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SIS 2000+ Student Loader

Step 2, Set Loader Options 

2.1 Open Student Loader
From the Schedule Menu, click on the Student Loader icon button. The initial Student Loader interface (Fig. 8) is called the "main request form" and is similar to a report interface. There are three tabs (information screens) and several dialog boxes activated from within those screens.
 

2.1 Choose General Options
Click on the 'Options' tab to bring the screen to the forefront (Fig. 8). Choose general options as follows:

Fig. 8
 

• Title -

(check box and text box) Each session generates a proprietary Loader report. To enter a name for the report header, put a check in the Title box and enter a description in the field to its immediate right.
• Track -

The Loader can only schedule one track at a time. Select the target track. The selections are filtered to those tracks for the logged in school where there is a master schedule, requests, and no attendance data
• Students to Load -

The default selection is "All", which is the normal selection for a first run of the Loader. Selecting one of the other options in this option group may greatly reduce the time needed to do a rerun of the Loader by selecting only those students who were affected by changes during a previous session or those who have no schedule at all.
• All Students -
• Students with no schedule -
• Students with changed requests -
• Students with changed requests and not manually scheduled -
• Loader Options -

(command button) to open the Loader Options dialog (see below)
 
 

Click on the Loader Options command button. Enter data in the 'Loader Options' screen (Fig. 9) as follows:

Fig. 9 - sample Options
 

• Description -

The text entered in this field will appear as a subheading in the Loader's proprietary report. After saving and quitting, this name and all of its options will remain as the default selections the next time the program is opened.
• Standard Options -
• Use Student Alternates -

Check this field to use student's alternate course requests, as defined in the Course Request Editor. This check box controls access to the Set Maximum Alternates Used To and Set Minimum Primary Requests Used To fields below. These two fields are then used to define upper and lower limits to the number of alternates that can be used. Alternate requests are used in this case only if the primary requests cannot be scheduled.
• Use Global Alternates -

Checking this box will cause the Student Loader to incorporate Global Alternates rules as defined in the Loader Rules application.
• Use Course Rules -

Checking this box will cause the Student Loader to incorporate Course Rules as defined in the Loader Rules application. When this option is On, enter a priority value in the "Soft" Course Rules field under 'Optional Constraint Priorities.' (below)
• Use Demographic Balancing -

This check box controls access to Demographic Balance… command button (see below)
• Use Course Load Balancing -

Checking this box will cause the Student Loader to incorporate Course Load Balancing rules as defined in the Loader Rules application. When this option is On, enter a priority value in the "Soft" Load Balance field under 'Optional Constraint Priorities.' (below)
• Use Teacher Preferences -

Checking this box will cause the Student Loader to use Faculty preferences assigned to course requests in the Course Request Editor. When this option is On, enter a priority value in the Teacher Preference field under 'Optional Constraint Priorities.' (below)
• Use Term Preferences -

Checking this box will cause the Student Loader to use the term preferences assigned to course requests in the Course Request Editor. When this option is On, enter a priority value in the Term Preference field under 'Optional Constraint Priorities.' (below)
• Set Maximum Alternates Used To -

This check box controls access to the spinner that controls the maximum number of alternates that a student is allowed to be scheduled to (mutually exclusive with the next option). This field is enabled only when the Use Student Alternates field is checked.
• Set Minimum Primary Requests Used To -

A check box that controls access to the spinner that sets the minimum number of primary requests that a student should be scheduled to (before alternates are used) (this is mutually exclusive with the previous option). This field is enabled only when the Use Student Alternates field is checked.
 
• Demographic Balance -



Click on this command button to open the 'Define Demographic Balance' dialog (Fig. 10). Here the Loader can be instructed to balance scheduling across course sections according to three categories. Click on a category to include it in the balancing and set a priority value to give it relative weight (a lower value is a higher priority).


Fig. 10
 

• Gender -

Enter a check mark in this box to enable the Gender priority spinner. Then enter a value to represent the relative priority value for Gender.
• Ethnicity -

Enter a check mark in this box to enable the Ethnicity priority spinner. Then enter a value to represent the relative priority value for Ethnicity.
• Service -

Enter a check mark in this box to enable the Service priority spinner. Then enter a value to represent the relative priority value for Service.

Save settings:
Click on the Save command button the Demographic settings and close the dialog, or Cancel to close the dialog without saving changes.

• Optional Constraint Priorities -

Specify the relative priorities of the various optional constraints. Optional constraints refer to "soft" rules found in the Loader Rules application and the Course Request Editor application, i.e., rules or preferences that are not mandatory in order for the course requests to be scheduled. In effect, the rule or preference will be relaxed or ignored if it's conditions cannot be met during the first pass of the Loader's scheduling process. The priority values entered in the following fields will determine the order in which five optional constraints will be ignored. "1" is the highest priority. "5" is the lowest priority. Lower priority constraints will be ignored first.
• Minimize Alternates -

Enter relative priority value to attempt to schedule students with as few alternates as possible. This field is enabled only when the Use Student Alternates option is checked.
• "Soft" Course Rules -

A "soft" Course Rule refers to Course Rules defined in the Loader Rules application with the condition of 'Try to' or 'Try not to'. Enter a relative priority value for ignoring these type of rules. This field is enabled only when the Use Course Rules Standard Option is checked.
• "Soft" Load Balance -

A "soft" Load Balance refers to Course Load Balancing rules defined in the Loader Rules application with the condition of 'Try to' or 'Try not to'. Enter a relative priority value for ignoring these type of rules. This field is enabled only when the Use Course Load Balancing Standard Option is checked.
• Teacher Preference -

Enter a relative priority value to ignore teacher preferences (teacher requests that are not "locked") as defined for course requests in the Course Request Editor. This field is enabled only when the Use Teacher Preferences Standard Option is checked.
• Term Preference -

Enter a relative priority value to ignore term preferences (term requests that are not "locked") as defined for course requests in the Course Request Editor. This field is enabled only when the Use Term Preferences Standard Option is checked.
• Advanced Options -

These are options that a user might want to modify for special circumstances:
• Set Maximum Unscheduled Requests To -

Check this box to enable the spinner that controls the maximum number of requests that are allowed to be "dropped" before all attempts to find a schedule are terminated. Enter a value.
• Set Overfill Percentage To -

Check this box to enable the spinner that controls the percentage that sections are allowed to be overfilled.
• Time Limit (Hours) -

Enter the maximum hours the Loader is allowed to run before terminating.
• Maximum Patterns -

Enter the maximum number of different schedule combinations that should be tried (times 1000) for each student before terminating the attempted scheduling for that student.
• Use Rescheduling -



Check this box to activate rescheduling and enable the other controls below:

• % Full to Start Balancing -

When a course section has this percentage of students scheduled to it (based on the section capacity), the loader starts to try moving students to other sections to maintain this percentage (rebalancing).
• Incremental % -

If the rebalancing is not successful, this is the percentage that the "pseudo" capacity is incremented by.
• Maximum students -

Enter the maximum number of students to attempt to reschedule (from a pseudo-full section to another section).