Automatic Scheduler
This program uses the current Master Schedule Editor and the student course requests to build a schedule for each student. Each "committed" run includes the student schedules that were created and the specific Master Schedule Editor used for the run. After committing, 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 student schedules.
Steps to Take Prior to Using the Automatic Scheduler
- Click the following link to open the New Year Scheduling Flow - Request Based Schools overview guide. The overview guide has the general flow of scheduling procedures, including the usual order of steps that are needed prior to using the Automatic Scheduler. There is also a Scheduling Guide which can be accessed by clicking the following link: WebPams Scheduling Guide
- The user must run the Audit Request Validity program first and then the Audit Master Schedule Seats vs Requests program second to identify potential problems BEFORE the Automatic Scheduler is ran.
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Menu Location
Scheduling > Loaders > Automatic Scheduler
Setup Options
For this specific setup box, see the definitions below.
Year - Set to the new upcoming school year. Note that after July 1st of each year, it will always default to the next school year as a safety feature for a user not to accidently run this program in the current school year.
District - Default value is based on the user's security settings. It will be limited to their district only.
School - Default value is based on the user's security settings. If the user is assigned to a school, the school default value will be their school site code.
Grades - Leave blank or select all to include all grade levels. Otherwise, choose the desired grade level.
Select Custom Codes - Select the custom codes created in the Custom Codes Management to filter the student list.
Select Special Codes - Leave blank if all special codes are to be included into the report. Otherwise, choose the desired special code.
Master Schedule - Select "Live" to edit the active master schedule records, select "Oct1" to edit the October master schedule backup records, or select one of the names of a "Copied" master schedule is one exist.
Reschedule manually scheduled items - Check the box to have the Auto Scheduler undo any schedules that were put in manually. Do not check if you do not want the Auto Scheduler to reschedule these students. Manually scheduled means that a person used a program like the Schedule Maintenance to schedule students into certain sections one by one.
Initialize Counts - Check the box to have the Auto Scheduler count the number of students in each section and display those counts in the Master Schedule Editor. This option should always be checked.
Allow teacher requests - Check the box to have the Auto Scheduler schedule students to a specific teacher that was requested in the "Tea" column of the program Load Student Course Requests.
Schedule special ed students - Check the box to have the Auto Scheduler schedule special education students. This box is typically checked.
Set to request status only - Check the box and then click on New Run so that the Auto Scheduler will not go through the entire scheduling process. It will only undo the schedules from the students and set them back to request status. Also using the "Select Students" field, certain students can be selected to set back to request status.
Use general alts for unscheduled groups 8 or 9 - Check the box to substitute General Alternate courses for unscheduled courses in Transcript Groups 8 or 9.
Schedule by team - Check the box to have the Auto Scheduler schedule students to courses that have the same team as the student.
Allow all overloads - Check the box to have the Auto Scheduler exceed the maximum number set in the Master Schedule Editor when scheduling the students.
Master Schedule Grade Level Match Selection
Student Grade - Select to only use the courses from the school's Master Schedule Editor matching the student's grade level. This is usually used for elementary but will work for high school as it is hard coded to make the adjustment when a 9-12 grade level is chosen.
Requested Course Grade - Select to use all courses from the school's Master Schedule Editor with no regard to grade level to leave the course selection wide open. This is usually used for middle/high school.
Select Students - Click to select from a list the students that need to be scheduled, unscheduled, etc. An example is when using the "Select Students" field, only the selected students will be used in the "Set to Request status Only" procedure. The list will be limited to the students that match the criteria that has been selected in the previous setup items.
- For example, if a certain grade level is chosen, the list of student names displaying will only be that grade level.
Clear Counts - Click to clear the seat counts, reset to zero, in the Master Schedule Editor for selected grade level(s) but this will not undo the schedules from the students. The clear counts selection only resets the master schedule counts to 0 prior to an auto scheduling run.
New Run - Click to perform a new run of scheduling students according to their requests.
- This program has no regard to gender, race, GPA, etc.
- When a New Run is started, the scheduling process will run on the server and not prevent the user from working in other programs.
- The user can click on the Task Status button to view the status of the new run. When complete, the run information will appear in the report.
- Scheduling runs are stored when NEW RUN is clicked and, after the schedules are processed, a "Run#" is selected to commit the schedules.
- Previous Runs are initially displayed in descending order to show the latest Runs on top. Click on the "Run#" header to change the sort order between descending and ascending.
Previous Schedules - Click to see all previously stored scheduling runs.
To find definitions for standard setup values, follow this link: Standard Setup Options.
Performing a New Run in the Automatic Scheduler
Click the button NEW RUN to begin a new scheduling run.
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. 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.
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Upon clicking "OK", a table will appear on the screen listing the current scheduling run and any previously committed scheduling runs.
You will only be able to see the newly altered schedules in the Master Schedule Editor when the new "Run #" is selected to commit the schedules. Only then will the newly committed student schedules be reflected in the Master Schedule Editor.
Column Headers
Run# - This will provide the number of previously committed scheduling runs plus the current scheduling run. Click on the number to commit the schedules for the run selected.
Abandons - This will show the number of students who could not have all requests scheduled. Click on the number to view the list of students abandoned, the classes that could not be scheduled, and suggestions why they could not be scheduled.
Overloads - This will show the number of sections that exceeded the maximum. Click on the number to view the course name, grade level, and the section number of the course overloaded.
Success % - This will show the percentage of students (that had previously entered course requests) that have all course requests scheduled. Note that this also includes students that have no course requests entered as fully scheduled as well.
Who Ran - This will show who performed the scheduling run.
When Ran - This will show the date and time of the scheduling run.
Who Committed - This will show who clicked on the "Run#" to commit the scheduling run.
When Committed - This will show when the scheduling run was committed.
Start Time and Finish Time - This shows when the schedule run started and when it finished running.
Gd Level(s) - This will show the grade levels selected on the setup box.
Stu Cnt - This will show the number of students, with at least one course request loaded, that were processed during the scheduling run. Students with no course requests loaded are not included in this total. When the user clicks on the number a student roster screen will display.
MSched Cnt - This will show the number of Master Schedule Editor sections processed during the scheduling run and the Master Schedule Editor will appear.
MSched Name - Master Schedule name used in the scheduling run.
The user may rerun the Automatic Scheduler as many times as needed to get the "Success %" as close to 100% as possible.
After each run, the user can make edits to the Master Schedule Editor to increase the percentage.
Also review Abandons and Overloads and make adjustments to students' requests, if needed.
To commit students' schedules, click on the desired Run#. Once a run is committed, all that is left to do is to manually schedule the students that are on the Abandons list.
To find definitions of commonly used column headers, follow this link: Common Column Headers.
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Setup - Click to go back to the Setup box.
Task Status - When a New Run is started, the scheduling process will run on the server and not prevent the user from working in other programs. The user can click on the Task Status button to view the status of the new run. When complete, the run information will appear in the report.
Print - This will allow the user to print the report.
Help - Click to view written instructions and/or videos.
