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Scheduling Optimizer Procedures (How Do I ...?)
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Mass Scheduling with the Scheduling Optimizer
Mass Scheduling with the Scheduling Optimizer
The Scheduling Optimizer is designed to work as a plug-in compatible replacement
for both the standard SASIxp/Schedule Pro Class Loader and the Mass Scheduling
"Schedule all Students" function. Implementation of the Scheduling Optimizer
with Mass Scheduling adds extended scheduling features and a more powerful
loader engine that remains compatible if you later choose to add the master
schedule building capabilities of Schedule Pro.
Procedure
This procedure extends standard Mass Scheduling by setting up an environment
in which the Scheduling Optimizer may be used in place of the Mass Scheduling
"Schedule all Students" function to load students into the master schedule.
Before following this procedure, you must first install the Schedule Pro Scheduling
Optimizer software; see the Schedule Pro Scheduling Optimizer documentation
for general instructions on installation and use of the Scheduling Optimizer
with your SASIxp software.
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Adjust the Mass Scheduling setup. |
In preparation for extending the Mass Scheduling environment, ensure that
certain Mass Scheduling options are defined appropriately. In the School atom,
select the Schedule tab and do the following steps:
- Set the "Split Week" field to "Split Week, Same Period" or “Split Week,
Allow Different Period” as appropriate.
- Set the "Scheduling Cycle" field to the number of distinct days in your
scheduling week, click OK to dismiss the message informing you that the
number of days in the Scheduling Cycle must divide evenly into the number
of days in the Period Rotation, then set the "Period Rotation" field to
the number of days you defined for the "Scheduling Cycle" (or a multiple
of that number).
- Fill in the day codes you would like to appear in each day position
of your schedule, replacing the suggested codes if necessary.
- Click Save, then click OK to confirm the changes and finally Close to
exit the atom.
Note: If you set "Gen. Section ID" (the method of generating new
section IDs in the master schedule) to "Course & Manual", the recommended
value for use with Schedule Pro, set "Section ID Length" to "Course Length"
+ 4.
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Establish the basic Master Schedule parameters as required for the
Schedule Pro environment. |
- Open the Global Scheduling Specification atom (found in the Schedule
Pro folder).
- On the Main tab, you should see the number of days and periods (“Pds/Mods”)
and the list of day codes already defined.
- Define the “Terms” field with the same number of terms as defined
in the School atom/Schedule tab.
- In the “Number of Time Structures/Patterns” field, select “1 time
structure/pattern” if the “Split Week” field in the school atom/Schedule
tab has been set to “Split Week, Same Period” or select “2 time structure/patterns”
if the “Split Week” field has been set to “Split Week, Allow Different
Period”.
- When you have completed these changes, click Save, if prompted click
OK to confirm the changes and finally click Close to exit the Global Scheduling
Specifications atom.
- Reopen the Global Scheduling Specification atom, then select the Terms
tab. For each term code used in the master schedule, enter one line of this
form specifying the term code and the associated number of consecutive terms
and starting term number represented by the term code. (Note: You may find
that the atom initially does not allow you to input term definitions. If
you encounter this problem, click Save and Close to save the current contents
of this atom, then reopen the atom and again select the Terms tab.) No other
data fields need to be entered or changed in this atom. When all Term Code
lines are defined, click Save, if prompted click OK to confirm the changes
and finally click Close to exit the Global Scheduling Specifications atom.
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Populate the section sequence number field in the master schedule. |
A master schedule built automatically by Schedule Pro identifies each section
of a course by an assigned section sequence number; to use a manually built
master schedule, these section sequence numbers must be defined outside of
the master schedule building process. Generate this data field for all sections
in the master schedule by running a CHANGE Query.
- Open the Query atom.
- Select CHANGE for the Query type.
- Enter the following Query command:
<CHANGE> ACRS ASMS SectSeqNum = {$CNT}
- Click the Do button, then click OK to confirm that you want to perform
the mass change. The Query will run for a minute or so.
- When the Query operation is complete, click Close to close the Query
atom.
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Create a Room file with an entry for each room in the school. |
- Open the Query atom, select DISPLAY for the Query type, and enter the
following Query command:
<DISPLAY> ASMS Unique Room SORT Room
- Click Do to generate the list of rooms.
- Open the Room atom (found in the Schedule Pro folder).
- Repeat the following steps for each room to be added:
- Click the Data menu and select "Add Room".
- In the "Room" field, enter the "Room Number" from the Query-generated
room list and in the "Capacity" field, enter 999. Optionally, you may
also enter a description of the room in the "Name" field.
- Click Save, then OK to confirm you wish to add the room.
- If the Query atom is still open, click Close to close it.
- When all rooms have been added, click Close to close the Room atom.
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Translate selected Mass Scheduling data. |
Certain types of scheduling information used within Mass Scheduling are
implemented differently in the Scheduling Optimizer. For each of the following
types of data in Mass Scheduling you use, define the appropriate alternative
data representation.
- Teaming: If you use the Scheduling Sections atom’s "Team" field to group
students within teams for certain courses, translate the teaming requirements
using Schedule Pro’s teacher teaming rules.
The basic procedure steps are as follows: Add each teacher team in use to
the TGP-Teacher Group table in the Tables atom. Using the Schedule Pro Tab
in the Teacher atom, enter the teacher group code for each teacher team
to which each teamed teacher belongs. Then define course links between pairs
of teamed courses with "same teacher group" loader rules set to "Must" or
"Try to".
See Translating Teams from Mass Scheduling
to Schedule Pro for a detailed description of this procedure.
- Prerequisite and opposite term course relationships. The Scheduling
Optimizer does not observe “Prerequisite” entries in the Course atom or
“Opposite term code” entries in the Scheduling Sections atom. To specify
that sections of certain pairs of courses must be assigned in a given term
order or in different terms, use the Course Link form accessible from the
Course atom/Schedule Pro tab. The Course Link form and Class Loader Rules
subform allow you to instruct the Scheduling Optimizer to apply these and
a number of other relationships between course pairs.
- Individual student period range restrictions: If you use "Low Period"
and "High Period" in the Scheduling Sections atom to restrict the times
when individual students may be scheduled, restate the restrictions by adding
special "restricted time" courses and requests for these courses for individual
students whose availability is restricted.
The basic procedure steps are as follows: For each "Low Period" which may
be assigned to a student, add a single-section course which meets on all
days for each period below the low period. Similarly, for each "High Period"
which may be assigned to a student, add a single-section course which meets
on all days for each period above the high period. Using either the Scheduling
atom or Mass Assign, add the low period and/or high period "restricted time"
course to the course request list of each student with the low period or
high period restriction to which the "restricted time" course corresponds.
- Section grade range and gender restrictions: The Scheduling Optimizer
does not observe grade range or gender restrictions coded in the Course
or Scheduling Sections atoms. To specify that assignment to certain sections
is limited by gender and/or grade as well as house, team and student group,
use the Section Loading Restriction form accessible from the Course atom/Schedule
Pro tab.
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Define a minimal Schedule Pro simulation. |
- Use the Report Set Definition atom (found in the Schedule Pro folder)
to define a valid report set as follows:
- Open the Report Set Definition atom.
- Click on the Data menu and select "Add Report Set". Enter "1" in the
"Report Set" field, "Load/Optimize" in the "Label" field and "Simulation
Setup" in the "Description" field. You don’t need to define any reports
for the report set.
- Click Save, then OK to confirm you want to add the new report set
definition.
- Click Close to close the Report Set Definition atom.
- Use the Scheduling Simulations atom (found in the Schedule Pro folder)
to define a minimal simulation as follows:
- Open the "Scheduling Simulations" atom.
- Click the Data menu and select "Add Simulation".
- On the Main tab, enter "1" in the "Sim. Number" field, "Load/Optimize"
in the "Label" field and "Load with Scheduling Optimizer" in the "Description"
field.
- Still on the Main tab, select the "Off" option for the Mode field
in each of the Class Scheduler, Class Loader and Class Balancer data groups.
In the Class Loader data group, select "A-Observe must & try rules" for
"Rules to Observe", "A-All" for "Sched Stat", "A-All" for "Req. Prior",
either "A-All" or "N-None" for "Alt. Requests" (indicating respectively
that course request alternates, if any are present, should be used or
should not be used in student loading), and "M-Max" for "Sect. Size".
The values initially defined for other fields on the Main tab as well
as fields on other tabs may be left as they are.
- Click Save, then OK to confirm you want to save the added simulation
definition.
- Click Close to close the Scheduling Simulations atom.
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Run scheduling simulations using the Scheduling Optimizer. |
- Open the Run Scheduler Simulation atom (found in the Schedule Pro folder).
- Select the "Load/Optimize" simulation and the "Scheduling Optimizer"
report set defined previously. In the "Data Set to Use" data group, check
the radio button labeled "Generate a new data set for this run". If this
is the first run since you created or changed the current Run Schedule setup,
the Save button appears; click Save, then OK to confirm you wish to store
the current simulation run settings.
- Click Run to launch the simulation run. You may see a warning message
including the text "errors occurred during extract". Click OK to dismiss
this message if it appears; the simulation process will continue. A series
of brief messages displays when the simulation extract process completes;
click OK to dismiss each message, then click Close to close the Run Scheduler
Simulation atom.
- Double click the Scheduling Optimizer icon on the SASIxp desktop (see
the Schedule Pro Scheduling Optimizer documentation for installation instructions)
to schedule all students. The program generates student schedules and simulation
report files. On completion, the message “Scheduling Optimization complete”
appears; click OK to dismiss this message, then Close to exit the Scheduling
Optimizer.
- Open the Simulation Loading Summary report (file simsumry.htm
in the target Schedule Pro directory) in your browser. Starting from this
page, you can link to the rest of the Scheduling Optimizer loading reports.
The Loading Reports section describes
the available reports in detail.
- Complete the simulation process by loading the scheduling results back
into the SASIxp database.
- Open the Results Update atom (found in the Schedule Pro folder). The
Main tab displays the number assigned to the simulation just run and presents
two checkboxes labeled "Update the Master Schedule (ASMS) and "Update
the Student Schedule (ASSS)".
- Uncheck the "Update the Master Schedule (ASMS)" checkbox (initially
checked) and check the "Update the Student Schedule (ASSS)" checkbox (initially
unchecked), then click the Update button.
- Results Update may present various message boxes during its processing.
The messages (and response to provide) include the following:
- The backup SMS database file already exists. OK to overwrite it?
(OK)
- Section XXXXXX’s time/teacher/room info are outdated. Do you want
to update the section (No)
- The backup SSS database file already exists. OK to overwrite it?
(OK)
- The Results Update process may run for anywhere from a few minutes
to an hour or so depending on the size of the school and the speed of
the network. A progress bar shows its current status. When the process
completes, the progress bar is cleared. Click Close to close the Results
Update atom.
- You may now examine the detailed results, including individual student
schedules, using standard SASIxp atoms.
Notes
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When you open atoms for the first time in
this procedure, you may see one or more messages indicating that referenced
files do not exist; click Create in response to each such message.
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The Report Set Definition atom uses a predefined table to set up a pulldown
list of available reports. If this atom displays a message indicating
that the system is unable to create the pulldown list, run the "Merge
Tables" atom on the current school or, if more than one school is in the
database, all schools. |
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