Connecting Courses: Automated Matching vs. Custom Matching

This article explains how courses are matched between Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) and Faculty Success (FS) when syncing Course Evaluation reports. It clarifies the two available matching approaches, including the two types of Custom Matching, and explains when course codes or unique IDs must remain unique across academic years and terms.

Note: In this article, Automated Matching and Default Matching refer to the same matching method. While the title uses Automated Matching, this method is referred to as Default Matching throughout the article to align with current platform terminology and related documentation.

Overview: How Course Matching Works

To sync Course Evaluation & Surveys (CES) reports to Scheduled Teaching records in Faculty Success (FS), courses must be matched between the two systems using one of the following methods:

1. Default Matching
2. Custom Matching, which includes:
   1. Custom Matching by CES Course Code
   2. Custom Matching by CES Unique Course ID

Both matching methods allow the integration to determine which CES reports belong to which Scheduled Teaching records in FS so that reports attach correctly once a sync is completed.

Important: This integration does not create courses. Courses must already exist in FS before a sync is initiated.

How to Review Course Codes and Unique IDs in Your CES Project

Before selecting a matching method, review the course codes and unique IDs used in your CES project by:

1. Log in to CES as a CES Administrator.
2. Navigate to Surveys & Projects from the navigation bar.
3. Select Projects, then open the desired project.
4. Go to the Courses tab of the project.
5. You can review course codes in either of the following ways:
   1. Locate the Code or Unique ID column in the Courses table.
   2. Select Export All Courses to download an Excel file and review the Code and CourseUniqueID columns.

How to Choose the Right Course Matching Method

After reviewing your course codes and unique IDs in CES, select the matching method that aligns with your data structure and long-term maintenance needs.

Use Default Matching if:

1. Your CES course codes follow the required format: 
   1. CourseCode = CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber
2. Or you are willing to revise your CES course codes to follow this format.

Use Custom Matching if:

• Your CES course codes do not follow the required format (CourseCode = CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber).
• You want to retain your existing CES course codes.
• You can ensure that course codes or unique IDs are unique for all time.

Key Requirement: Course Code and Unique ID Uniqueness

The requirement for course code or unique ID to be unique across academic years and terms depends on which matching method you use:

• Default Matching
• Custom Matching

Default Matching

When Default Matching is used, CES course codes are matched to Faculty Success Scheduled Teaching records within the context of the academic year and term selected in the Course Evaluation Management tool when a sync is initiated.

• The sync utilizes the academic year and term from the Course Evaluation Management tool to identify and align Scheduled Teaching records between CES and FS.
• CES course codes are then matched against the Scheduled Teaching records returned for that selected academic year and term.
• Matching is performed by comparing the CES course code (formatted as CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber) to the corresponding Scheduled Teaching fields (COURSEPRE, COURSENUM, SECTION).

Because the sync is limited to Scheduled Teaching records for the selected academic year and term:

• Course codes do not need to be unique across academic years or terms.
• The same course code may be reused in different academic years or terms without causing conflicts, as long as the Scheduled Teaching records are correctly associated with the selected academic year or term.

Custom Matching (Course Code or Unique ID)

When either type of Custom Matching is used (Course Code or Unique ID):

• CES Course Codes or CES Unique IDs must be unique across all projects, academic years, and terms.
• This means that the same course code or unique ID cannot be reused for a Fall and Spring course, or across different academic years.
• Term and Year selected in the Course Evaluation Management tool are not used as filters during the sync.

If duplicate values exist, the integration cannot reliably determine which course to match, which can result in failed or incorrect syncs.

Default Matching

Default Matching is recommended when CES course codes follow the required structure exactly.

• Required Course Code Format: CourseCode = CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber

Each component of the CES course code must match the corresponding fields in the Scheduled Teaching record in FS:

For example:

If a course within your CES project has the course code BIO-101-1, the corresponding Scheduled Teaching record for the course must have the following values in the respective fields:

• Course Prefix: BIO
• Course Number: 101
• Section: 1

If any part does not match exactly, the CES report will not be attached to the Scheduled Teaching record as a course match could not be identified.

Important: The fields in your FS instance may vary depending on any customizations made to your configuration. To review your configuration, refer to the following article: Configuration Report.

Revising Course Codes for Default Matching

If the course codes in your CES project do not follow the required format (CourseCode = CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber) and you'd like to proceed with Default Matching, you can update the course codes to follow the required format by using the steps below:

Important: If your project is active and uses LMS survey notifications (for example, Brightspace User Integration (LTI 1.1), Canvas User Integration Settings), wait until the project has ended before modifying course codes. Changing course codes mid-project can disrupt notifications.

1. Log in to CES as a CES Administrator.
2. Go to Surveys & Projects > Projects, then open your project.
3. Navigate to the Courses tab.
4. Click Export All Courses to download the Excel file.
5. In the Excel file, find the Code column.
6. Update the course codes in the Code column to follow the required format: CourseCode = CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber. Keep in mind that's crucial to not modify the unique ID of the course. This can lead to unexpected outcomes in your project.
7. Once the course codes are updated, save your file and return to your project in CES.
8. Go to the Courses tab.
9. Click Data Import.
10. Select Excel.
11. Choose Course File under Select Course File Type.

Once the file is uploaded to your project, you should see a green message confirming that it's being processed. The progress of the upload can then be tracked by clicking on the bell icon in the upper-right corner to go your Notifications. For more information on this process, visit Batch Changes to Course & User Information using Upload Files.

Custom Matching

Custom Matching allows you to connect courses without modifying your CES course codes to follow the required format (CourseCode = CoursePrefix-CourseNumber-SectionNumber). Because of this, you can keep your existing course codes in CES. Alternatively, you may connect courses through Custom Matching by using their Unique ID. This means that there are two supported options for Custom Matching:

• Option 1: Custom Matching by CES Course Code

  CES course codes are entered into the EK_COURSE_CODE field on the Scheduled Teaching (SCHTEACH) screen in FS. The integration matches CES courses to FS records using this field. Course codes must be unique across all academic years and terms.

• Option 2: Custom Matching by CES Unique ID for Courses, CES Unique IDs are entered into the EK_UNIQUE_ID field on the Scheduled Teaching (SCHTEACH) screen in FS.The integration matches courses using the UniqueID value. Unique IDs must be unique across all academic years and terms.

When using Custom Matching, custom primary keys for the SCHTEACH screen are supported. Therefore, if your institution uses this method, you do not need to change your primary key fields. Additionally, if you are not an administrator in both systems (FS and CES), you will need to coordinate with the administrator of the other system to receive assistance with gathering and modifying data (as needed) to facilitate this Custom Matching method.

Note: If either the EK_COURSE_CODE or EK_UNIQUE_ID fields are blank for a course, the integration falls back to Default Matching. Please note that you can only use one of these fields for Custom Matching as both cannot exist simultaneously on your SCHTEACH screen in FS.

Preparing FS Scheduled Teaching Records for Custom Matching

If you use either Custom Matching option, the following actions are required to properly configure your FS scheduled teaching records:

Step 1: Export Course Data from CES

1. Log in to CES as a CES Administrator.
2. Go to Surveys & Projects > Projects and open your project.
3. Go to the Courses tab.
4. Click Export All Courses to download an Excel file of your courses data. Keep this file for later steps or share with your FS administrator. If you share the file with your FS administrator, no further action is needed from the CES side.

Step 2: Update Scheduled Teaching Records in FS

The codes from the Excel file that is retrieved from the CES project will need to be added to the Scheduled Teaching records in FS. This can be done by:

1.  Determine whether Scheduled Teaching records need to be created or updated. You can review your existing data by running an Export Raw Data report.
   1. If records need to be created refer to Creating New Scheduled Teaching Records Using Export Data Report and CSV Data Import.
   2. If records need to be updated, follow the steps in Updating Existing Records.
2. When preparing your data for import, include one of the following columns in your CSV file:
   1. EK_COURSE_CODE (for matching by course codes)

   2. EK_UNIQUE_ID (for matching by unique IDs)

      In these columns, copy the corresponding course codes or unique IDs from the Code or UniqueID column in the Excel file that was retrieved from the CES project.

3. Once all course codes or unique IDs have been added to their respective column in your CSV file, import the modified file into FS using the steps provided in the following article, Overview of Importing CSV Data Into Faculty Success.

Once the import is complete and a sync is initiated, the integration will match CES courses to FS Scheduled Teaching records using the populated custom field.

Next Steps

After course matching is configured:

1. Confirm that the CES project has ended and reporting is available to instructors.
2. Verify that Scheduled Teaching records exist in FS for the appropriate term and academic year.
3. Initiate the sync using the Course Evaluation Management tool in Faculty Success. To learn more, refer to How to Initiate a Sync Between Course Evaluations & Surveys and Faculty Success.
4. Confirm the sync completed successfully by following the steps outlined in this article,  How to Confirm your Sync was Successful.

If you encounter any errors, visit Troubleshooting Failed Syncs: Common Errors and Fixes.