TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preamble
Once lines have been generated and the results are being analysed, it may be helpful to look at particular student's individual allocations, particularly any student who did not receive their main preferences or any who have an insufficient program. The Student allocations display that helps to understand why the student has received the allocations they have, or why they may not have received their preferences. It is also possible to manually alter the student's allocations.
Student allocations
There are two methods to bring up the Student allocations screen:
- Navigate to Lines > Line results > Student allocations, select the student from the drop down at the top right
- Navigate to Lines > Line results > Student results, click on any student's name, double click to be taken to the Student allocations screen
A visual student allocation screen will display, showing:
- The student's preferences down the left hand side. A thick line separates the Mains from the Reserves
- The lines numbers appear across the top, including a column for any dropped classes
- The classes that a student has been placed into are highlighted green
- Courses that student included in their preferences, but that they have not been placed into, display in grey. (Courses that the student has not included in their preferences do not display in this screen)
- Each class displays the number of students that have been placed into the class. An asterisk signifies the class is at capacity
Examples
The below student has been granted all of their three main preferences: Pref 1 on Line 3, Pref 2 on Line 2, and Pref 3 on Line 1. The solid line represents the divide between Main and Reserve preferences.
This student has received their Pref 1 and Pref 3 subjects, but has missed out on Pref 2, due to 8PER not running. They have not received Pref 4 (8OES) on Line 2, as this clashes with 8FOO, which was selected as a higher preference. The student has been placed in 8INF on Line 1. The student has a full course and does not need further counselling.
The next student must have a class on every line for a full program, but none of their preferences have fallen on Line 4. This student would have a gap in their timetable so must be counselled to pick an alternate available course.
Note the following:
- there are three classes of 10CHE running, one each in Lines 1, 2 and 3. This student has been placed into the Line 1 class.
- the Line 2 10CHE course displays an asterisk to signal the class is at capacity.
- the Line 3 10CHE is highlighted red to signal the class is over capacity. The only way this could have occurred is by the user manually placing students into the class after the lines were generated (see the Manual Changes section).
Manual Changes
Although the algorithm has obtained the best outcome for students, there may be times when the user wishes to make some manual student allocation changes. This could be because students indicate they wish to be placed into a class that was perhaps at a lower preference, or a new student who has been added to the file after lines were generated and the user wishes to manually place them in classes so as not to disrupt any other existing student allocations.
Manual changes should only occur after the forms are closed, after the lines are generated, and before the step of 'Create classes' occurs. Once classes have been created, all class list management should be done through normal class list management screens, such as Students > My Classes or Students > Class list manager. If classes are created and then manual changes are made to the Student allocations screen, these changes will not be translated across to classes unless the 'Create classes' step is repeated.
Once in the Student allocations screen, find the class on the appropriate line, and simply double click on the preferred grey class. A warning will appear in the first instance of any session.
In this example, the student was granted Pref 5 (10MUS) in Line 5. For some reason they must now be placed into Pref 7 (10DRA). As classes have not yet been created, it can be done in the Student allocations screen. Double clicking on 10DRA shows the warning message, and once the 'Allow changes to DRAFT class lists' has been clicked, the student's allocations will change.
If either of the 'Generate lines' or 'Populate classes' actions occur after students have been manually moved into classes, these will be lost, as the algorithm will start over to meet the preferences of the students, just as it did the previous time around.