Assign graduation priority to courses within a program of study

Sometimes, a course can satisfy more than one graduation requirement within a program of study. You can assign a priority number to a course, so that it satisfies a specific requirement before meeting any others.

Example: Within a district's Standard Diploma program of study, Algebra I can satisfy a math or science requirement. You want this course to satisfy the math requirement, unless it has already been met. In that case, you want Algebra I to apply to the science requirement. To do this, assign a course priority of 1 as a math course, and 2 as a science course.

Important: The lower the course priority number, the higher the priority. Zero (0) is the default value for this field, and indicates no priority.

Note: Aspen copies the course priority order from year to year. If you want to change the course priority values, you must do so manually.

To prioritize a course within a program of study:

  1. Log on to the District view.
  2. Click Schedule > Courses.
  3. Select the course, and then click Details. The Courses' details page appears.
  4. Click the Requirement sub-tab. The Course Requirement page appears:
  5. The top of the page lists the program(s) of study associated with the course. A read-only breakdown for each program(s) of study appears below. Any partial credits or course priorities assigned to the course appear on the page.

  1. To enter or edit a course priority, select the program of study name in the Program Studies > Name field. The Graduation Course Requirement pop-up appears:
  1. Enter a number in the Course Priority field. The lower the priority number, the higher the priority (for example, 1 has a higher priority than 2).
  2. Example: In the Honors Graduation program of study, Film Studies has a Course Priority of 2 for English and 1 for Electives. The Electives requirement takes priority over the English requirement:


  1. If you want a portion of these credits to apply to the next requirement, enter that amount in the Partial Credit field. Click Save. The course priority appears on the Course Requirement page.
  2. Note: The course priority number is unique to the selected program of study. If the course belongs to more than one program of study, you can assign it a different priority number for each one.

    Note: If a course satisfies more than one requirement, but has a course priority of 0 for one of them (no priority), Aspen looks at the other Course Priority values to determine where to apply the course first.

  1. To quickly see which courses apply to certain requirements in one view, click the Programs of Study side-tab, and then click Requirements > Courses:
  1. To see this information by course, click the Course Requirements side-tab: