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

– 3rd 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

• NewTerm: S1 S2

Days: M T W R F M T W R F

Per:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

*Open scheduling grid without restrictions.

Understanding the Scheduling Grid

• NewTerm: S1 S2

Days: M T W R F M T W R F

Per:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

*Scheduling grid with restrictions for one teacher. 2nd pd prep, 4th 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 SessionApril 20, 2012

Creating Reports with Query and S.I.R.E.N.

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