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SIS 2000+ Team Definitions

A "team" is a group of course sections defined for scheduling purposes. Typically, team scheduling will cause a group of teachers to share the same group of students. This is useful for collaborative teaching, cross curriculum assignments, and student evaluations. Team scheduling is more often used in junior high schools than in high schools due to the relative simplicity of the junior high curriculum.

To define a team in this application is simply to create a team code and description and then to set up inclusion/exclusion relationships between the other teams in the track. Then, in a separate procedure, course sections are assigned to teams via the Master Schedule Editor. After course requests are entered into the system and scheduling starts, the Student Loader will process team requests according to system parameters. The end result is that all students successfully scheduled in the same team will generally have the same group of teachers in the various classes they are taking.
 

1. Open  Team Definitions
From SIS 2000+'s Main Menu, open the Scheduling program module. From the Scheduling Menu, click on the Team Definitions icon button.

Fig. 1 - read-only mode

Fig. 2 - read only mode
 

Screen layout -
Teams are defined per track. The current Track and its corresponding year end (School Year) is displayed at the top of the screen. The list on the left side displays the teams defined for the selected track, sorted in ascending alphanumeric order by team code. The 'Demographics' tab displays the Code and Description fields of whatever team is selected in the list (Fig. 1). The 'Relationship' tab will show which other teams are excluded or included with the selected team (Fig. 2).

2. Add a team

2.1 Select a track
Use the VCR buttons at the bottom of the screen to navigate forward or backward between available tracks for the logged on school site or use the List command to select an available track from a list box.

2.2 Activate entry mode

Once the target track is displayed at the top of the screen, click on the Add command button to activate the form in the entry mode (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 - entry mode, demographics

2.3 Define Demographics
In the 'Demographics' tab enter a Code and Description for the new team. As the Code and Description are defined the data will appear in the Team list on the left as a new entry at the end of the list (Fig. 4).

2.4 Select Exclude options

Exclude other teams from this team -

This will add all other teams to the exclusion list for this team. The default selection is "Yes".

Exclude this team from other teams -

This will add this team to the exclusion list of all others.  The default selection is "Yes".

These Exclude options are only visible when a new team is added and serve to initialize relationships with the other teams in a batch fashion. When in the edit mode of a selected team, these options cannot be seen on the 'Demographics' tab. However, the results of the Exclude options can be viewed and edited in the 'Relationships' tab. See Steps 3 and 4 below.

 
2.5 Save team definition

The illustration below (Fig. 4) shows a team definition ready to be saved. (The 'Relationship' tab is not accessed in the process of defining a new team but only in the edit mode of an existing team definition.). Click on the Save command button to save the team definition.

Fig. 4 - new team definition ready to be saved
 
 

Fig. 6 - more results of Exclude options defined for team A6: A6 is included with other teams.
 

4. Edit Team Relationships
Teams work on an exclusion basis. A team is defined and its relationship with other teams is defined as an exclusion. (e.g. Team A excludes teams B, C, and D. Similarly, Team B excludes teams A, C, and D, etc. The two Exclude options that are selected at the beginning of the Add procedure (Fig. 4) will set up the initial exclusion parameters for a team in a block fashion. These parameters can be edited more precisely in the 'Relationship' tab (e.g. Team A excludes teams B and C but includes team D. Similarly, Team B includes all other teams except Team D, etc.).

4.1 Select a track
Use the VCR buttons at the bottom of the screen to navigate forward or backward between available tracks for the logged on school site or use the List command to select an available track from a list box.

4.2 Select a team
Select a team to edit by highlighting the target entry in the Teams list on the left.

4.3 Activate the 'Relationships' edit mode

Move the focus to the 'Relationships' tab and click on the Edit command button to activate the edit mode.

Fig. 7 - edit mode for team A6 showing  the results of the Exclude options that were defined in Step 2.4 (Fig. 4)

4.3 Include or Exclude

• To include a team with the selected team -



In the Excluded Teams list, select the team to include until it is highlighted in blue (Fig. 8) (hold the Ctrl key down while clicking to select or deselect more than one entry).


Fig. 8 - begin Include

Then click on the single right arrow button to move that selection to the Included Teams list.


Fig. 9 - finish Include

The team selected in the Excluded Teams list is moved to the Included Teams list and the highlighted selection in the Excluded Teams list defaults to the next team in the list (Fig. 9).
 

• To exclude a team from the selected team -



Use the reverse actions as the include procedure above, i.e., in the Included Teams list, select teams to be excluded and then click on the single left arrow button to move them to the Excluded Teams list.
 

• Include all teams -



Click on the double right arrow to include all teams with the selected team. With this action all teams from the Excluded Teams list will be moved to the Included Teams list regardless of what is currently selected in the Excluded Teams list and regardless of what is currently displayed in the Included Teams list.


Fig. 10 - begin Include All


Fig. 11 - finish Include All
 

• Exclude all teams -



Use the reverse actions as the include all procedure above, i.e., click on the double left arrow to exclude all teams from the selected team. With this action all teams from the Included Teams list will be moved to the Excluded Teams list regardless of what is currently selected in the Included Teams list and regardless of what is currently displayed in the Excluded Teams list.

4.4 Edit Relationships for another team
Select another team to edit in the Teams list and repeat the Include/Exclude procedures in Step 4.3.

4.5 Save results of editing

Click on the Save command button to save the modifications or Undo to exit the edit mode without saving changes.
 
 

6. Delete a team
Select a team to delete in the Teams list on the left. Click on the Delete command button to initiate the delete process. In the dialog box that appears (Fig. 12), answer "Yes" to confirm the deletion or "No" to abort.

Fig. 12
 
Caution! A team cannot be deleted if schedule records have been associated with it.
 

7. Print a Team Definitions report
Click on the Print command button to print out a list of the teams in the currently selected track (Fig. 13). All attributes of each team in the track will be shown, including team Code, team Description, Exclusion List and Inclusion List. The user will be given the option to preview before printing.
 

Fig. 13 -  sample report
 

8. Scheduling by Team
There are four basic stages:
 

8.1 Define teams in the Team Definitions editor
As explained in Steps 1 through 7 of this document.

8.2 Assign course sections to teams in the Master Schedule Editor (Fig. 14)
During the process of creating Master Schedule, a course section can be assigned to a team as it is being scheduled (See Master Schedule Editor, Sec 3, Step 3.1.2) or after it has been scheduled by using the edit mode (See Master Schedule Editor, Sec. 8, Step 8.2).

Fig. 14 - dialog for assigning a course section to a team
 
8.3 Enter team course requests in the Course Requests Editor, Career Plan Editor, or Mass Course Request Changes
 
• A team request can be entered for an individual student using the Course Requests Editor (Fig. 15). See Course Request Editor, Step 5, "Add Team Course Request" for more details.

Fig. 15 - dialog for adding a team course request for an individual student
 
• Team requests can also be generated for individual students by including team requests in a Career Plan (Fig.16) and then assigning students to that Career Plan. The Career Plan Editor program will then generate the team requests in cooperation with the Course Request Editor. See Career Plan Editor for more details.


Fig. 16 - dialog for adding a team request to a Career Plan
 
• Team requests can be added to a group or set of students using the Mass Course Request Changes program (Fig. 17). See Mass Course Request Changes for more details.

Fig. 17 - dialog for adding a team course request to a group or set of students
 
• Successfully added team requests will be displayed in student course request records in the Course Request Editor (Fig. 18).


Fig. 18 - an individual's course requests records, showing a team course request successfully added
 
8.4 Run the Student Loader
The Student Loader mass schedules students into course sections in the Master Schedule, attempting to satisfy the maximum number of course requests with the minimum amount of scheduling conflicts and, at the same time, comply with various user defined scheduling parameters, rules and options such as demographic distribution, course rules, teams, class size, etc. See Student Loader more more information.

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