Scheduling: Course Requests User Guide v. 5.8.0 Copyright 2002-2018 eschooldata, LLC All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview... 3 Course Request Groups... 4 Students Meeting Course Pre-Requisite Rules... 6 Course Request Entry Options... 7 Course Requests for Individual Students...7 Course Requests for Multiple Students... 11 Teacher Recommendations... 13 Parent/Student Portal Requests... 17 Course Request Reports... 18 Request Status... 18 Request Tallies... 21 Requested Courses... 22 Requested Staff Summary... 22 Student Request Report... 23 Student Requests... 23 Requested Courses by Department... 24 Waitlist Report... 24 eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 2
Overview In addition to manually assigning students to classes via the Mass Class Assignment tool, users can automate the process of assigning students to classes using the eschooldata Sectioner. The eschooldata Sectioner uses Course Requests to section students into classes, so course requests must be entered for EACH student who is to be scheduled. Districts can use any, or all, of the following options to enter course requests: Course Requests for Individual Students (page 7) Course Requests for Multiple Students (page 11) Teacher Recommendations (page 13) Parent/Student Portal Requests (page 17) Course requests are typically entered one course at a time. The Course Request Group tool allows users to assign multiple course requests to students in a single transaction. Selecting a Course Group on a course request entry screen allows users to enter one request for all of the courses within the group, saving time and reducing errors. When a Course Group request is saved, the courses in the group are added as individual requests. Users can then modify the individual course requests as needed for the student. As needed, districts can define Course Request Pre-Requisites: both Narratives (English description) and Rules (logic parameters). A list of students meeting the defined Course Pre- Requisite Rules can be generated. When schools allow parents and/or students to enter Course Requests from the Parent Portal and/or Student Portal, the defined Course Request Pre-Requisite Rules will alert the student if they do not meet the defined course pre-requisites, and allow them to enter a Comment requesting consideration. For information on defining Course Request Pre-Requisites, see Course Request Pre-Requisites in the Scheduling: Course Setup User Guide. The material presented in this guide assumes the user has a basic familiarity with the esd System. For information on how to access and navigate the system, and select basic user preferences, please refer to the Getting Started User Guide. Example: A Grade 9 Core Courses Course Group allows the English, Math, Social Studies, and Science courses typically taken in grade 9 to be selected in one request (instead of four separate requests). eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 3
Course Request Groups Go to System > Scheduling > Course Request Groups to view and edit existing Course Groups or define a new Course Group. The Course Request Groups page has two major sections, the Course Groups on the left and the Add Courses list on the right. The Course Groups section is further divided into three parts. The Group Name list, on the left, displays the existing Course Groups. The Course list, on the right, displays the Courses in the selected Course Group. The Selected Course Detail section, at the bottom, displays the Course Number and Course Name of the selected Course in the selected Course Group. The New, Delete, Edit buttons (above the Group Name list) apply to the Course Groups, while the Delete, Move Up, Move Down buttons (above the Course list) apply to the Courses in the selected Course Group. New Course Group To create a new Course Group, click New and enter a Course Group name, then click OK. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 4
Select the new Course Group name to begin associating courses to the group. The Add Courses list on the right displays all courses by default. Users can navigate the list via the scroll bar and pagination buttons, or enter search terms in the filter fields above the column headers and click the Refresh icon to narrow the list of available courses. Double-click a course in the Add Courses list to add the course to the new Course Group. Users can sort the order of the courses in the Course Group. The order of the Courses in the Course Group is the order in which the Course Requests will appear in the Student Profile. The Sectioner considers this order when fulfilling the student s Course Requests. Select the desired course and click Move Up / Move Down to move the course to the desired position in the list. When all courses have been selected and sorted, click Save. Important: Course Groups do NOT automatically save. Users MUST click Save to save any and all changes. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 5
Edit Course Group Select an existing Course Group to display the courses in that Course Group. Click Edit or Delete (above the Group Name list) to change the Course Group name or delete the Course Group. Select a course in the Course Group and click Delete or Move Up/Move Down (above the Course list) to delete the course from the Course Group or change the course s position in the Course list. Double-click a course in the Add Courses list to add the course to the selected Course Group. When finished, Save the changes. Important: Course Groups do NOT automatically save. Users MUST click Save to save any and all changes. Students Meeting Course Pre-Requisite Rules To find the students meeting a course s pre-requisites, go to Scheduling > Courses > Courses, click the View icon to open the Course Details screen, then click Pre-Requisites to open the Course Request Pre-Requisite screen. The Course Request Pre-Requisite screen displays the Pre-Requisite Narrative defined in the Course Settings and the Pre-Requisite Rules (when defined) that the system will use to determine if the prerequisites have been met. Click the Excel icon to open an Excel file with 2 worksheets: Students meeting Pre-requisite and Course Information (course, pre-requisite narrative and pre-requisite rule). The Excel icon does not appear unless the Pre- Requisite Rules have been defined. Visibility of the Add Rule Segment icon is permissions based. For instructions on defining Pre-Requisite Rules, see the Course Request Pre- Requisites section of the Scheduling: Course Setup User Guide. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 6
Course Request Entry Options As indicated in the Overview, eschooldata provides four options for entering students Course Requests: for individual students, for multiple students, via Teacher Recommendations, and via the Parent/Student Portals. Each of these methods will be reviewed on the following pages. When Course Pre-Requisite Rules have been defined, a list of students meeting a course s prerequisites can be generated. Course Requests for Individual Students Users can enter course requests for individual students who have been assigned a scheduling school and scheduling grade. Go to Student > Profile > Student Profile and select the Course Requests tab. The student s Approved/Pending Requests display by default. Click the Expand icons to view the student s Schedule for the current or next Scheduling Year, their Course and Credit History, their Course and Credit Summary, or their Course Request History for the current Scheduling Year. Course requests are entered using the Add Course toolbar. If the Add Course toolbar is missing from the Course Request tab of the Student Profile, the student has NOT been assigned a Scheduling School and/or Scheduling Grade. Go to the Profile tab and click Edit to update the student s Scheduling School and Scheduling Grade. The Course and Credit History section shows the student s full history of courses taken within the school district, and courses currently in progress. The Course and Credit Summary section shows Credits Earned and Credits In Progress by Subject Area, as well as the Total Credits Earned and In Progress. The Course Request History section shows all course request transactions, including the user that created and/or deleted the request, and the request status (Deleted, Not Approved, Scheduled, or Not Scheduled). eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 7
Requests are generated by entering the Course Number, selecting the Course Group, or using the Department or Subject menu with the Course Name menu to locate the course. Users can change the course priority for an individual student request by selecting a different Priority from the corresponding menu. Users may also select additional request parameters from the Request Type, Semester, Section/Class, and Resource Section menus. Click Save to add the request to the bottom of the Approved/Pending Request field. When a Course Group request is saved, the courses in the group are added as individual requests. Users can then modify the individual course requests as needed for the student. Changing the Priority of a student s course request affects ONLY that student. It has no effect on the Priority set for the course. When selecting or editing a student s Course Request, the Semester, Section/ Class and Resource Section options are available only when specific Request Types are selected: Not This Teacher: Section/Class Preschedule this Section: Section/Class, Resource Section Section Request: Semester, Section/Class, Resource Section Teacher Request: Section/Class Options available from the Request Type menu include: Teacher Request The student is requesting a class taught by this teacher. Not this Teacher The student is requesting a class NOT taught by this teacher. Section Request The student is requesting a specific section. Pre-schedule This Section The student will be scheduled into the chosen section prior to the Sectioner fulfilling any other standard requests for the course. If this cannot be accomplished, the student will not be scheduled for this class. When selecting Section Request or Pre-Schedule This Section, use the menus that appear below Request Type to specify the section. Selecting Pre-schedule This Section will guarantee that the pre-scheduled section is scheduled first for the selected student, provided that the section is not already closed. Selecting Not This Teacher guarantees that the student is scheduled into a section not taught by the selected teacher, or for a course with only one section and teacher, not scheduled into that course. These are the only two Request Types that are guaranteed within the esd Scheduler; however Teacher Request and Section Request will be honored whenever possible. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 8
If any special restrictions are added to the course request, an asterisk will appear after the course number, and the Special Request icon will appear before the course name. Alternate course requests can be entered using the Alternate icon. Once an alternate course request is entered, it will appear in the Alternate Course column to the right of the corresponding request. Multiple alternate course requests can be added to a primary course request. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 9
A series of icons will appear next to course requests indicating the user account that generated the request. The T icon indicates the request was generated from the Teacher Recommendations page. The P icon indicates the request was generated from the Parent Portal, while the S icon indicates the request was generated from the Student Portal. The O icon indicates requests entered by all other methods. Hover over the available icons to view the specific user account that generated the request. Course requests in the Approved/Pending Requests field may appear in three different colors. Requests highlighted in green have been approved and will be sent to the Scheduler. Requests highlighted in red have NOT been approved, while a request highlighted in blue is the last UNapproved request to be added to the Approved/Pending Requests field. Requests that are not approved will not be sent to the scheduler. Users may Sort Requests and Approve Requests from the Approved/Pending Requests area. Print Course Lists will print the student s course requests, with the Counselor name included. Within each Priority, the sort order of the Course Requests (and the number of sections of each course) determines the order in which the Sectioner fills the requests: first are requests for Singletons (courses with 1 section only), then requests for Doubletons (courses with 2 sections only), then all remaining course requests in their sort order. All course requests with a Priority: Required are filled first (Singletons, then Doubletons, then the remaining Required course requests in their sort order), followed by all Elective courses (in the same order), then all Optional courses (in the same order). eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 10
Course Requests for Multiple Students Go to Scheduling > Requests > Mass Course Request. The Mass Course Request tool allows users to assign course requests to student en masse. On the Select Courses tab, choose a Subject Area from the drop down menu, enter a Course Number or select a Course Group, then click Search to populate the Available Course field. Click on Available Courses to move them to the Selected Courses field, or click the All buttons to move all courses in the direction indicate, then click Next to proceed to the Select Students tab. Users can select All or some of the courses associated to a Course Group. On the Select Students tab, use the filters and click Search to generate an Available Students list. Click on a student s name to move them to the Selected Students list, or click All to select all students. Click Next to proceed to the Mass Update tab. If users selected a Course Group on the Select Courses tab, the Selected Students list will populate with any students who already have a request for AT LEAST ONE of the courses in that Course Group. The Add button (next to the Search Criteria fields) will automatically add to the Selected Students list any student(s) that match the Search Criteria and selected filters. For details on the Upload Students button, see the next page. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 11
Alternately, on the Select Students tab, click Upload Students to import a list of students to the Selected Students list. The upload file must be a CSV file, where column A contains ID Numbers of the desired students. Click Next to proceed to the Mass Update tab. When using Upload Students, the students Current School OR Scheduling School must match the school selected in the School menu. The Available Students list is automatically cleared when Upload Students is clicked. On the Mass Update tab, users can add/replace requests for the selected courses, or delete requests for the selected courses. Select Remove existing duplicate requests to add/replace requests for the selected courses. Course requests that do not currently exist in the student s record will be added. Prior requests for the selected courses will be removed (along with any associated alternate course requests) and replaced with new requests for the selected courses. Users can set the Priority of the added/replaced course requests (for the selected students only) to required (R), elective (E), or optional (O), using the radio buttons located to the right of each course request. Select Delete selected course requests to delete the selected course requests (and any associated alternate course requests) for the selected students. Click Submit to submit the course requests (replacements/additions or deletions) for the selected students. Click Start Over to return to the Select Courses tab. Changing the priority of a course request does NOT change the priority of the course at the course level. Remove existing duplicate requests removes ONLY prior course requests that match the selected courses, along with any alternate course requests associated to the prior course request. Course requests that do not match the selected courses are NOT affected. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 12
Teacher Recommendations Users can add Teacher Recommendations from both the Classic Teacher Interface (below) and the Teacher Connect Roster (page 15). Classic Teacher Interface Go to Staff > Staff Schedule View > Classic Teacher Interface. From the Course Recommendation screen in the Classic Teacher Interface, staff members with the proper permissions can enter course requests for students enrolled in their assigned classes. Teachers can be limited to creating requests for courses within their subject areas only. On the Classic Teacher Interface, click Other and select Course Recommendations to access the teacher recommendation screen. To populate the student list, select a Scheduling School from the drop down menu. All students who have been assigned to that scheduling school will appear below. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 13
To create course requests for individual students, enter the course number in the field below the student s name. To create multiple course requests for individual students, click the icon under the Add Course Number column to generate an additional field. When finished, click Save. Users can also create course requests for multiple students. Search for the desired course using the Subject or Course Name drop down menus, or enter the course number in the Course Number field. To apply a course request to multiple students, click Apply To All or Fill The Rest. To remove all requests, click Clear All. When finished, click Save. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 14
Teacher Connect Roster Go to Staff > Staff Schedule View > Teacher Connect Roster. From the Course Recommendation view in the Teacher Connnect Roster, staff members with the proper permissions can enter course requests for students enrolled in their assigned classes. Teachers can be limited to creating requests for courses within their subject areas only. Select the Course Recom. view to open the course recommendations for the selected class. Users can view the students Scheduling School and Scheduling Grade, their Projected Final Average (P.F.A.) and various Student Indicators (IEP, 504 and LEP ). They can also view students existing Course Requests (hover over the Course Requests icon ) and enter Course Recommendations for students in their classes. Click in the Course Recommendation column to enter a course recommendation for a student. Type a Course Number to open and filter the list of available courses, or click the Course Selection icon to open the full list. Click the desired course in the list to select it. Course Recommendations CANNOT be entered for students lacking a Scheduling School and/or Scheduling Grade. The Available Courses list is determined by the student s assigned Scheduling School and Scheduling Grade. In addition, the list is restricted to the teacher s currently-taught subject areas, unless the teacher has the Allow All Subjects permission (Module > Miscellaneous > Course Recommendations > Allow All Subjects). eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 15
Once selected, hit Enter to finish the entry, or click another student s course recommendation cell to start another entry. If selected in error, the course recommendation can be Deleted. Users can also Copy Down the course recommendation to other students. Course Recommendations will NOT be copied down to a student IF: the student lacks a Scheduling School or Scheduling Grade, OR the selected course is not available in the student s assigned Scheduling School, OR the student s Scheduling Grade does not match the selected course s Grade Restrictions (if any). Select Fill All to copy the recommendation to all students in the class, including those with another course recommendation. Click Fill Missing to copy the recommendation to students in the class without a course recommendation. When finished entering course recommendations, click Save. Once saved, users can Print the course recommendations, and/or export them to Excel or PDF. The displayed columns will be included in the Print and/or export to Excel or PDF outputs, and the Course Recommendations will include both the Course Number and Course Name. The Excel export is a normalized export (one row per student), while the Print and PDF exports are formatted reports. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 16
Parent/Student Portal Requests The Parent/Student Portal course request features can be enabled or disabled from Interoperability > esp > Settings. For more information, please see Course Requests Tab in the Settings section of the esd Portals User Guide. From the Course Request tab in the Parent Portal or Student Portal, parents and students can review existing requests and, if enabled, create new requests. All existing course requests are displayed by default. The Pending Approved Requests and Approved Requests checkboxes allow parents/students to filter existing requests. The New Request button, when visible, allows parents/students to create a new course request. Course Pre-Requisites, when defined, will alert parents/students if the student does not meet the defined course pre-requisites. For additional information, please refer to the Course Requests Tab section of the esd Portal: Parent View User Guide or esd Portal: Student View User Guide. Important: Parent/Student Portal course requests will NOT be sent to the Sectioner UNLESS they have been approved via the Student Profile Course Request tab or the Request Status report. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 17
Course Request Reports Go to Scheduling > Requests. eschooldata provides an array of Course Request Reports to aid users in the scheduling process. Request Status From Scheduling > Requests > Request Status, users can view students with No Requests (default tab), Unapproved Requests, and Approved Requests. From the No Requests tab, users can view all students who have not had course requests created. Students without requests can be filtered by using the search criteria and clicking Search. The Results can also be filtered by Student Request Priority, Department, Subject, Singletons, Doubletons, and individual courses. Users can access the Course Request tab in the Student Portfolio directly from this report by clicking on a student name. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 18
From the Unapproved Requests tab, users can view all outstanding unapproved requests. Students with unapproved course requests can be filtered by using the various filters and search criteria, then clicking Search. The Results can also be filtered by Student Request Priority, Department, Subject, Singletons, Doubletons, Pre-Requisites and individual courses. Users can approve requests individually using the checkboxes next to unapproved requests and clicking Approve Selected. Users can also approve all unapproved requests by clicking Approve All. Users can also access the Course Request tab in the Student Portfolio directly from this report by clicking on a student name. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. When using the Results filters (Student Request Priority, Department, Subject, Singletons, Doubletons, Pre- Requisites and Selected Courses), only those course requests matching the filter settings will be approved for each student. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 19
From the Approved Requests tab, users can view all approved course requests. Students with approved course requests can be filtered by using the search criteria and clicking Search. The Results can also be filtered by Student Request Priority, Department, Subject, Singletons, Doubletons, Pre-Requisites and individual courses. Users can unapprove requests individually using the checkboxes next to approved requests and clicking Unapprove Selected. Users can also unapprove all approved requests by clicking Unapprove All. Users can access the Course Request tab in the Student Portfolio directly from this report by clicking on a student name. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. When using the Results filters (Student Request Priority, Department, Subject, Singletons, Doubletons, Pre- Requisites and Selected Courses), only those course requests matching the filter settings will be unapproved for each student. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 20
Request Tallies From Scheduling > Requests > Request Tallies, users can view the Course Request Tallies tab to view the total request tallies for each course. Users can filter requested courses by using the search criteria and clicking Search. Course request tallies can be filtered By Grade or Location code using the corresponding checkboxes. Users can also access the Course Details screen directly from the report by clicking the View icon next to a course. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. In addition to the actual number of requests, the Course Request Tallies results show the total number of Special Ed requests and the weighted number of requests. From the Student Request Tallies tab, users can view the total request tallies for each student. Users can filter students by using the search criteria and clicking Search. Users can also access the Course Request tab in the Student Portfolio by clicking the View icon next to a student. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 21
Requested Courses From Scheduling > Requests > Requested Courses, users can view all courses that have received a request for the chosen scheduling year. Courses can be filtered using the search criteria and clicking Search. Click the View icon next to a course to access the Course Details screen directly from the report. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. Requested Staff Summary From Scheduling > Requests > Requested Staff Summary, users can view the total number of requests entered for a specific staff member s class. Users can also access the Staff Member Information screen directly from the report by clicking the View icon next to the staff member name. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 22
Student Request Report From Scheduling > Requests > Student Request Report, users can generate a report of student requests for courses in the selected school, by Counselor, Enrolled Students, or Single Student using the corresponding radio icons and entering the required information in the available fields. Click Next to filter the courses and Include Alternate Courses (default: unchecked) on the Course Options tab. Click Next to print the student course requests to a letter, export the report to Excel or print the report on the Report tab. Important: Counselors in building A, looking for course requests for students advancing from building A to building B, should use the Enrolled Students option, from building B, and select building A as the Current School. If users select Current School: All and print the student course requests to a letter, the School Name and School Address are not included in the letter header, because multiple schools are selected. Student Requests From Scheduling > Requests > Student Requests, users can view each course request. Requests can be filtered using the search criteria and clicking Search. Users can access the Course Request tab in the Student Portfolio by clicking the View icon next to a student, or delete course requests be clicking the Delete icon. Click the Excel icon to export this report to Excel. The Request Source is indicated to the left of the Alternate Course Requests column, and corresponds to the Course Request Sources within the Student Profile > Course Requests tab. When printing student course requests to a letter, do NOT include nonpunctuation special characters (such as <, >, # and &) in the body of the letter. These characters will be supported in a future release. The Excel Export will include the names of the persons who entered Course Requests. Click the Expand icon view Alternate Course Requests. to The Expand icon will change to a Collapse icon once clicked. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 23
Requested Courses by Department From Scheduling > Requests > Requested Courses by Department, users can view course requests by department. Results can be limited using the Department filter. Click the Expand icon to display the students who have requested that course. The report can be printed or exported to Excel. Waitlist Report From Scheduling > Requests > Waitlist, users can view students whose request for a course cannot be fulfilled because the selected section is at maximum capacity. Users can view the waitlists grouped by Course (default option) or by Student. Results can be limited using the the various filters. Click the Expand icon to display the students on a Waitlist. Users can Delete a student from the waitlist (permission based). The report can be exported to Excel. The Max. Seats and Enrolled figures are tallies of all offered course sections. The Enrolled figure is the tally of individual students, not the weighted count. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 24
Select Group by Student from the View Option menu to view the waitlists by Student. Results can be limited using the the various filters. Click the Expand icon to display the courses for which the student is waitlisted. Users can Delete a student from the waitlist (permission based). The report can be exported to Excel. The Max. Seats and Enrolled figures are tallies of all offered course sections. The Enrolled figure is the tally of individual students, not the weighted count. eschooldata, LLC Copyright 2002-2018 25