Automatic Scheduler

Video How-to

Automatic Scheduler video

This program uses the current Master Schedule Editor and the student`s course requests to build a schedule for each student. Each committed run which includes the student schedules that were created and Master Schedule Editor used for the run will be saved for future use. The schedule runs are saved so that if adjustments are made to the current Master Schedule Editor and/or student requests and another run is made, the best run can be chosen to be used for the students` schedules.

Steps to take prior to using the Automatic Scheduler

1. Roll over Sponsor Site to new school year (Done automatically on March 1)
   • Update Marking Periods within Sponsor Site
2. Roll over Calendars to new school year (Done automatically on March 1)
   • Update non-instructional days in the calendar
3. Roll over teacher contracts in Human Resources to new contract year
4. If known, mark students who will be retained in the same grade level in the new school year with a retention code
5. Roll over students to new school year
6. Roll over Master Schedule Editor to new school year
7. Enter course requests for students
8. Edit the master schedule using the Master Schedule Editor
9. Run Audits on student course requests and Master Schedule Editor
   • Audit Master Schedule Seat Vs. Requests
   • Audit Request Validity
   • Request Matrix

How-to

1. Log in to WebPams
2. On the left, click on the Scheduling panel to open it.
3. Click on "Loaders"
4. Under "Loaders", select "Automatic Scheduler"
5. On the Setup Box:
   • Year should be set to the new upcoming school year
   • "District" and "School" should be defaulted based on security
   • “Grades” should be left blank if all grade levels are to be included into the scheduling process. Otherwise, click in the box to the right of “Grades” to select the desired grade level to be included. If all grades are selected, the Automatic Scheduler will always start with the highest grade level first
   • If a team is selected in the "Student Teams" field, the program will only schedule students who are on the team selected. Leave blank to schedule all students regardless of team
   • For the "Allow Overloads" drop down, select the number of students allowed to exceed the maximum in a section
     1. Note: The box "Allow all overloads" is required to be checked for the "Allow Overloads" option to function
   • Check the box to the left of "Reschedule manually scheduled items" to have the Auto Scheduler undo any schedules that were put in manually
     1. Manually scheduled means that a person used a program like the schedule maintenance program to schedule students into certain sections one by one
   • Check the box to the left of "Initialize counts" to have have the Auto Scheduler count the number of students in each section and display those counts in the Master Schedule Editor
     1. This option should always be checked
   • Check the box to the left of "Schedule by team" to have the Auto Scheduler schedule students to courses that have the same team as the student or to courses with no team affiliation
   • Check the box to the left of "Allow teacher requests" to have the Auto Scheduler schedule students to a specific teacher that was requested in the program "Load Student Course Requests"
   • Check the box to the left of "Schedule special ed students" to have the Auto Scheduler schedule special education students
     1. This box is typically checked
   • Check the box to the left of "Allow all overloads" to have the Auto Scheduler exceed the maximum set in the Master Schedule Editor when scheduling the students
     1. Once "Allow all overloads" is checked, select the number of students to go over the maximum by clicking in the "Allow Overloads" drop down
   • Check the box to the left of "Set to request status only" so that the Auto Scheduler will not go through the entire scheduling process, it will only set the students schedules back to schedule requests
   • Click the button "SELECT STUDENTS" to select from a list the students the Auto Scheduler will schedule. The list will be limited to the students that match the criteria that has been selected in the previous setup items
   • Click the button "CLEAR COUNTS" to clear the seat counts, reset to zero, in the Master Schedule Editor for selected grade level(s)
   • Click the button "PREVIOUS SCHEDULES" to see all stored scheduling runs
     1. Note: Scheduling runs are stored when "NEW RUN" is clicked and, after the schedules are processed, a "Run#" is selected to commit the schedules
   • Click the button "NEW RUN" to begin a new scheduling run
     1. Note: Starting the Auto Scheduler process will no longer delete currently scheduled items. Current schedules will only be altered when a "Run#" is selected to commit the schedules
   • After clicking "NEW RUN", a confirmation box will appear to verify the setup options selected. Click "Yes" to continue or "No" to make adjustments to the setup box
6. After the Auto Scheduler has finished processing, a box will appear with the date and time the Auto Scheduler finished processing, the number of students processed, and instructions to click the run number in the table to commit the schedules if desired. Click "OK"