E10 - Elective data > Courses Action: Parameters

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:43 AM

Preamble

Prior to generating elective lines, the parameters must be set.

It is important to note that for schools using multi-year datasets the parameters apply to all years of the dataset; it is not possible to alter any fields for one year of the dataset without altering it for the others as well. The exception to this is the #Elective Lines field, where a slight modification can be made for each year level.

Parameters explained

Parameter	Explanation
# Elective Lines	This is the number of elective lines that will be constructed. It is usually 6 for Yr11, and 2 or 3 for Yr 9 electives, but can be anything from 1 to 13. For schools using multi-year datasets or the 'Timetable around' function, the notation such as '3/6' may also be used if the selected year is using only 3 lines out of 6. For example, if years 11 and 12 use 6 lines, but Year 9 only needs 3 of the 6 lines, then put '6' into '#Elective Lines' for Years 11 & 12 and put '3/6' for Year 9. The algorithm will then use only 3 lines for year 9 classes, while still checking school resources (staffing and rooming requirements) when generating the lines. Examples: NSW: 6.5 x 2U lines in the timetable (As in a total of 13 units offered online): Set the total elective lines to 7, and exclude courses from Line 7 by entering 'Not 7b' into the Lines field for all classes that cannot be placed on Line 7. This means line 7a is effectively a one unit line only - for perhaps extension classes, and line 7b is always empty as it can't fit into the grid if there are only 13 units in the grid. If you run extensions offline, you don't need a 'line' to accommodate as the Line = 'offline' in these cases. Note that it is recommended that extension classes are run online so that room and teacher availabilities can be taken into account during the line generation process. VIC: Commonly 6 lines are generated in a multi-year dataset. Years 10, 11 and 12 are lined together across the 6 lines so that students can choose subjects outside of their own year level, such as a Yr 10 student selecting a Yr 11 subject. Yr 9 will often be included within the same dataset, but it will perhaps only need to use 2 or 3 of the 6 lines. In this case, enter 2/6 or 3/6 for Year 9 as shown below: Note that the #Elective Lines entry has an impact on the main preference display in the Lines > Elective data > Students screen.
# Reserve preferences	This entry determines the number of reserve preference columns to display in the Lines > Elective data > Students screen. The algorithm will always attempt to give students their main preferences, but where not possible, it will move to the reserve preferences to give the students a full program. It is possible to collect more reserve preferences for students than is displayed. ie, if 4 reserve preferences have been collected from students, either in a spreadsheet or via Edval Choice, yet if #Reserve prefs = 2, then only 2 reserves will display, even though the other entries do actually exist in the software. Changing the entry to 4 will then display all reserve preferences where they exist. It is recommended that at least THREE reserves are captured for all years. Collecting multiple reserves means more students can be allocated a full program, without having to go back and ask students to re-select. Apart from the admin effort saving here, there is also a significant psychological benefit in not having to 'advise' students they missed something and need to re-select. Asking them for reserves up-front is much more palatable than telling them later that they missed out - even if it is effectively the same!
Units per line	This parameter specifies the number of units that a single line represents, so it must be at least as high as the highest Units field in the Lines > Elective data > Courses screen. Lines can be broken up into sub-lines, either representing timetabled sub-lines (e.g. Line 3a) or representing the same line in different rotations. Many schools will enter '2' here, meaning they have courses set as both 2U and 1U: - 2U: the course spans the whole line; it runs for the whole year. - 1U: the course spans a half line; or, it runs only on one rotation of a two rotation dataset Schools who deal with trimesters will set Units per line to '3', and schools having termly rotations will set this to '4'. The Units field of each course must exactly divide this number, so for example you cannot have a 2U course if 'Units per line' is '3'. The image below shows a 4 unit example; the file is set to 4 rotations (File > Setup > School Info > Number of Rotations = 4). Year 8 have termly classes, so Yr 8 courses are set to 1U each. Years 9 and 10 have classes that run for two terms each (or one semester), so these courses are 2U courses. Yr 11 and 12 courses run for the full year, so these courses are set to 4U.
Periods per line	This value is not considered during the elective line generation stage, but is used when the Line generation process is completed and the new classes are created. The #Per field in Classes > Class data will automatically be populated with this value. Note that schools using multiyear datasets may require different numbers of periods for different year levels or lines. This is fine; it is a default value only. Classes that deviate from the default number of periods can easily be manually adjusted in Class data.
Max classes per line	This value may be used to limit and balance the number of classes across the lines. The default entry is 99, as usually this setting is not needed, but it may be adjusted if problems develop when generating lines and too many classes are being placed on some lines and very few on other lines. Where using 'timetable around' other years, this value ignores the number of classes in the other lines being timetabled around. Schools using multi-year datasets should know that the entry applies for the entire dataset; it is not possible to specify this field for certain year levels only.
Min classes per line	This value may be used to assign a minimum number of classes for each line, such as in Year 7 lines where we know we must have 5 classes on each line to allow enough places to allocate all students. The default entry will be 0, as usually this setting is not needed, but it may be adjusted if problems develop when generating lines and not enough classes are being placed on some lines and too many on other lines. Where using 'timetable around' other years, this value ignores the number of classes in the other lines being timetabled around. Schools using multi-year datasets should know that the entry applies for the entire dataset; it is not possible to specify this field for certain year levels only.
Gender balance	Where there are multiple classes of a course running, the algorithm can be used to balance the mix of genders across the classes. This requires the Gender M/F field to be filled in in Students > Student data.
Explore drops	Explore drops is a very powerful feature, incorporating algorithmic determination of best combinations of classes to run as another area of elective line solution quality - quite apart from the lines themselves. Entering 'Y' into this field will display an 'Options' button: Course codes, separated by commas, should be entered here if a course must not be dropped, even if it will run with only a few students. Commonly courses like Chemistry or Physics still need to run even with low numbers. The entry '11Bio:2' means that a second Biology class must not be dropped. Wildcards may be used in place of listing all year course codes, eg 11CHE and 12CHE can be entered as *CHE. (This implies that if a 10CHE course existed, it must also run). Any class which is dropped will appear in the Dropped column in Lines > Line results > View lines. The user may accept some and not others during the line generation process, by manually moving any class from Dropped onto the lines to find the best lines solution.
Timetable around yr	This feature is used to generate lines for a dataset in a way that is compatible with another year level/s whose lines are considered set in stone. The typical example is when generating Yr 11 lines around existing Yr 12 lines: 'Yr 11 around Yr 12'. The newly generated lines will be assured to work underneath the pre-existing lines without teacher or room clashes. The existing lined classes will also helpfully display in the Lines > Line results > View lines screen, but will be coloured black and are not movable. (Note that significant benefits can often be achieved by actually re-doing the Yr12 lines with Yr11 as a combined run, but this is quite an advanced, complex process - e.g. as Yr 12 students must be granted 100% of their chosen subjects.) Refer to E10 - Elective data > Courses Action: Generate lines around existing lines in other year levels using 'Timetable around for greater detail on this feature.
Letter or number of the first line	The default entry will be '1', but may be changed to any other number or letter if desired. For example, if there are three elective lines in Yr 9, it may be school tradition to start these at Line X, such that you have electives Line X,Y,Z. It is important to check the Class data screen first to be aware of the Line letters or numbers used there, to save any confusion when the classes are created from the lines. For example, Yr 10 might use Line 1 for an assembly line, and so want elective classes to be created on Lines 2 and up. If elective classes are created starting at Line 1, there would be both assembly classes and elective classes all on Line 1 in Class data. This can be easily rectified in most circumstances, but is worth checking prior to creating classes.
Rotated	This field should be set to Y where there are both 1 unit and 2 unit courses or rotation 1/rotation 2 courses. This setting affects (a) double/single period compatibility, (b) part-timer calculations, and (c) whether classes are created in F6 Class data as rotated classes or on sublines eg Line 1a. When set to Y, classes may be specified as to which semester the course must run in. Enter 'a' (rotation 1) or 'b' (rotation 2) into the Line column of Lines > Elective data > Courses field.

Refer to E10 - Elective data > Courses for more information