Ellucian works for AB1111

AB1111 currently requires 7 characters for the Course Number, and it requires the ability to have multiple courses with the same Subject and Course Number at a single institution or multi college district.

• Colleague max characters for the course number is 7
• Colleague allows for multiple courses with the same Subject + Course Number 

Currently, Banner only allows for 5 characters in the course number field. Banner also does not allow for more than one Subject and Course Number per instance of Banner.

To support the requirements of AB1111, the Ellucian team has created a new field to house the common course number, the Common Course Number field (previously named the Course Number Alias field). The Common Course Number field allows for 7+ character course numbers (up to 20 characters) and will also allow institutions to have more than one course with the same common course number within Banner.

The Common Course Number added to this new field will display courses to students in Ellucian's interfaces and outputs, such as transcripts or invoices and can be renamed to whatever field name makes the most sense for your institution (i.e. CCN or Common Course, etc.).

This solution addresses the day-to-day needs of each institutional user:  

• As an administrative user, I must see both the Banner Course Number and the Common Course Number. I must also be able to change the name of the field to a field name that has meaning to my institution (i.e. CCN).
• As a Student, I must only see the Common Course Number where a common course number is in use.
• As Faculty, I must only see the Common Course Number where a common course number is in use.
• As someone visiting an institution's public website, I must only see the Common Course Number where a common course number is in use. 

1. The new Common Course Number field allows for 7+ characters (up to 20). Available as of September 19th, 2024 in Banner Student 8.32, Banner Student 9.3.35, Banner Common Database Upgrade 9.36.
2. Banner UI has been updated to use the Common Course Number value.
3. All other Ellucian solutions and third-party partners utilizing Ellucian APIs can now consume the 7-character value in the Common Course Number field.
4. MIS reporting will be updated to incorporate AB 1111 once new MIS requirements are determined. This will be released in Q2 or Q3 2025. 

Release Specifics and Release Numbers

For a copy of all impacted Banner Student pages and processes, please contact your CSM.

Watch February's Banner Solution for AB1111 on-demand webinar. Passcode: 0dG#N^PE

Watch January's Banner Solution for AB1111 on-demand webinar. Passcode: h+#1Prrk

Watch December's Banner Solution for AB1111 on-demand webinar. Passcode: +JH8cJz#

Watch November's Banner Solution for AB1111 on-demand webinar.

The Common Course Number field (previously named the Course Alias Field), is a new field that supports California's AB1111 legislation, allowing for longer course numbers. It’s used when displaying courses to students in Ellucian’s interfaces and outputs, such as transcripts or invoices. 

It's only intended to be the common course number—currently, the one that starts with “C”. The subject code will still be in the same field as it is today. 

First and foremost, the solution needed to address all California Community College Banner customers. It also needed to be in place for Fall 2025 registration. The Ellucian product team also wanted to limit the downstream impact as much as possible.  

If the Common Course Number has a subject code that is different than what you currently use, then Yes, because there's no way to change an existing subject code. If the Common Course Number uses the same subject code that you currently use, you can update your existing course, adding the new course number that starts with “C” to the Common Course Number field.

No, you only need the Common Course Number field if your course number exceeds the current field's length limit. If your existing course number fits within the limit, you can continue using it. Ellucian’s student-facing UI will display either the course number or the common course number field based on system configuration. Or you can decide to use the Common Course Number field for all courses if you have concerns around some courses using their Banner Course Number and some utilizing the Common Course Number field.

Yes, the Common Course Number field is Ellucian’s approach to handling longer course codes and supporting multi-campus institutions. It allows for displaying a single course ID to students while managing separate courses internally. Ellucian will continue to roll out features to support this across its product suite.

Ellucian has enhanced its APIs to include the Common Course Number field value, enabling third-party integrations to use this field in downstream systems for a consistent user experience.

The Banner course number remains the internal unique identifier in Banner Admin for managing courses. 

Yes, the Common Course Number will be visible to students and advisors in audits and plans. Since the actual course code is still stored and used behind the scenes, no data migration or transformation is required for displaying the common course number—it will work automatically. 

Yes, all state reporting will be updated to show the new Subject Code + Common Course Number where applicable. Where a Common Course Number does not exist, the reports will continue to use Subject Code + Course Number as it does today. 

Where a Common Course Number is being used and enabled in the configuration, Students will only see the SUBJ + Common Course Number.

Where a Common Course Number is being used and enabled in the configuration, Faculty will only see the SUBJ + Common Course Number.

Staff will see both the Banner Subject, Banner Course Number AND the Common Course Number on the Administrative pages.

In Self-Service, schools can enable the search element for college and require a college be selected as a search criteria. 

View the Release Specifics and Release Number

View the Release Specifics and Release Number

The Common Course Number will appear on a student transcript where the Common Course Number is in use.  

When setting up new transfer articulation agreements, the external institution's course catalog will use the common course number, as neither your institution nor the student will be aware of the internal course code that may exist. However, when defining the equivalency, you will need to use the Banner course code, not the Common Course Number, but we will introduce the alias field in the equivalency block so that when the current active catalog record is referenced, the equivalency will appear or can be optionally keyed if needed. Consequently, the Transfer Articulation module will have both numbers show.  If the user enters the Banner Course Number as the equivalent course, they will see the Common Course Number/Course Alias value with the course info.  And thus also when SHATAEQ is used, and rolled to history, the resulting record in SHATRNS will also have the alias field available in the equivalency block. 

Banner: SCACRSE and SCAPREQ
When the Common Course Number/Course Alias field is populated, the value will display in place of the Banner Course Number in all places, like Degree Works, Transcript, Class Schedule, Catalog, Course Outline of Record, etc.  

Colleges don’t need to maintain a separate database of these courses to refer to. The Ellucian solution provides the tools needed to have this information viewable within the system. To meet that goal, the Common Course Number/Course Alias field has been added to the SCBCRSE page and will be able to be queried from the keyblock. Each page of the Catalog will have the field viewable in the key block so users can clearly see the Banner Course number and the Common Course Number/Course Alias field value.

This is the foundational build of the course.  When a SCACRSE record is created using the Common Course Number/Course Alias field, the ‘crosswalk’ will be created in Banner that all other users will see in the keyblock.

Banner: SHATATR
Transfer Course Articulation, Equivalent Course, Subject and Number is the standard unique course number value that exist in SCABASE – Course Base Maintenance/SCACRSE – Basic Course Information, and not the Course Alias from SCACRSE:

The Transfer Articulation module will have both numbers show.  If the Evaluator enters the Banner Course Number as the equivalent course, they will see the Common Course Number/Course Alias field value with the course info.  

Banner: SSASECT
Schedulers will be able to enter the Banner Course Number and have the Common Course Number/Course Alias default and display.  

Banner: SIAASGN  
The Common Course Number/Course Alias will show on the admin faculty load pages (SIAASGN, SIALVAS, SIAASGQ) and also in FLAC SSB pages 

Worksheet Tab 
For students and advisors, the Common Course Number/Course Alias will display on all parts of the audit, in the PDF audit, in Course Link, in Class History, in GPA Calculators and the What-If.

Plans Tab 
For students and advisors, the Common Course Number/Course Alias will display in the Courses sidebar and requirement drawer, Still Needed sidebar and requirement drawer, course search for course and choice requirements, Course/Choice/Class List GPA requirements on the plan, the printed plan view, planner What-If, planner audit and Course Link on plans and the planner audit.

Exceptions Tab 
For specified user classes (i.e. advisors), exceptions should be created using the Common Course Number/Course Alias value, and Degree Works will translate that to the correct course number so the auditor can correctly apply/evaluate the exception. For all users applying exceptions, they will need to intentionally specify the Common Course Number/Course Alias in the exception description so the student sees the correct value.

Templates Tab 
Counselors will need to add exceptions based on the Banner Course Number rather than Common Course Number/Course Alias from Banner field SCBCRSE.COURSE_ALIAS.

Scribe 
Requirements must be Scribed using the Banner Course Number, not the Common Course Number/Course Alias. However, any Labels, ProxyAdvice and Remark text should use the Common Course Number/Course Alias so the student sees the correct advice. 

As of this release, there are no further planned releases related to AB1111. However, additional work may be prioritized based on customer feedback. Updates to be shared here or speak to your CSM.