected Systems & Locations
Course Feeds require external identifiers for campuses and departments. The external identifiers in Course Feeds should match the abbreviations for the associated organizational units in your SIS to ensure accuracy. If organizational information is not readily available in other systems, courses can be auto-created in a shared domain.
Method
Only system admins can create, remove, or modify domains manually in Concourse. To modify your system’s domain structure, navigate to Admin > System > “Manage campuses, schools, and departments names and external identifiers.” On that page:
  1. To add a new domain manually:
    1. Enter the name and external identifier of the new domain at the appropriate level (Campus, School, or Department).
    2. Select Create.
  2. To edit a domain name or external ID manually:
    1. Locate the domain whose name and/or external identifier is to be changed.
    2. Change the name and/or external identifier of the domain.
    3. Select Update.
  3. To remove a domain from your system, it must first be cleared of all courses. Once the domain no longer contains courses:
    1. Locate the domain to be removed.
    2. Select Delete.
Domains can be created or updated via Domain Feed by System Admins or automated feed processing. Domain Feeds must be processed in the correct order to avoid errors: process the Campus Feed first, followed by the School Feed, and finally the Department Feed. It’s important to note that domains’ external identifiers cannot be changed via feed; changes to external identifiers must be made manually.

Moving courses between domains can be done with a Course Feed, but there may be additional steps involved depending on your institution’s needs. We recommend consulting with a member of Team Concourse prior to attempting domain reorganization.
Motivation & Impact
How you actually group courses into domains is largely dependent on your institutional protocols, data availability, and other organizational factors. The grouping of domains may be based upon external requirements, such as accreditation standards, or your long-term reporting needs. Ultimately, you should structure your domains so that they meet your current organizational and reporting needs and don’t add any layers of unnecessary complexity.

Configuration Options

Concourse provides different options for structuring domains to support different institutional contexts. We recommend that you review these options carefully before deciding which option best meets your needs. 
  1. Option A: Single Domain Combination (Limited Complexity)
  2. Option B: Limited Domain Combinations (Moderate Complexity)
  3. Option C: Multiple Domain Combinations (Appreciable Complexity)
If the choices below don’t fit your needs, reach out to Client Services for assistance.
Option A: Single Domain Combination (Limited Complexity)
  1. Approach: In this approach, a single combination of domains is created in the system and all courses are administered equivalently. The domains may be labeled All > All > All, Other > Other > Other, or similar. In these systems, the domain may be hidden in the syllabus header to avoid the presentation of seemingly duplicative information. In a single domain combination, templates and non-templates are housed together and there is no separation between departments or programs. Users who are assigned domain permissions in this approach are able to administer, edit, audit, or report upon all courses in the system.
  2. Better For: This option is used most often by institutions that are smaller or have less complicated organizational structure; that do not have organizational information about courses readily available; that opt to auto-create courses for a quick launch; or that use uploaded syllabi (unstructured systems). 
  3. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Single Domain Combination: Because of the limited complexity of the single domain combination system, it is quick to set up and start populating with courses. The disadvantages of this approach are related to searching for courses, reporting on courses, and assigning permissions. If all courses reside in a single domain, there aren’t additional domain criteria that users can select to search for individual courses, and search is limited to course title, keywords, session/term, and other discipline-agnostic factors (e.g., it isn’t possible to search based on department or program). Likewise, it is more difficult to report upon a specific program if all courses reside in the same domain; after a domain user generates a report to confirm completion or accuracy, they would need to sort the data manually to report by program. Finally, it isn’t possible to assign domain permissions with great specificity in this approach, so if a user has domain permissions for the single domain, they are able to access and/or modify all courses within that domain, regardless of discipline/program.
  4. Effort: This is the least time-intensive approach to structuring domains in your Concourse system. This structure is most efficiently realized through manual creation; the manual creation of a single Campus, School, and Department takes just a few minutes. If your needs change, adding domains later can be accomplished quickly via Domain Feeds, and courses can be moved via Course Feeds with little manual intervention.
Option B: Limited Domain Combinations (Moderate Complexity)
  1. Approach: In this approach, a limited number of domain combinations are created in the system and courses are administered based on the lowest-level domain. This approach may manifest in an institution that has a single campus domain, a single school domain, and several department domains (e.g., Main > Academic Programs > Biology and Main > Academic Programs > Math). In this approach, domain users are able to edit template and non-template courses alike because they are stored together within the same department. Another possible manifestation of this approach is having a single campus, school, and departments for live/section courses and a Template > Template > Template domain combination for the sole purpose of storing and modifying templates. In this case, domain users are assigned permission for the template domain combination and are not necessarily able to administer, edit, audit, or report upon corresponding live/section courses; if a Template > Template > Template domain combination is used, note that domain users are able to access and/or modify all templates in the domain, not just those for specific departments or programs.
  2. Better For: This option is used most often by institutions that are smaller or have less complicated organizational structure but want to assign domain permissions with more specificity. In other words, smaller schools may choose this option if they want to limit the syllabus set that domain users can modify. This approach tends to work better for institutions that have organizational data about courses readily available in other systems.
  3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Limited Domain Combinations: While this approach isn’t as fast to set up as the single domain approach, it is not very difficult or time-consuming; likewise, administering limited domain combinations is fairly straightforward. An advantage of this approach is that you are able to assign domain permissions with more specificity. Users can be assigned access only to templates across your system or only to a single department’s courses, which allows for greater quality control and overall accuracy. Similarly, reporting upon courses can be targeted to specific departments or programs to more easily ensure syllabus accuracy and completion.
  4. Effort: The time investment of the limited domain combination approach is minimal. Domains can be created manually by a System Administrator, or they can be created via Domain Feeds. If your needs change, domains can be added and courses can be moved via Course Feeds. Removing a domain later, however, requires significant data review, archiving, and manual intervention; if you must remove a domain from your system, it is recommended that you reach out to Team Concourse for assistance. Assigning and reviewing domain permissions is a manual process; to make it as unobtrusive as possible, we recommend making domain permissions review part of your regular system maintenance once a term.
Option C: Multiple Domain Combinations (Appreciable Complexity)
  1. Approach: In this approach, domain combinations are created based upon available course data, shared course policies or language (e.g., an Online or Honors campus), and the intent of delegating administration responsibilities. This approach may manifest in a number of different ways. For example, an institution may have a single campus domain, multiple school domains, and template and non-template department domains, or opt to store templates and non-templates alike in the same department. Another possibility is creating multiple domain combinations for live/section courses (e.g., Main > Arts & Sciences > Biology) and multiple domain combinations for template courses (e.g., Template > Arts & Sciences > Biology). 
  2. Better For: This option is used most often by institutions that have larger or more complicated organizational systems; that have organizational data about courses readily available in other systems; or that have more rigorous policies for syllabus development and/or role-based access.
  3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Multiple Domain Combinations: This approach allows for the most specificity when it comes to assigning permissions and reporting. With this approach, it is possible to drill down permissions and reporting just to templates within a given department domain; in this way, domain users have the most limited access, which results in a larger group of users being responsible for a small subset of your Concourse system. Decentralizing the workload of administering Concourse domains may be attractive to larger institutions. On the other hand, assigning and reviewing domain permissions becomes more complicated in this approach. To alleviate the effort involved, it’s possible to assign designated users the ability to Set Domain Permissions for other users. Users with this system permission can perform domain permission review and provisioning even though they themselves cannot modify domains; this system permission makes it more feasible to delegate Concourse administrative responsibilities, especially for larger institutions.
  4. Effort: Structuring domains with appreciable complexity is, naturally, the most time-intensive approach. However, Domain Feeds can be used to create domains more quickly. Assigning and reviewing domain permissions is a manual process, and it can be very time-consuming in more complicated systems. 

Post-Decision Changes

Your institution’s needs may change over time and you may need to make changes to your configuration settings. In other words, the configuration decisions you make during the implementation phase might not be as efficient five or ten years afterward. Review the guidance below to better understand how changing this particular decision may affect your Concourse system or deployment in the future.

While it is possible to change your domain structure down the line, it can be a time-consuming process. If you aren’t sure whether you need an additional domain, it may be a better idea to opt for the less complicated approach.
Expanding Your Domain Structure
If your organization initially opts for a single or limited domain structure but decides to add more domains later, you should:
  1. Confer with the registrar, SIS admin, and other stakeholders about how the new domains should be named and organized within Concourse.
  2. Add new domains manually or via feed. 
  3. If existing departments are being recreated in different schools for reorganization purposes:
    1. The external IDs of the existing departments must be changed manually before the departments can be recreated in the new school; external IDs of domains must be unique, so only one domain at a time can use a singular external ID.
    2. The relocated domains can then be created with the correct external IDs either manually or via feed.
    3. Move courses from the previous domains to the new domains via Course Feed.
    4. Once the previous domains no longer contain any courses, they can be deleted from your system in the Manage Domains page.
  4. If entirely new domains are being created, assess whether existing courses need to be moved to the new domains for reorganization purposes or if they should be retained in the previous domain(s) for archival purposes.
    1. If courses are to be moved to new domains, this can be done via Course Feed. Create a Course Feed that contains all the required identifying information about the courses and be sure to update the domain external ID in the feed to the new domain information.
    2. If existing courses are to be retained in their current domains for archival purposes and new courses will be created for current and future use, the existing courses’ and domains’ names and external IDs should be updated to indicate they are archival versions before creating new domains and courses. For example, you might rename a domain to X_Archive_Biology and X_BIOL. If the domain and courses are not deleted from your system, they will still be searchable, so we recommend naming archives with “X_” or “Z_” at the beginning so they appear at the end of the search dropdown for their respective domains.
    3. Important note: if your system uses templates and you are adding another mid-level template to match the new domains, template courses must be recreated to be linked correctly.
    4. If course external IDs are being reused in the new domain, the previous courses’ external IDs will first need to be updated manually, just as domains were, to differentiate between archival and current courses. For example, a domain administrator must rename a course external ID to X_BIOL_234_Template before BIOL_234_Template can be recreated in the system for the new course.
    5. Course Feeds for archival courses should be discontinued.
    6. Review the feed generation process and update campus and department identifiers as needed in Course Feeds moving forward to ensure courses are created or updated in the appropriate domains.
    7. Group permissions for archival courses can be set to View or None to prevent changes.
  5. Review and update domain permissions. If users should not be able to access or modify older domains because they are archival, remove domain permissions. Assign domain permissions for new domains.
  6. Train domain users on new responsibilities, timelines, and functionality related to their permissions.
  7. Train end users on how to differentiate their search criteria between archived courses and current and future courses.
As you can tell, reorganizing domains can be time- and labor-intensive. If these processes are done incorrectly, you run the risk of losing data. We recommend that you reach out to Team Concourse for guidance before attempting any domain and course reorganization projects on your own.
Condensing Your Domain Structure
If your organization initially opts for a complicated domain structure but decides to remove or consolidate domains later, you should:
  1. Confer with academic and accreditation stakeholders about whether archival versions of syllabi should be retained for posterity. If copies should be retained, you can:
    1. Rename the domain and its external ID to effectively present it as an archive domain. All the courses in the domain can then be hidden in your system so that no domain users or end users are able to search for or access courses within the archival domain. As a result, the syllabi are retained in your system in their current state and can only be accessed by System Admins. Hidden courses can be made visible again at any time.
    2. Create a bulk download of syllabi in the domain that is to be deleted. This process creates a PDF version of each syllabus in the designated domain so that the content of the syllabus can be accessed via other platforms moving forward.
  2. Determine whether courses in the extraneous domains should be deleted or moved to different domains.  
    1. If courses should be deleted, they may be purged manually or with a mark course for deletion feed.
    2. If courses should be moved to a different domain, this can be done via Course Feed. Update the domain identifiers in a Course Feed that contains all the required information about the courses and process it as you normally would a Course Feed.
  3. Once the extraneous domains no longer contain courses, they can be deleted from your system manually in the Manage Domains page.
  4. Review and update Course Feeds to reflect the new domain structure.
    1. Course Feeds for archival courses should be discontinued.
    2. Update campus and department identifiers as needed in Course Feeds moving forward to ensure courses are created or updated in the appropriate domains.
  5. Review and update domain permissions to match the new domain structure.
  6. Train domain users on new responsibilities, timelines, and functionality related to their permissions.
Condensing domains and deleting courses presents a risk of losing important data. We recommend that you exercise extreme caution before deleting any data from your system. If you have questions before attempting this process, reach out to Team Concourse for guidance.

Related Topics

Before making a decision about setting up domains, you should be familiar with some related issues and contexts. See the following articles for more information:
  1. Learn more about Setting Up and Managing Domains.
  2. Domains are managed by multiple users with Domain Permissions in Concourse.
  3. Collecting data about system structure and high-level permissions is easy with Domain Reports.

Tell Us About Your Experience

Did this article answer your question? If you made a decision like this for your Concourse instance, let us know how it turned out. If we missed something in this article or if you have a question that isn’t addressed in our Knowledge Base, let us know how we can help by reaching out to support@campusconcourse.com. 

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