How do I add, move, or remove a course placeholder in Student Planning?

Modified on Mon, Jul 11, 2022 at 12:04 PM

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You can add course placeholders to your course plan in just a few steps. After logging in to Self-Service, select the Student Planning shortcut (you can also access Student Planning from Self-Service navigation menu under Academics > Student Planning):

Lesley University Self-Service landing page. The Student Planning shortcut is highlighted.

From here, you may select either My Progress or Plan & Schedule.

Lesley University Self-Service Planning Overview screen in Student Planning. The links for the My Progress and Plan & Schedule sections are highlighted.

From the "Requirements" section of My Progress, you may select the course code and section number link for the course you would like to add as a placeholder. Or, select the Search button at the top of each requirement category to search for multiple courses that satisfy the requirement.

Lesley University Self-Service My Progress screen in Student Planning. Under the General Education Communications Requirements section, the button to search for satisfactory courses is highlighted, as is the hyperlink for CLITR-100 under the Literary Analysis requirement.

A course catalog search page will load. Depending on the option you selected in the previous step, it will display either one course, or a series of courses. Beside the course for which you'd like to add a placeholder, select the Add Course Placeholder to Plan button.

Lesley University Self-Service Course Catalog search page for CWRIT-1101. The Add Course Placeholder to Plan button is highlighted.

Alternatively, from Plan & Schedule you may simply enter a subject for which you'd like to search in the Search bar near the top right of the screen:

Lesley University Self-Service Plan & Schedule screen. The subject search bar is highlighted.

Next, a course catalog search page with a series of courses will display. Beside the course for which you'd like to add a placeholder, select the Add Course Placeholder to Plan button.

Lesley University Self-Service course catalog search page. Results for a Math search are displayed. Beside the course at the top of the search results, the Add Course Placeholder to Plan button is highlighted.

If you need to remove a course placeholder that you've already added to your plan, select the Timeline tab (beside the Schedule tab) in your Plan & Schedule screen. After the Timeline results load, select the green "X" at the top right corner of a placeholder to remove it. Or you can remove all placeholders and (unregistered) sections* by selecting the Remove Planned Courses/Sections button.

Lesley University Self-Service Timeline tab in the Plan & Schedule section of Student Planning. The options to remove a single placeholder, and to remove all placeholders and sections, are highlighted.

* Remember: Course sections and course placeholders are different. Course sections include meeting information (time, location, etc), but course placeholders do not. When you register for a course section you're reserving a spot in a specific course section that you added to your schedule. Alternatively, a course placeholder is like a bookmark; you can add it to your schedule, but you cannot use it to register.

If you need to move a course placeholder or planned course section to another term, you can do this from the Timeline tab as well. Simply click and drag (or press and drag on mobile) the course placeholder or course section to the desired term. The term to which you're moving placeholder or section will be highlighted in green.

Lesley University Self-Service Timeline screen in the Plan & Schedule section of Student Planning. The image depicts a placeholder being moved from one term to the next. The term to which the placeholder is being moved is highlighted in green.

Please note that you cannot move a registered section to another term in your timeline screen. If you attempt to this, the term to which you're trying to move the section will be highlighted in red.

Lesley University Self-Service Timeline screen in the Plan & Schedule section of Student Planning. The image depicts the user attempting to move a registered section from one term to the next. Since this is impossible, the term to which they are attempting to move the section is highlighted in red.

Need more information? You might be interested in our article on the difference between a placeholder and a section or our tutorial on using Student Planning to register for courses.