E10 - Choice: Configure Forms

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:52 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble
Form Selection
Maximum required and allowed units
Main preference dropdowns
Minimum required reserve units
Reserve preference dropdowns
Text Settings
Action bar: Copy parameters / rules / text from another year-level / pathway

Preamble

Once elective courses and rules have been entered into the etz file, the forms can be synchronised to the web server. The forms will be tested thoroughly and then students may log on to enter their preferences.

Each form for each year level and pathway can be customised.

Examples of online forms:

A Year 7 form showing two Main Units drop downs, and two Reserve Units drop downs.

A Senior School form showing five Main Units drop downs and one Reserve Units drop down.

Each of the fields and options are covered in detail below.

Form Selection

Navigate to Lines > Edval Choice > Configure forms and from the Filter section, select the relevant form and year level (and pathway if using pathways) from the drop downs.

Maximum required and allowed units

What is the maximum and allowable number of units a student must submit that accounts for a full course?

All courses must be given a 'unit' value, and this is used here. A student will not be able to submit their preferences unless both of these requirements are met.

It is possible to have a minimum requirement of 10 units, and a maximum of 12 units.

Refer to the article 'E10 - Elective data > Courses' to the section on 'Units'.

Main preference dropdowns

Use the + button to add as many dropdown fields as required on the form.

Label: The label displays on the online form and the default text may be edited to suit school preference. Simply click your cursor into the field and type the desired text.

Label must be unique as duplicate naming will cause issues in online form.

Groups: Schools may want certain courses only to appear in a dropdown for student selection. Courses can be assigned a 'Group' in the Elective data screen by associating them with a letter of the alphabet under the Elective data > Courses > Rules field, then entering the letter into the Configure forms > Groups field.
As multiple letters can be assigned to courses, sometimes it is necessary to use the text 'NOT' to exclude courses from appearing for selection.
In the example below, a rule exists that all Yr 12 students must submit 2 units of E group subjects. On the first pathway form, we want the E group courses 11ENG and 11LIT to appear in the first dropdown, but we do not want the course 'VCAL' to appear. We enter E NOT C.
On the second pathway form we want the VCAL course only to appear. We could enter just C, or V, but if there are other courses in the dataset associated with the letter C or V, those courses will also display. We can also enter E NOT N.
There are many many options when setting up Rules and Groups and customising forms, so it is likely that much trial and tweaking will occur to get the forms as desired.

Rotation / Sub-line: This field toggles between Rotation and Sub-line. Where the parameters of the elective data has been defined as being 'rotated' then this is 'Rotation', where it is not rotated, it becomes 'Sub-line'. This field restricts choice to rotation or sub-line subjects, and allows better curriculum rule checking. This entry is a secondary filter to the Group filter. If the group was ‘P’ and the rotation coded as ‘b’, then only courses which are in group P and ALSO in Rotation 2 will be shown in this drop down.
The ‘a’ and ‘b’ rotation/sub-line groups should also be entered into the Elective data > Courses table >Lines column. Courses with no such letter can be either rotation/sub-line. A course with ‘a’ is a rotation 1 course, and ‘b’ is rotation 2 and so on. An entry of ‘d’ would be the 4th rotation – or more accurately time group, which would likely be a term 4 elective course. A course entry of Line = “2a,3a” means that the course can run in either line 2 or line 3 (or both if two or more classes), but only rotation ‘a’ which is first rotation.
Courses which run for the full year need no entry in the rotation field.

Example: Students in Year 9 must choose a language for Rotation 1 and Rotation 2. The language courses must be run in particular rotations, and we will set up the form so that students are forced to choose a language from each rotation.
We have entered 'a' in the Lines column for the courses that will run in Rotation 1, and 'b' for courses that will run in Rotation 2.

The form has been configured to show only the Rotation 1 courses in the first dropdown, and the Rotation 2 courses second dropdown.

Minimum required reserve units

It is strongly recommended that schools require students to submit reserve subjects. E10 will only assign reserve selections to students where they are unable to receive one or more of their main preferences, and will clearly highlight where this has occurred. Two reserves may be acceptable for Year 12, and perhaps three or more reserves for Year 11, 10 & 9. The more reserves collected at selection time, the less chasing of students later if they were unable to receive all of their main preferences.

Reserve preference dropdowns

Reserve preferences works similarly to Main preference dropdowns; Labels may be edited, Groups and Rotation limitations may be entered.

Text Settings

Enter text to display on the online form.

Basic html may be used. Refer to Choice: Basic html to use on forms and emails.

The image on the left below shows text entered into the etz file, using some html. The image on the right shows how it appears for students when they have logged in online:

The image on the left below shows the submission text entered into the etz file, using some html. The image on the right shows how it appears for students when they have submitted their preferences online and have the option to print or email the form:

Action bar: Copy parameters / rules / text from another year-level / pathway

Once one form has been configured, the parameters, rules and text can be easily copied over into another form.

On the dropdown select the form downs that the data is to be copied from.

If using multi-year datasets, each year level must be configured separately.

If using Pathways, each pathway must be configured separately.