Academic Settings
Academic Cycles
Manage institute-wide periods, lifecycle transitions, GPA snapshots, copy-forward, and verified archives.
Cycle purpose
An academic cycle is an institute-wide period such as a semester, term, or academic year. It groups delivery and records for that period but remains independent from programs.
- Create a cycle before creating cohorts or sections that belong to that period.
- Use clear names such as Fall 2026 or Academic Year 2026 so reports and transcripts are easy to read.
- Cycles help preserve history when students move from one period to the next.
- The same cycle can serve many programs and can also contain standalone cohorts or sections.
Cycle lifecycle
| Role | Academic cycle access |
|---|---|
| Org Admin | Can create, update, transition, archive, retry, and delete only where safe. |
| Sub Admin | Can manage permitted operational cycle setup, but cannot create or retry an archive. |
| Manager/Teacher/Student | Can read cycle context used by assigned or enrolled academic work. |
| Guardian | Can see cycle context through linked-student records. |
| Finance Manager | No academic cycle management access. |
Active cycle
The active cycle is the period your school is currently working in. Making a cycle active can affect default filters and where users expect new academic work to appear.
Before activating
Check the cycle name, dates, and GPA policy before marking it active. Activating one cycle usually means the previous active cycle is no longer treated as current.
- Cycle name and dates are correct
- The intended GPA policy is selected
- Courses and sections have been reviewed for this period
- Staff know this cycle will become the default working period
Cycle lifecycle and write locks
| State | Purpose | Write behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Prepare dates, policy, and delivery. | Setup can be changed or safely deleted when unused. |
| Active | Current institute period. | Normal academic work is allowed. |
| Completed | Teaching has ended and records are being finalized. | Operational writes are restricted while archive prerequisites are reviewed. |
| Archiving | A snapshot revision is being built or retried. | Source academic records are protected from mutation. |
| Archived | Verified historical record. | Past Records is read-only; live mutation is blocked. |
Programs do not follow cycle status
Completing or archiving Fall 2026 does not complete, pause, or archive the programs that reference it. Program lifecycle and student progression remain separate actions.
GPA policy selection
Each cycle can use a selected GPA policy. When no specific policy is selected at creation time, the organization default policy is used.
- Select the policy that should apply to grades finalized in this cycle.
- Use the default only when it matches the institute rules for this cycle.
- Changing the default policy later does not mean old cycles should silently follow the new policy.
Policy change lock
Once finalized grades are pushed in the cycle, the policy cannot be changed. This prevents old transcripts from being recalculated under a newer policy.
| Cycle state | Can policy change? | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| No finalized grades yet | Yes | Review and change the selected policy before teachers finalize grades. |
| Some grades finalized | No | Keep the policy as-is and correct future cycles with a new policy if needed. |
| Past cycle | No, if grades were finalized | Archive old policies instead of deleting them when they explain historical transcripts. |
Copy-forward
Copy-forward helps admins carry selected academic setup from one cycle into another. It can copy sections and optionally include schedules, assessments, and materials depending on the operation.
| Use copy-forward when | Avoid it when |
|---|---|
| The new cycle has a similar class structure. | Teachers, rooms, times, or assessments will be completely different. |
| You want a faster starting point that staff will still review. | You need a clean reset with no old setup carried forward. |
| Materials or schedules mostly repeat. | Old dates or instructions could confuse students. |
Archive a completed cycle
- 1Finish grade, attendance, enrollment, and student stage decisions.
- 2Transition the cycle to Completed.
- 3Confirm no student stage enrollment for this institute cycle remains in progress.
- 4As Org Admin, choose Archive. EduVerse snapshots every section and builds student/program search indexes.
- 5Wait for Ready. If a build fails, review the reason and use Retry after correcting the source problem.
- 6Use Verify to confirm section checksums, the archive checksum, expected section count, and locked files.
- 7Open Past Records after the cycle becomes Archived.
Files must be verifiable
Archive creation fails when a referenced managed file has no SHA-256 checksum. Ready archives lock their files so historical materials and answerbooks cannot be replaced or deleted.
Common mistakes
- Activating a cycle before reviewing its GPA policy.
- Creating sections in the wrong cycle and later wondering why students cannot see them.
- Using copy-forward without reviewing copied dates, rooms, teachers, and instructions.
- Changing setup after teachers have already started grading without telling staff.
- Archiving while a student stage enrollment is still in progress.
- Expecting archived records to remain editable from the live section control panel.