6  Designing the Course Feeder Workbook

This chapter defines the standard feeder Excel workbook used to generate a complete Quarto-based course website. The workbook separates course content, delivery logistics, and grading structure into clearly defined sheets.

This separation is intentional: * It mirrors how universities think about courses. * It allows partial automation with AI. * It prevents accidental coupling between pedagogy and logistics.

6.1 Workbook Overview

Based on the official benchmark (Course-Schedule.xlsx), the feeder workbook contains several essential sheets. The primary ones you will interact with are:

Sheet Name Purpose What It Generates
Course Details What is taught (modules, lectures, topics) lecture notes, presentations, module pages, schedule rows
Sections How and when it is taught syllabus section table, schedule anchors
Grade How students are evaluated grading table, deliverables summary
Deliverables What students submit Blackboard assignment map, due-date planning

Older course workbooks may also include supplementary sheets such as Calendar or Day List for institution-specific term mapping.

Tip

Treat the workbook as the planning database for the course. Quarto files are the authoring layer; Blackboard is the delivery layer; the workbook is the structure that keeps them aligned.

6.2 Sheet 1 — Course Details (Core Content Sheet)

6.2.1 Purpose

This sheet defines the academic structure of the course. It is the only sheet required to generate Lecture Notes, Presentations, Labs, and Assignments using our Quarto workflow.

6.2.2 Required Columns

The Course Details sheet should contain these columns:

Column Description
Module Module identifier (e.g. Module 1)
Lecture Lecture identifier (e.g. L0.1, L1.1)
Title Lecture title
Description One–two paragraph description
Mode Delivery mode, such as Online, On-Campus, or both
Source File Quarto file that should hold the content

6.2.3 Example Rows

Module Lecture Title Description Mode Source File
Module 1 L1.1 Course Foundations Introduce the course workflow, tools, and first applied example. Online; On-Campus M01/M01_LN1.qmd
Module 1 L1.2 Applied Workflow Extend the first example into a lab, assignment, and project step. Online; On-Campus M01/M01_LN2.qmd

6.2.4 What This Sheet Generates

The Course Details sheet drives:

  • module folder planning
  • lecture note metadata
  • presentation titles
  • schedule rows
  • Blackboard module labels
  • AI-assisted summaries and keywords

6.3 Sheet 2 — Sections (Delivery Logistics)

6.3.1 Purpose

This sheet captures when and by whom the course is delivered. It is used for syllabus generation and schedule pages.

6.3.2 Required Columns

Column Description
Section Section identifier (e.g., A1, B1)
Modality Online, On-Campus, Hybrid, or other local label
Location Classroom or Zoom link
Instructor Instructor name
Email Instructor email
Start Date First class date in YYYY-MM-DD format
Meeting Days Day or days of week
Meeting Time Start and end time

6.3.3 What This Sheet Generates

The Sections sheet drives:

  • syllabus instructor tables
  • schedule start dates
  • online/on-campus variants
  • Blackboard section-specific reminders

6.4 Sheet 3 — Grade (Evaluation Structure)

6.4.1 Purpose

This sheet defines the grading logic independently of content. It supports automatic syllabus grading tables.

6.4.2 Required Columns (Key Elements)

Column Description
Category Category name, such as Labs, Assignments, Project, Participation
Count Number of items
Points Each Points per item
Total Points Total category points
Weight Syllabus weight, if used

6.4.3 What This Sheet Generates

The Grade sheet drives:

  • syllabus grading tables
  • points summaries
  • Blackboard category planning
  • assignment weighting checks

6.5 Sheet 4 — Deliverables (Student Submission Map)

6.5.1 Purpose

This sheet connects the academic plan to student-facing submissions.

6.5.2 Required Columns

Column Description
Module Module associated with the deliverable
Deliverable Student-facing name
Type Lab, Assignment, Project, Participation, Quiz, or Exam
Source File Quarto source file
Due Offset Days Days after the module start date
Points Points attached to the deliverable

6.5.3 Example Rows

Module Deliverable Type Source File Due Offset Days Points
Module 1 Lab 1 Lab M01/M01_Lab1.qmd 5 10
Module 1 Assignment Assignment M01/M01_A.qmd 7 30
Module 1 Project Step Project M01/M01_Proj.qmd 10 40

6.5.4 What This Sheet Generates

The Deliverables sheet drives:

  • Blackboard assignment setup
  • due-date planning
  • deliverables pages
  • project milestone tracking
  • grading workload estimates

6.6 Validation Rules

Before using the workbook downstream, check these rules:

  • Every required sheet exists.
  • Every required column exists.
  • Source File values use the canonical M01_* convention.
  • Every deliverable has a type, source file, due offset, and points value.
  • Section start dates use YYYY-MM-DD.
  • Grade category totals are internally consistent.
  • Module labels in Course Details and Deliverables match.

Run the validator:

python scripts/validate_course_workbook.py data/Course-Schedule.xlsx

Validation is deliberately strict about sheet and column names because small spreadsheet inconsistencies become broken automation later.

6.7 Automating the Workbook Generation

Instead of creating this Excel file by hand, use the included script to generate a template populated with the exact sheets, columns, and starter rows:

6.7.1 Workbook Generator Script

python scripts/generate_course_workbook.py data/Course-Schedule.xlsx

If you need to replace an existing workbook:

python scripts/generate_course_workbook.py data/Course-Schedule.xlsx --overwrite

6.8 Generating a Draft Schedule

Once Course Details and Sections are filled, generate a draft schedule CSV:

python scripts/generate_course_schedule.py data/Course-Schedule.xlsx data/generated_schedule.csv

This first schedule is intentionally simple. It gives you a clean table that can be refined into schedule.qmd, copied into Blackboard planning materials, or used as a quality-control view of the workbook.

6.9 AI Automation (Optional)

Once your Course Details sheet is generated, and you have filled in the Module, Lecture, Title, Description, and Source File columns, you can use the metadata script discussed in Chapter 8 (Automating with AI) to populate YAML front matter in the generated Quarto files.