Webinar Training Series Master Schedule Builder Overview

Agenda Introduction/Purpose Understanding the Scheduling Grid Understanding the MSB Hierarchy Preparation Process Reporting MSB  Synergy Scheduling

Introduction/Purpose Monthly – 3 rd Friday – 10:00AM MST Format – Presentation – Questions Private chat to host Answered at end Recording Today – Master Schedule Builder Overview

Before we begin… Master Schedule Builder is not part of the base product and requires a purchased license key. Master Schedule Builder requires a lot of setup initially. The major difference between Mass Scheduling and Master Schedule Builder is that Master Schedule Builder is a builder (creates the sections) and a loader (schedules students in sections) and Mass Scheduling only consists of the loader functionality.

Before we begin… Master Schedule Builder consists of the following: Analyzer : Analyzes attributes, rules, and course requests. This process always runs and cannot be turned off. Builder: Builds the schedule and creates the sections. Loader: Schedules students into sections. Students are scheduled one at a time by the order of the difficulty of their schedule. Those students with more singleton or doubleton requests are scheduled first. Resolver: Attempts to resolve conflicts in student schedules. Balancer: Looks at the sections that are over the optimum number of students and tries to reschedule those students into other sections to create a better balance without creating more conflicts in other students’ schedules. Reporter: Creates all of the MSB reports during each scheduling run.

Understanding the Scheduling Grid New Term:S1S2 Days:MTWRFMTWRF Per: *Open scheduling grid without restrictions.

Understanding the Scheduling Grid New Term:S1S2 Days:MTWRFMTWRF Per: *Scheduling grid with restrictions for one teacher. 2 nd pd prep, 4 th pd lunch and a couple of periods weekly reserved for meetings or a specific section.

Understanding the MSB Hierarchy School – Subject Category Teacher Room Course – Section – Teacher – Room *Any information entered at the lower level overrides what is entered at the higher level. It’s best to enter information at the higher level that applies to MOST of the sections.

Preparation Resources Teachers Rooms Courses Opt-In Schedule Priority Term Codes

Preparation Departments Course Staff Room Subject Categories Will these be different than the departments?

Preparation New Year Rollover School Setup – Term Definitions Calendars School Scheduling Options – Meeting Days (*if needed) Enter Course Requests

Process – MSB option set Create Master Schedule Builder option set.

Process – MSB option set Copy Option Selections: – Copy last year’s schedule: Creates the Schedule Categories and categorizes courses, staff and rooms based on last year’s master schedule. – Copy existing Master Builder Option Set: Copies an existing MSB option set from the current or previous school years. – Blank: Only creates the School level category.

Process – MSB option set.

Process – Subject Categories The Subject Categories tab of the MSB option set is where the School Level and Category level attributes are entered.

Process - Additional Options Additional Options tab of MSB option set: – Student, Staff and Room properties defined here. (Used for property constraints.) – Term Set Definitions defined. – Staff Roles to Opt into.

Process - Rules Simulation Course Course Link Section Teacher Room *Rules also adhere to the hierarchy. Rules can seem overwhelming. Only use the rules if you need to. Be aware of their function, but don’t use rules where they are not needed. LESS IS MORE.

Process – Teachers and Rooms Considered ‘resources’. Can setup individual attributes. Must be associated with a scheduling category in order to be scheduled. Can be assigned to individual courses and/or sections.

Process - Course Section Attributes Term Set Opt In Group Box Teacher and Room Attributes Assign Staff and Room Constraints Property - Student, Staff and Room Time

Process – Course Links Course Links in MSB are used for linking sections of courses, similar to teams in Mass Scheduling. Course Links become teams during the Load Simulation process. Course Link rules tell the builder and loader how to link the sections of the courses.

Process – Course Links Large lecture class to smaller labs Keep students together in group of sections Spanish S1 and Spanish S2 *See Course Link rules

Process – Prescheduled Sections Individual section information can be entered at the Course level. – Course screen – Section tab

Process – Run Scheduler Run the scheduler by clicking on the ‘Run Scheduler’ button on the Options tab of the MSB option set. Adding more constraints, rules, links, etc causes the scheduler to run a little slower. Scheduler can be run multiple times within the same option set. (Run, view reports, make changes to setup, run scheduler again.)

Reporting 39 reports Created every time a scheduling run is done Located in the Detail of each simulation.

Reporting – Suggested Reports Category Report Error Report Master Schedule Sections Message Log Period-Load Stats Rules Report Student Schedule Time Structure Stats

MSB  Synergy Scheduling Load Simulation – Copies the master schedule from the most recent MSB scheduling run in the option set to Scheduling Sections. – After this process: All Mass Scheduling reports can be used. ClassBoard can be opened from the MSB option set and sections seen. Student schedules can be viewed in Schedule Student. Sections copied can be viewed in Scheduling Sections.

MSB  Synergy Scheduling Remember: – Changes made in Sched Sections, ClassBoard or Schedule Student do not go back to MSB. – Load Simulation can be run at anytime after an MSB scheduling run and as often as you’d like to run it. – The Load Simulation process has to be run prior to running the Update Schedule process to move Sched Sections to the current master schedule.

Questions?

Next Session April 20, 2012 Creating Reports with Query and S.I.R.E.N.