Using Course Attributes

Attributes, created by the University Registrar's Office, are used by many departments to attach a searchable label of sorts, to a course. For example, the history department uses attributes to label many of its courses. This example shows all the areas of study that HIST 247 counts towards the History major and it also indicates that it counts toward a Global Studies elective requirement.

  • YC GLBL: Elective
  • YC HIST: Cultural History
  • YC HIST: Intl & Diplomat Hist
  • YC HIST: Pltcs, Law & Govt
  • YC HIST: Soc Chng & Social MVMN
  • YC HIST: War & Society
  • YC HIST: Lecture Courses

Course attributes are used by departments to:

  • indicate to students which courses, primary in a different department, count toward their degree requirements
  • eliminate the need to add a cross-listing
  • indicate courses that count toward a concentration or area of study within their own department

Course attributes are used by Degree Audit to:

  • track fulfillment of major, concentration, and certificate requirements

Course attributes are used by Certificates to:

  • label courses that count toward certain certificate requirements

How course attributes are used by students in Yale Course Search:

  • If a course has been assigned departmental attributes, they are listed on the course listing informational panel under Course Information.
  • Students can use the attribute search feature to search for courses offered with a specific attribute. This is done using the Search drop-down option called Any Course Information Attribute, found on the Search Courses left panel. Attributes are listed alphabetically.

How to Create an Attribute

For information about creating attributes for your department, contact registrar@yale.edu.

How to add attributes to a course

  • Adding attributes in WEN is for a single semester and may only be added by the primary department
  • Adding attributes in CIM is for the life of the course and may only be added by primary or secondary department or certificate director

As a best practice, attributes may be added in CIM to the course record at any time (before, during, or after registration), however, if a course has already been offered in WEN, the attributes added in CIM will not appear in YCS or on Degree Audit until the next time the course is offered.

adding attributes in CIM

Secondary departments may add attributes to existing course proposals, however, only the primary department may add attributes to a new course proposal.

  1. Pull up the existing course record in CIM. Click on Edit Course.
  2. Near the top of the page, you will find a question about adding attributes. Select Yes. This will gray out all but the Effective term, Instructor information, and Departmental Attributes fields.

  3. Select the effective term and enter the instructor’s name/rank/department. If you do not know the information about the instructor, enter “TBD” in the required fields.

  4. Scroll down to the Departmental Attributes field. It is just above the Yale College section of the CIM form.

  5. Click on the down arrow to open the list of existing departmental attributes. They appear exactly as they do on Yale Course Search.

  6. You can add as many attributes as appropriate for the course. Use the green + sign to add more selection fields. Use the up/down arrows to reorder the attributes. 

  7. Once you are finished, scroll to the bottom of the form, and click Start Workflow.

removing attributes in CIM

  1. Open the CIM record for the desired course and follow steps 1-4 for adding attributes.
  2. Click on the red X icon that appears to the right of any attribute you need to remove.
  3. Be sure to Start Workflow to save the change.

adding attributes in wen

At this time, the best practice is to add the attributes in CIM. If the course is new and has already been offered in WEN, email courseleaf@yale.edu to see if it is too late to add the attributes for the current term.

removing attributes in wen

1. Email courseleaf@yale.edu.