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Course Class

The Course class represents a university course within the School Enrollment System.
It stores all course-related information, manages enrollment, and maintains academic data such as assessments and assigned instructors.

Purpose

The purpose of the Course class is to:

  • Model a course with all essential academic attributes
  • Track enrolled students
  • Store assessments and grades
  • Manage enrollment status (open or closed)
  • Support instructor assignment
  • Provide validation and helper methods for safe course management

This class forms the core of the system’s academic structure.

Structure and key components

1. Enumerations

The class defines an enumeration for enrollment status:

  • OPEN
  • CLOSED

Using an enum ensures type safety and prevents invalid status values.

2. Attributes (private fields)

The Course class includes the following fields:

Basic information

  • courseName
  • courseCode
  • schedule
  • description

Enrollment management

  • enrollmentStatus
  • capacity
  • enrolledStudents (a list of Student objects)

Academic details

  • grades (a list of Assessment objects)
  • creditHours

Instructor

  • instructor (an Instructor object)

The enrolledStudents list is initialized during construction to avoid null references.

3. Constructors

Full constructor

Initializes all fields, ensuring the course object is fully populated.

Default constructor

Creates an empty course object, typically used during file loading or temporary object creation.

4. Setters and getters

Each field has corresponding getter and setter methods.

Validation rules include:

  • courseName and courseCode must not be empty
  • capacity must be a positive integer
  • creditHours must be greater than zero
  • Invalid values trigger error messages and do not update the field

This defensive design prevents invalid course data from entering the system.

5. Methods

isFull

Determines whether the course has reached maximum capacity.

Behavior:

  • Compares the size of enrolledStudents with capacity
  • Returns true if the course is full, otherwise false

This method is used during enrollment to prevent over-enrollment.

Summary

The Course class models all essential aspects of a university course, including academic details, enrollment status, instructor assignment, and grade tracking.
Its validation logic and helper methods ensure that course data remains consistent and reliable throughout the system.

This class is central to the functionality of the School Enrollment System.