Term Load Balancing

Uses standard SASIxp screens to identify a set of courses for the Scheduling Optimizer to treat as "balancer courses". In each student's schedule, the Scheduling Optimizer distributes these balancer courses as evenly as possible over the terms.

Follow these steps to set up your balancer courses.

Use the Tables atom to add an entry to the "CGP" (Course Group) table. The new entry MUST define the code "%B1" (percent sign, uppercase letter B, numberal 1). The description should be "Balancer Course".

Note: This entry will appear ahead of any other nonblank entries when the selection list for the Course Group field is displayed in the Course atom.

• In the Course atom, open the course.
• Go to the Schedule Pro page.
• Enter the code "%B1" in the Group field by selecting it from the field's dropdown selection list.

In the Course atom, do a "Find" from the Schedule Pro page with "%B1" in the Group field. The result will be a list of courses currently defined as balancer courses. If a course is wrongly defined as a balancer course, use the course atom to change its Course Group value to blank or a value other than "%B1". Add courses to the list by entering "%B1" in the Group field as in the previous step.

Notes

• The program uses a course's Periods Per Meeting (PPM) as a weighting factor for term load balancing. For example, a course which always meets for two consecutive periods (PPM = 2) will count as 2 "units" in each term it meets; this is equivalent to 2 courses whose meetings are only 1 period each (PPM = 1).
• Term load balancing is treated as a "try" scheduling rule - if a student can not be fully scheduled with term load balancing in effect, the program will try to schedule the student without it. The run log shows how many students were scheduled with and without term load balancing.
• Once balancer courses are defined, the Scheduling Optimizer automatically does term load balancing.

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