Generating Reports from Basic Scheduling

The Scheduling Optimizer automatically generates a complete set of browser viewable reports each time you use it to run a simulation. Once you transfer the master schedule and student class assignments from Mass Scheduling to Basic Scheduling and begin making schedule changes in Basic Scheduling, the Optimizer reports became outdated. Because the Optimizer reports are generated as part of the simulation process, these reports cannot be produced directly from Basic Scheduling data.

However, it is possible to capture a "snapshot" of the current Basic Scheduling master schedule and student class assignments in Mass Scheduling, then run a Scheduling Optimizer simulation to create reports which reflect the original Basic Scheduling information. This document describes a procedure for generating the Scheduling Optimizer reports from Basic Scheduling using this approach.

Note: The procedure described in this document overwrites any data currently stored in the Mass Scheduling master schedule and student schedules (ASMS and ASSS files). It should only be used after you have moved your scheduling information to Basic Scheduling (AMST and ACLS files) and begun maintaining it there.

Procedure

Run a series of CHANGE Queries to prepare for a simulation based on data originating from Basic Scheduling.

• Recreate Schedule Pro section sequence number fields.

[CHANGE]
ACRS AMST SectSeqNum = {$CNT}

• Synchronize the Course atom "Number of sections" field and the actual number of sections defined in AMST for each course.

[CHANGE]
ACRS SectNum = 0

 

[CHANGE]
ACRS AMST SectNum = SectSeqNum

Use the Update Classes atom to create a duplicate copy of the current Basic Scheduling master schedule and student schedules in the corresponding Mass Scheduling files.

• Open the Update Classes atom (found in the SASIxp Mass Scheduling briefcase).
• Select the "Transfer from Current Schedules to Mass Scheduling" radio button.
• In the "Select the upcoming Term to be scheduled" field, select the first term in your schedule from the pulldown list (e.g. Term 1, First Semester, etc.).
• In the "Pre-Schedule Classes?" field, select the "All" option from the pulldown list.

• Click Update, then click OK in the confirmation dialog that appears. The process runs for a minute or so. The atom closes automatically with no message when it is done.

The Scheduling Optimizer ignores sections with zero capacities; it will not assign students to these sections, even for prescheduled student course requests. Run the following CHANGE Query to ensure that all classes with students assigned have a maximum section size of at least one.

[CHANGE]
ASTU ASSS ASMS MaxClassSz = 1 IF MaxClassSz = 0

• Use the Scheduling Simulations atom to define a Schedule Pro simulation with Builder, Loader and Balancer steps all turned off.

• Use the Run Scheduler Simulation atom to extract scheduling input for the Scheduling Optimizer. In "Simulations to Run", select the scheduler simulation set up in the previous step, click the "Generate a new data set." option, then click Run.

• The process runs. On completion, it displays a popup window showing the percentage of sections Schedule Pro considers scheduled. Click OK on this and the following message to complete the data extraction step.

Note: This popup should show that 100% of sections were scheduled. Refer to the Notes section below if "Sections scheduled" is less than 100%.

• Run the Scheduling Optimizer as normal. The simulation process should run quickly and should schedule 100% of the students. If less than 100% of the students are scheduled, restart the process and be sure you select "All" for the "Pre-schedule Classes" option in the Update Classes atom.
• View Scheduling Optimizer reports as normal. The master schedule, student course requests and student class assignment data should all reflect the Basic Scheduling snapshot.

Notes

• The SASIxp online documentation for the Update Classes atom mentions that the classes in terms prior to the selected term are closed and transferred to ACLH. The procedure for mid year scheduling uses this atom and includes steps for explicitly closing terms prior to the selected one and transferring them to ACLH. Using the Update Classes atom as described in this document does not close any classes or update the history data in ACLH.
• The Schedule Pro simulation step should run quickly and should display a summary popup showing that 100% of sections were scheduled. If you turn off all Schedule Pro steps (Builder, Loader, Balancer), this will be the only statistic displayed in the summary popup window. If you have followed all the above procedure steps and still find that the popup window shows less than 100% of sections scheduled, check for sections with an End Period earlier than a Begin Period on at least one day. These sections are not included in the simulation and are counted as unscheduled by Schedule Pro. Use a DISPLAY Query similar to the following to identify sections with this problem.
  [DISPLAY]
  AMST SectionID Course SectSeqNum SplitBeg[0] SplitEnd[0] IF SplitBeg[0] > SplitEnd[0]
  Open the Sections atom for each section listed by the Query, look for a problem similar to the one in the following example and adjust the Begin and End period list as needed.

Back to Top