E10 - View lines Action: Create classes

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:44 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble
Create classes
Course codes
Class data
Check class data

Preamble

Once the elective lines have been accepted and finalised, the next step is to 'Create classes', which transfers all the classes information from the elective lines into the Classes > Class data screens.
The classes must then be checked and edited if required, before timetabling can begin.

Create classes

Lines > Line results > View lines > Action: Create classes

This function will do two things:

Transfer the current elective line classes into the Classes > Class data F6 screens, including the line numbers
Populate class lists
Populate the #P (number of periods) field

Course codes

A range of default class code options will be given to choose from. If the school wishes to use a different coding format, the user can select the closest format, then manually adjust each code in Classes > Class data.

Class data

The user will be taken to the Class data screen. Some information will be automatically populated here, and some information must be manually updated.

The automatic entries include:

Code: Class code, as per the selected format
Subject: Subject name
Line: the new line entry for each class.
Link: if any classes were vertically linked, the linked class code will be added to the Link field. For multi-year datasets or datasets that use the 'timetable around' function, a link from one year level will be placed into a class of the next year level to ensure that the timetabling of the lines across year levels occur correctly.
Example: Year 11 and 12 have had lines generated together. When classes were created, an entry was added into the Line 1 11ACC.1 class to link it to the Line 1 12LST.1 class. When Line 1 is placed onto the grid, all Line 1 classes in Years 12 and 11 will be timetabled onto the same period.
#Per: the number of periods will match the value entered into the line parameters. This can be easily changed if required.
TeacherPref and RoomPref: in cases where a single teacher and/or room code was entered directly into the Elective data screen, these codes will appear in the TeacherPref or RoomPref field, and the assignment will be made, meaning that the staff or room has been assigned to the class. This can be manually changed if necessary.
Ensure the 'View Fields to show' drop down has the following four columns displaying: Teacher prefs, Assigned teacher, Room prefs and Assigned room.
Periods: If the 'Fix Lines to periods' table was used, the period codes will display, effectively forcing these classes onto the grid.

Note that any changes made to class data or class lists through normal class list management processes DO NOT flow back into the Elective data; the elective data information is preserved as is.

Check class data

It is possible that there remains classes in class data that are no longer needed. Creating classes does not delete any preexisting classes in the file; it simply updates class data with the new information. Classes no longer needed should be manually deleted.

For example, perhaps there were four Year 11 Biology classes running last year, but next year there are only three classes running. The extra Biology class will still appear in class data and can be manually deleted.
Any extra classes will have no students in them, so it will be obvious which classes should be manually deleted.

Class data that should be checked at this point include the Faculty and the Spread, but of course all other data must be checked prior to beginning construction.

Refer to: E10 - Class Data