E10 - Elective data > Courses Action: Rules

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:42 AM

Preamble

There are often many rules which must be applied to student preferences and the elective line construction process. We must ensure students nominate the correct number of units, and not more than the maximum number of units. We must ensure that students list compulsory subjects as defined by Educational authorities or by the school itself. We must ensure the students list subjects that the school itself may regard as compulsory, such as Studies of Religion. We must also cater to subjects which the school may consider as compulsory if requested, such as Maths, which may be technically optional, however school policy may be that students can’t be denied Maths if they request it. E10 checks constraints both in the generation stage and in the Student preferences screen.

When constructing the lines, there are often other constraints that need to be considered, such as the placement of individual classes. Refer to E10 - Elective data > Courses Action: Constraints.

Rules are used for any of the following purposes:

Student preferences checking: Prior to generating lines, student preference data can be checked to ensure that students have requested the right types of courses, if the school in fact requires them to, such as they must have selected an English type subject, or that they may not have any more than two Maths type courses.
If any rules are broken, E10 will highlight the issues so they can be addressed prior to generating lines, as the most correct student preference data is needed to obtain the best result. Note that if using Timetable Choice, this situation should not arise.
Line generation requirements: While E10 will try to give students all of their main preferences, it is not always possible. Entering rules allows the line generation process to know which types of courses students must be placed into, regardless of course preference level.
Timetable Choice form customisation: For schools using Timetable Choice, categorising courses using the rules features allows the forms to be configured to meet school preferences.
Timetable Choice subject submission requirements: For schools using Timetable Choice, two Rules entered into the etz file flow through to the online forms, and stops students from submitting preferences that break school rules. These rule are:
- 'at least'
- no more than'
This ensures that the data that is downloaded into the etz file has been already checked and meets the school requirements.

For schools using Timetable Choice, refer to the Choice Knowledge Base area for detailed use of using Rule entries to configure the Choice form. E10 - Choice: Submission rules

Types of Rules

The available rules are found in the Lines > Elective data > Courses > Action : Rules and Constraints: Rules screen and consist of:

at least
no more than
mandatory if req (requested)
priority
units-per-rotation at least
units-per-rotation at most

If multiple pathways exist in a dataset, rules can be assigned to specific pathways by selecting the required pathway from the drop down list in the Pathway column. If a rule is applicable to all pathways, select 'All' from the drop down list.

Units explained

It is important at this point to understand the use of the term 'units'. Each course is assigned the number of units that the course accounts for within the overall program, and will differ from school to school. The number of rotations within the file and the set up of the dataset both contribute to how best to assign the number of units per course.

Some common examples of the use of units:

- A typical NSW Year 11 dataset requires students to choose six subjects, with each course being 2 units and running for the full year. A full course for a student will total 12 units.
- A typical VIC school with two rotations will likely work in a multi year dataset for Years 9 - 12. Year long courses would be set up as two units, and semester length courses would be one unit.
Year 10 may have courses of both one and two units, depending on whether they run for a full year or for a semester. Maths and English may be two units (year long), with the Arts, Tech etc electives being one unit (semester long).
Year 9 students might choose three electives in Semester 1 and three electives in Semester 2, requiring 6 units in total. Each semester length course would be one unit and year long courses would be two units.
- A Year 7 program might have students changing electives each term, therefore the file would be set up with four rotations. Year long subjects would be set up as four units, semester length courses would be two units, and termly courses would be one unit.

Categorising subjects

Lines > Elective data > Courses: Rules field

The title of this field is ' Rules' to indicate the connection to the rules that may be set up. In actual fact, the entries in this column will be letters, which are used to group, or categorise, courses. As there are 26 letters of the alphabet, we may use up to 26 letters. Courses can be assigned to more than one letter.

For example, all Art courses might be assigned the letter A, and all Science courses the letter S, and so on, so that we may use this grouping or categorising of courses for a purpose.

Rules explained

Rule: At least

The 'at least' rule requires students at have 'at least' the specified number of units of a letter group as part of their program. For example, Year 11 students must be in an English subject as part of their program. Year 10 students may be required to have an English, a Maths, a Science and a Humanities subject as part of their program. Year 9 students may be required to have an Arts and a Technology subject.
The 'at least' rule will do two things:

Check student preferences: students preferences are checked that the required number of units of a letter group is included in their preferences. If it is not, the students will be highlighted as insufficient.
Assign students the specified number of units per letter group at the line generation stage.

Example: at least - 2 Units - Group E
Students must select and be assigned 2 units of an English subject. All English courses have been assigned the letter E in the Courses Rules field.

If students do not have an English course included in their preferences, the letter of the category will be highlighted in Lines > Elective data > Students in the Insufficient column.
*Note that for schools using Timetable Choice, it is not possible for students to submit selections if they have not met the 'at least' rule. It is only possible for this to occur where student selections have been imported or entered manually.

Edval will work hard to meet the at least rules at line generation stage, but on occasion it may not be able to grant the subject to the student. If this occurs, the affected student will be highlighted in the Lines > View Lines > Students.

Rule: No more than

The 'no more than' rule stops students from selecting or receiving more than the specified number of units of a letter group. For example, Year 9 students may not be allowed to have more than one Arts or one Technology subject.
The 'no more than' rule will do two things:

Check student preferences: students preferences are checked that no more that the allowable number of units of a letter group is included in their preferences. If there are too many of a letter group, the students will be highlighted.
Assign students only the allowable number of units per letter group at line generation stage. It is not possible for E10 to assign more than the allowable number of units to a student.

Example: no more than - 2 Units - Group M
Students must not choose or receive more than 2 units of a Maths subject. All Maths courses can be assigned letter M in the Courses Rules field.

If students do have more than the allowable number of units per group in their preferences, this will be highlighted in Lines > Elective data > Students.

*Note that for schools using Timetable Choice, it is not possible for students to submit selections if they have not met the 'no more than' rule. It is only possible for this to occur where student selections have been imported or entered manually.

Rule: Mandatory if requested

This rule applies only to Line generation stage.

The 'mandatory if requested' rule will ensure that students receive a course if they have selected it. This rule differs from the 'at least than' rule in that students are not forced to include a course of the letter group category in their preferences, but rather if they have selected it, then they must receive it. Keep in mind that E10 works hard to give students all of their preferences, regardless of the use of the mandatory rule.
Note that this rule will not break any 'at least' or 'no more than' rules.

Example: mandatory if req - V
Some Year 10 students have selected Year 11 subjects, and the school wants to ensure that these students receive the Year 11 subject regardless of the preference level they have chosen it at. The letter V has been used to associate these subjects in the Courses Rules field. Students who have selected letter V group subjects must now be assigned these courses at line generation stage, even if it causes them to miss out on a subject that was higher up their preference list.

E10 will work hard to meet the 'mandatory if requested' rules, but on occasion it may not be able to grant the subject to the student. If this occurs, the affected student will be highlighted in the Lines > View Lines > Students screen and the course listed in the Missed column.

Rule: Priority

This rule applies only to Line generation stage.

The 'priority' rule is a low precedence rule occasionally used to encourage certain strategic subjects to reach the minimum class size. It works by temporarily shifting up the main preference level in students who requested the associated letter group courses. The main preference level shift is determined by the number entered. Entering '1' will mean the subject only gets a little nudge, higher numbers get a larger nudge.
The other rules will take precedence over this rule. Note that there is no actual movement of preference order in the Student preference list, it is taken into account when the line generation algorithm is run.

Example: priority - 2 - X
7INF is often low on the list of student preferences, but the school definitely wants to run a class and therefore wants the maximum students possible to be placed in the class. The letter X has been entered into the Courses Rules field for 7INF, and then a priority rule added. Any students who have selected 7INF in their main preferences somewhere will have it nudged up their preference order by 2 places to try and encourage the students to be placed in this class.

Rule: Units-per-rotation at least

This rule only applies to files set up with more than one rotation.

This rule applies only to Line generation stage.

When using this rule, E10 is required to give students the specified number of units per letter group per rotation.

Example: units-per-rot at least - 1 Unit - Group S
Yr 9 students have a number of one unit Science subjects on offer that each run for one rotation, ie, the class runs for half a year. The students must study science all year, and have one Science subject in rotation 1 and a second science subject in rotation 2.
Each science course must have a letter group assigned in the Courses Rules field, such as S.

Rule: Units-per-rotation at most

This rule only applies to files set up with more than one rotation.

This rule applies only to Line generation stage.

It requires E10 to give students no more than the specified number of units per letter group category per rotation

Example: units-per-rot at most - 1 Unit - Group T
Year 10 students may select from a range of subjects that are of the technical category. The school does not want the students to have two technical type subjects in the same rotation, but rather force them to be across the rotations.

Each technical courses must have a letter group assigned, such as T, in the Courses Rules field.

Note that it is possible to use both the 'units-per-rotation at least' and the 'units-per-rotation at most' rules.

Similarly to other occasions where students do not receive a subject to meet the rules, E10 will highlight any issues in the Lines > View Lines > Students screen.

Multi-year datasets

A couple of things to note about multi-year datasets:

Rules are set for each year level, as different rules may apply for each year level.
Rules apply to all pathways of the year level; different pathways cannot have different rules applying to them.
Example: If Yr 7 has two pathways, such as a Main pathway and a Sports Program pathway, and a rule such as 'at least - 2U - Group E' is entered, both pathways must have E category courses for the student to select and submit to meet the rule.