Preparing for the scheduling season includes the creating of new school calendars, processing enrollments, reviewing existing schedules, modifying courses, opening the course registration and scheduling students into courses.

This document is aligned with training materials provided during Scheduling Bundle training. If you are interested in this training, have your authorized support contact submit a support case with Scheduling Bundle in the subject line, and the Infinite Campus Training Department will be in contact.

This checklist assumes that all appropriate and necessary parties have been involved in discussions that may have altered calendars and day schedules for the next school year.

In May 2022, Scheduling Center was released, which provides an overview of a school's progress towards completion of scheduling-related tasks. It is modeled after this checklist and can be used to track percentages and review tasks that need attention.

Part 1. Calendars and Enrollments, Calendar Rights, Departments

Calendars

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Configure the next School Year.
	Create a calendar for the next school year using the Calendar Wizard and one of the available options: Create a New Blank Calendar Create New Calendars by Rolling Forward Copy Data into Existing Calendars
	Modify Calendar Start and End Dates. Add extra days at the beginning and end of the year to allow for professional development workshops and emergency days (snow days).
	Review the Grade Levels in each calendar.
	Review Calendar Schedule Structures.
	Modify Term structure (quarter, trimester, etc.) and Dates on all calendar and/or schedule structures.
	Review existing Period Schedules and determine if additional schedules are necessary to allow for period schedules for Responsive Scheduling days and for days that may have a different schedule (shortened days, final exam testing, etc.)
	Review Period start and end times.
	If necessary (depending on your state), update School Months for the new school year.
	Reset days on all calendars and/or schedule structures.
	Rotate days on all calendars and/or schedule structures, if applicable.

Responsive Scheduling

Before implementing Responsive Scheduling as a part of the school's offerings, review your business processes and discuss this opportunity with the appropriate individuals. This affects all areas of a school, including administrators, attendance clerks, teachers, counselors, curriculum directors, etc. Consider the benefits and consequences involved with the following:

Calendar changes (new periods, different schedule structures, period length, instruction minutes, etc.)
New programs/courses to offer
Course placement
Attendance tracking

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Review your overall approach to educating students prior to implementing this tool.
	(If necessary), create a separate period schedule for the responsive courses.
	Mark which periods in the period structure can be marked as responsive, indicating responsive courses can be scheduled into them.
	Mark the courses that allow responsive offerings.

Other tasks are necessary to complete the Responsive Scheduling process. The items above are needed to properly build calendars and courses for this process.

Enrollments

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Communicate to office staff that enrollments will be rolled forward. State Reporting enrollment changes made to the current enrollment record will also need to be made in next year’s enrollment record.
	Set Next Calendar, Next Grade on the student’s current year enrollment for those who will NOT roll forward by grade sequence or school boundary. Use the Census by School Boundary Report as a planning tool.
	Roll student enrollments forward. Use the first day of school as the start date.
	Remove enrollments for those students who are not returning next year using the Enrollment Cleanup Wizard.

Reports and Transportation Data

Done

Task

Responsible Party

Copy schedule reports, report cards and transcript reports into the new calendar using the Report Roll Forward tool.

Any changes needed to these reports should be made in the new calendar.

Copy transportation data into the new calendar using the Transportation Roll Forward tool.

Any changes needed to transportation data should be made in the new calendar.

User Security

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Add a Scheduling Preparation Tool Right User Group.
	Add a Scheduling Wizard Tool Right User Group.
	Add a New Year Calendar Group for each school.
	Add the schedulers to the appropriate Tool Right Group(s) and Calendar Group(s).
	Add calendar rights and tool rights for select scheduling users and user groups to provide access to the new calendar.

Teacher Assignments

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Review employment records and credentials for teachers, and modify as needed.
	Assign departments, mark necessary checkboxes and other necessary district assignment information for teachers.

Part 2. Preparing Courses, Entering Requests and Generating Reports

Course Preparation

These steps can also be done using the Course Master functionality.

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Determine if Section Templates are needed for your period schedule. If yes, create Section Templates and Template Groups for each term.
	Add new courses that will be offered for the year.
	Attach Departments to Courses.
	Check the number terms, schedules and periods of the Course.
	Determine if the course can be requested by students.
	Mark the appropriate courses active.
	Mark courses for Section Templates, if applicable.
	Select the desired scheduling priority (if applicable).
	Establish Course Rules.
	Assign teachers to Departments.

Introduction to the Scheduling Board

Done

Task

Responsible Party

Access the Scheduling Board.

Understand the Security and Data Precautions with the Scheduling Board.
Understand Scheduling Trials.
Review the Course Planner and become familiar with its functions.

Request Entry

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Hand enter requests using the Walk-In Scheduler for special circumstances (students who have particular needs).
	Mass enter student requests through the Request and Rosters.
	Allow students to enter their own requests through Campus Student. In order for students to request courses using the Course Registration process, the following must be done: New School Calendar needs to be created. Students must have enrollments in the next year's calendar. The Portal Option for Course Registration must be selected. Students must have Portal accounts. Students must know their username and password.
	If you are using multiple year academic planning functionality: Complete the Academic Planning Process for academic plans. Lock plans. Create Course Requests.
	Have teachers request courses for students.
	Run the Scheduling Request Reports as needed: Request Batch Request Conflicts Schedule Units Report Request Detail Requests Satisfied
	Create Scheduling Groups (Teams) and assign teams on the Walk-In Scheduler or use the Fill Teams Wizard.

Part 3. Teacher and Course Planning

Planning the Schedule

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Use the Requests Satisfied report to determine how many sections will be needed.
	Use the Master Schedule Report from a prior year as a guide to pre-clean up the new calendar.

Scheduling Board

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Access the Scheduling Board. Understand the Security and Data Precautions with the Scheduling Board. Understand Scheduling Trials. Review the Course Planner and become familiar with its functions.
	Create a copy of a Trial based on the previous year's trial. Every time you create a new trial, name it specific to what is happening in the trial and add a date. For example, Second Build - 3/31 would be the second time you added courses on the 31st of March.
	Set teacher constraints (rooms, free period, etc.) using the Staff Planner. This can also be done using the Build Constraints or the Course Build Constraints tools.
	Use the Course Planner to build a first run schedule based on requests. This can also be done using the Build Constraints or the Course Build Constraints tools.
	Build the course schedule. OR
	Manipulate the course schedule using the White Board by moving sections and manually creating sections. Note that the master course schedule can be built several ways, based on your district needs: Manually build the course schedule using last year's schedule. Auto-build the course schedule by scheduling the singleton courses first, then scheduling other courses Use a combination of these two options until course requests are met.

When using the planning tools, verify the following is in place:

Rooms are created if using them as constraints.
Teachers are assigned to appropriate courses.
Once resources are allocated and constraints are set, space for the course needs to be available in the existing schedule layout.

Part 4. Scheduling Students

Manipulate the Schedule

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Load the course requests into the White Board.
	Continue moving courses and sections to reach the desired request complete percentage.
	When finished, mark the desired Trial active.

Schedule Cleanup

Done	Task	Responsible Party
	Use the Student Gap Scheduler and the Schedule Gap Filler to complete schedules.
	Use the Walk-In Scheduler to manually modify student schedules.
	Use the Request and Rosters to place students in one section of a calendar into another section in another calendar.
	Use the Fill Teams wizard to assign scheduling teams to students.
	Review the Other Scheduling Tools article, ensuring the Master Course Schedule meets your staff and student needs.

Scheduling Matrix

The following information lists when to use key scheduling tools.

Tool	Prior to School Start	Mid Year	Single Student Multiple Sections	Multiple Students Same Section	Multiple Students Multiple Sections	Load Requests
Walk-In Scheduler	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Roster Setup	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Roster Batch Edit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Scheduling Wizard	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

This video provides an overview of the processes involved in completing the master schedule for a school.

The Schedule Wizard is being removed from the product as of the Campus.2435 Release (August 2024).

Use the following tools for scheduling and planning purposes:

Tool Search: Schedule Wizard

Trials are created when a calendar is rolled over from a previous year, when the school uses the Schedule Wizard or when a new school and calendar is created during the implementation process. Trials connect the calendar to the course listing and are used in several scheduling reports.

Multiple trials can be created in the Schedule Wizard for various purposes. However, only one trial (active trial) can be seen by the web application at a time. The scheduling staff may wish to make a trial active at a given time to review the results in the application. Users need to log out and log back into Campus to see the newly active trial.

Unused trials may be kept in the database or may be deleted.

As part of an ongoing project to enhance scheduling tools throughout the product, the Trials tool was updated with a new look to meet current technology initiatives in the Campus.2223 Release Pack (June 2022). Over the last several months, continual updates to Trials behind the scenes have made it possible to release an updated Scheduling Trials that provides access to the new Scheduling Board without having to log in to another application.

Trials can still be accessed through the Schedule Wizard for the foreseeable future.

Screenshot of the Schedule Wizard Trial Selection Schedule Wizard - Trial Selection

New calendars that have just been rolled over have a trial named Rolled In. This is the original trial that was created. Leave this trial as it is, so there is a starting point to refer to - to see how courses were scheduled in the previous year or to start the process again. If a trial was accidentally active, the original trial can be used to return the schedule to where it was.

Trial Editor

The Trial editor lists all the schools within the district and their associated trials on the left-hand side and the properties of the selected trial on the right-hand side. The most recent year displays first (for example, 2018-19 school year displays above the 2017-18 school year).

Active school years and calendars display in bold text in the Trial tree, as does the active trial for the school and calendar. The hover display indicates the active trial.

Screenshot of the active trial. Active Trial Display

A school may have a large amount of trials for any given year, making it time-consuming to open each folder for the school and selecting each trial and sub-trial for each one. To help with the viewing of trials, the list of available trial options for the selected school auto-expands.

Trial Properties

The Name of the Trial and any Comments related to that trial display first in the Trial Properties, on the right hand side, along with when that trial was last modified. Name and Comments should be descriptive enough so users know what that version of the trial did. For example, a particular trial was created to schedule Special Education students or a trial only for PSEO/secondary education students.

Screenshot of the Trial Properties. Trial Properties - Names, Comments, Modified Information

Locked Terms

Terms that have been scheduled and should not be changed display in the Locked Terms section. Making changes to an active trial through the Schedule Wizard after a term has started is not recommended. To prevent unforeseen data loss and to prevent users from modifying course section data for current terms, terms can be locked for a trial here. Terms are locked when the trial is made active or when no additional changes are made to that term.

Terms can be locked and unlocked (and saved) from the Trial Selection screen for future calendars when viewing an active trial for a current year calendar.

Making section changes in the Campus application (on the active trial) and saving those changes in the Schedule Wizard causes an error and those changes may not be saved. When this happens, a message displays indicating some of those data changes may not have saved. Close and re-open the trial in the Schedule Wizard. As mentioned previously, make changes either in the Schedule Wizard or in the Campus Application.

Checkboxes for all available terms display for the selected trial. Calendars may have up to 31 terms.

Screenshot of the Locked Terms on Trial Properties Locked Terms on Trial Properties

Schedule Loading Options

Two options are available when determining which information to load in the Schedule Wizard - either student requests only (those requests entered through Course Registration processes) or student requests and and already scheduled courses. These selections affect the load percentage and may alter the placement of course sections. The default selection is the loading of both student requests and scheduled courses.

The Load Student Requests and Scheduled Courses option provides a better overall view of what the master schedule is.
The Load Student Requests Only option can be selected to modify and review course section placement. Any sections manually placed or any students manually scheduled into a course section are not represented.

Locked Trials

To prevent users from accessing the same trial as another user, and potentially overwriting schedule changes made by that user, when a trial is selected by one user, all other users are prohibited from selecting that trial. On the Trial Selection screen, text displays indicating another user is currently in that trial. The locked trial can only be copied, creating another version of that trial.

If a trial is in locked status, the trial can be unlocked from the Scheduling Trials tab by and administrator.

Screenshot of the Locked Trial Display Locked Trial Display

When the active trial is locked in the Schedule Wizard, other scheduling tools cannot be modified in that same calendar, to prohibit other changes from being made. A message displays indicating changes cannot be made until the trial is unlocked (saved).

Screenshot of the Locked Trial Display on Scheduling Tools. Locked Trial Display on Scheduling Tools

This message displays for the following tools:

Copy Trials

Copying trials allows a user to play with course placement, rules and constraints that can be added, and attempt to get a higher percentage of schedules full. When a trial is copied, the name of the trial becomes New Trial. Modify the name as needed for easy recognition.

A new trial (brand new, no courses) cannot be created as a trial is created with the creation of a calendar. That means there is always an original trial available.

Select an existing trial from the left-hand side of the Trial editor. The name of the trial displays on the right hand side in the Trial Properties area.
Click the Copy button. This copies the existing trial, including placed sections and courses, into a new version of the trial that can be changed as often as necessary, and the original version remains intact.
Change the Name of the new trial. Examples of often used names are the initials of the user and the date it was made or the name of the school, or what was done in that trial (Band Version 032305).
Enter Comments about the trial.
Click the Save icon when finished. The new trial displays as a child of the parent trial.

Users should rename the copied trial to indicate the date the work was done or what step or major change was done in a particular trial.

NOTE: If copying a trial takes minutes to complete AND your state uses Ed-Fi for collecting student and school data, verify Ed-Fi Configurations for past school years have been deleted.

The current school year and the last school year can remain. For example, a district that has configurations for the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years can safely delete the 2017-18 and 2018-19 configurations.

Delete a Trial

Select the Trial to be deleted. The name and any comments display in the Trial Properties.
Click the Delete icon. This permanently deletes the trial.

No warning message or validation displays when the Delete button is selected. Take care when performing this action.

Save a Trial

Select the Trial to open. The name and any comments display in the Trial Properties.
Make changes to the Trial Name or Comments.
Click the Save icon. This updates the details of the trial.

Saving a trial does not make it active. It just updates any changes made to it, including placement of courses and sections, etc. for use at a later time.

NOTE: If saving a trial takes minutes to complete AND your state uses Ed-Fi for collecting student and school data, verify Ed-Fi Configurations for past school years have been deleted.

The current school year and the last school year can remain. For example, a district that has configurations for the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years can safely delete the 2017-18 and 2018-19 configurations.

Make a Trial Active

When a trial is made active, the information stored in the Schedule Wizard is essentially copied to the Campus application. All information within that trial is available for use by all other staff at the school. Courses and sections placements, teacher schedules and student course schedules are updated for the calendar year in which the trial was activated.

Select the existing trial that is to be made active from the list on the left. The name of the trial displays on the right hand side in the Trial Properties area.
Change the name of the trial. Examples of often used names are the initials of the user and the date it was made or the name of the school, or what was done in that trial (Band Version 032305).
Click the Active button when finished. This makes the selected trial active and update the course layout that is viewable within the Campus application.

Changing which trial is active can only be done in the Schedule Wizard using the process outlined above. Trials are also viewable from the Scheduling module.

Select a new trial from within the White Board of the Schedule Wizard

Navigate to the File menu and select the first option Select Trial.
A new screen displays listing all available school calendars and trials.
Follow the steps described in the section of this document called Selecting the Calendar and Trial.

To save each entry as an individual layer, use the Save Trial Load option on the File menu.

Screenshot of the Trial Selection option Choosing a Trial from the White Board

Next Steps

Review the Checklist for Scheduling and Other Scheduling Tools documentation.
Open the White Board to build the courses, load sections, generate reports or use the Course Planner or Staff Planner to build constraints.
If all scheduling items have been completed and any additional changes will be made in the Campus application, mark the Trial active.

Trials are versions of the school's schedule (courses, sections, rosters, teachers, etc.). A trial is created when the school's calendar is rolled and/or the Schedule Wizard is used to build the schedule.

Classic View: Scheduling > Trials

Search Terms: Trials

A trial is a version of a schedule for a school, including sections of courses and rosters for those particular sections. Trials are created when a calendar is rolled over from a previous year or when the Schedule Wizard is utilized. Trials connect the calendar to the course listing and are used in several data tables and reports. See the Scheduling Wizard Trials article for detailed information.

Access to this tool should be restricted. Inadvertently deleting trials causes all data in the selected calendar to be deleted and can only be restored with the aid of Campus Hosting services.

Scheduling Trials

Read - View existing scheduling trials for the selected school.

Write - Modify the Locked checkbox, add a comment, and save changes.

Add - Modify the Locked checkbox, add a comment, and save changes.

Delete - Remove trials for a school.

See the Tool Rights section below for more details on what actions can be performed with each right.

When viewing the Trials from within Campus (NOT from the Schedule Wizard), a list of each trial displays for the selected Year, School, Calendar, and Schedule Structure. These options must be selected in order to display the list of trials.

Context Selection

Tool Rights

For full access to Trials, users must be assigned RWAD rights to Scheduling > Trials.

Read rights allow users to view the list of Trials.
Write rights allow users to view the list of Trials, edit Comments for the Trial and modify the Locked checkbox.
Add rights allows the same access as Write rights.
Delete rights allows users to delete the selected Trial. Note that deleting an active Trial is not allowed, and a Trial cannot be deleted when it is locked.

Trials Tool Rights

Trials Navigation

This Trials tool should be considered read only. Most of the information tied to Trials is managed in the Schedule Wizard and changes to courses and related information is done there.

Use the Search Trials filter to locate a specific trial without searching through a long list of trials. The list of trials is filtered to match the entered text.

Search Trials Filter

Select a Trial and view details about it. A side panel displays with the following information:

The Name of the trial. The name can be simple, like Trial 1, or 1A, etc. It can also provide information on what was done to the courses, like Math First or Re-Organizing Activities.
The Trial ID, which cannot be modified but is used to address any issues with the trial behind the scenes.
Any Comments that were entered for the trial - e.g., what school it applies to, why it was created.
Modified By information, which lists the staff person who created it and when it was created. (date and time)
Indication of the trial being the Active trial. Active trials display in the list of trials in bold with the word 'Active' in parentheses, and cannot be deleted as those trials hold all of the course information for the selected school year.
Indication of the trial being Locked, meaning changes cannot be made to it as someone is currently working in that trial.

Trials Side Panel

Locked Trials

When users are working in the Schedule Wizard, those with access to view Trials in Campus can see who is currently working in trials. The name of the user displays next to the trial and the Locked checkbox is marked. No other users can access this trial when it is locked.

Locked Trial Display

If the person who was in the trial forgets to unlock it (save trial changes) or does not exit the Schedule Wizard, an administrator can unlock the trial from here by removing the Locked checkmark and clicking Save. This opens the trial up for additional changes in the Schedule Wizard.

The Schedule Wizard is being removed from the product as of the Campus.2435 Release (August 2024).

Use the following tools for scheduling and planning purposes:

Tool Search: Schedule Wizard

The Staff Planner allows the setting up of teacher to course constraints, teacher to room constraints and teacher placement constraints. Here, the teacher's maximum amount of periods taught, the maximum courses per term that are able to be taught (based on teacher contract), and the maximum consecutive periods taught can be entered, given a percentage of FTE for each teacher.

A new stand-alone Staff Planner tool was released in the Campus.2303 Release Pack (January 2023) and can be used interchangeably with this Staff Planner.

Staff Planner

The Staff Planner is best used after calendars for the next school year are created, enrollments have been rolled forward and student requests are entered. Entering staff information before entering course planner information makes the constraints placed on the courses easier to manage. Then, all planning information can be used when building the courses and sections.

When finished updating staff planner information, remember to click the Save icon in the upper left corner of the page.

Staff Planner Layout

The Staff Planner lists the names of teachers by departments (if used) who have a district assignment in the selected school on the left hand side in alphabetical order. Then, the following information is listed for each teacher:

FTE per Term
- Maximum Periods
- Maximum Courses
- Maximum Consecutive Periods
- Percent
Constraints
- Courses
- Minimum Sections
- Maximum Sections
- Rooms
- Placement

Any area on the Staff Planner that is not grayed out is editable.

At the bottom of the Staff Planner, a list of courses the teacher is able to teach based on qualifications given to the district is available and can be updated, and a list of rooms in which the teacher can teach the course. In addition, placement restrictions can be selected. This limits where the course section is placed based on staff availability.

Credentials entered in the District Assignment tool and qualifications entered in the Human Resources Personnel tool are not imported here. Selecting courses teachers can teach is a manual process.

FTE per Term

Each district defines full time employment as something different. Some districts require teachers to teach all seven period, while others give teachers a prep hour sometime during the day. Other districts may have other requirements for certain teachers. Each period and each course taught calculates the FTE value of the staff person.

If a teacher has a contract that allows a prep period, the maximum periods taught may be one less than the total instructional periods in the school day. This would also mean that the number of courses that can be taught is reduced by that prep period.

If a course section spans multiple periods, each period associated with that section is included in this value.

Courses taught is not the same as Sections taught. A teacher may be teaching two different courses, but each one has 3 sections throughout the day.

Staff Planner - FTE Per Term

Only differences in the Maximum Courses and Maximum Periods need to be entered.

Add FTE per Term

Select the teacher to update the entered FTE by clicking on the teacher's name or in the Max Periods, Max Courses or Max Con Per fields.
Enter the Maximum Periods the teacher can teach during the school day.
Enter the Maximum Courses the teacher can teach during the school day.
Enter the Maximum Consecutive Periods (abbreviated as Max Con Per) the teacher can teach during the school day.

Constraints

The Constraints column lists the restrictions the teacher has, based on the previous year's calendar. The following defines the items listed for each Constraint column available for the selected teacher.

Item	Description
Courses	Number of course assigned to the teacher.
Minimum Sections	Minimum number of sections assigned to the teacher.
Maximum Sections	Maximum number of sections assigned to the teacher.
Rooms	Rooms assigned for the courses the teacher teaches.
Placement	Selection indicates a restriction exists for the placement of course sections.

Staff Planner - Constraints

Add Staff Planner Information

The Staff Planner displays all courses, rooms and placement restrictions in one place. Before adding this information, a teacher must be selected in the Staff Planner. Do this by placing the cursor in any cell of the applicable teacher or select the teacher's name.

Any changes made will need to be saved by clicking the Save icon at the top of the Staff Planner. When changes have been made, this icon displays in red text.

If any Rules, Teachers, Rooms or Placement Restrictions need to be removed, select the item for removal and click the X next to the item. A warning message displays, asking the user if this is the desired behavior. Click the Delete button to continue with the removal.

Courses

Click the Add New button at the bottom of the Courses editor. A blank row will appear.
Click in the Course field. This acts as a dropdown list.
Select the Course to assign to the teacher.
Enter the Minimum number of sections per the entered course the teacher can teach. This number updates the Min Sections column in the Constraints section.
Enter the Maximum number of sections per the entered course the teacher can teach. This number updates the Max Sections column in the Constraints section.

Screenshot of adding courses to the staff planner. Staff Planning - Adding Courses

Rooms

Rooms are assigned on the Sections tab.

Click the Add New button at the bottom of the Rooms editor. A blank row will appear.
Click in the Room field. This acts as a dropdown list.
Select the room in which the teacher can teach the courses. This updates the Rooms column in the Constraints section.

Screenshot of the Rooms being added to a staff plan. Staff Planner - Adding Rooms

When selecting a room for a placed Section, the logic in the build process of the Schedule Wizard follows this order:

Selects the Room from Staff Planner, if Rooms are designated in both Course Planner and Staff Planner and the Room for the Section to Build appears in both Planners.
Selects the Room from Course Planner, if Rooms are designated in both Course Planner and Staff Planner and the Room for the Section to Build appears only in the Course Planner.
Selects the Room from Course Planner, if Rooms are designated in only the Course Planner.
Selects the Room from Staff Planner, if Rooms are designated in only the Staff Planner.
If Rooms are not designated in either Planner, a room is not automatically assigned for the section.

Rooms assigned a Room Type list that room type in parentheses.

Placement Restrictions

Select the Teacher to add a placement restriction.
Place checkmarks in the appropriate term and period setting. These checkmarks can be in differing periods and terms throughout the school year. For example, Teacher Rob may need a prep hour in the first term in Period 4, but needs Period 2 in Term 2 as his prep hour. Marking a Placement Restriction updates the Placement column in the Constraints section.

Screenshot of the Placement Restrictions Staff Planning - Placement Restrictions

When finished adding FTE information, updating courses and rooms for the teachers and entering any placement restrictions for EACH teacher in the school, click the Save icon at the top of the page. Staff planning is now complete and courses can now be planned with the Course Planner.

Staff Planner Reports

To generate the current layout of courses for the selected trial, use the Save Staff Planner Display to save the layout to the location of your choosing, in CSV or HTML. When one of these options is selected, follow the instructions for saving a report to your computer or other shared location. Selecting the Current View saves the course layout as it is currently displayed.

Screenshot of the Staff Planner reports Staff Planner Reports

Next Steps

Review the Checklist for Scheduling and Other Scheduling Tools documentation.
Build the Schedule using the Building Tools.
Load course requests using the Loading Tools.
Generate Reports to review the placement of courses.
If all scheduling items have been completed and any additional changes will be made in the Campus application, mark the Trial active.

When creating a new schedule, the Staff Planner tool allows users to set up teacher to course, teacher to room, and teacher placement constraints. This video demonstrates how to do so.

This video explains how to use the Staff Planner grid to edit a teacher's course load information as well as what the different fields of the grid represent.

The Schedule Wizard is being removed from the product as of the Campus.2435 Release (August 2024).

Use the following tools for scheduling and planning purposes:

Tool Search: Schedule Wizard

The Course Planner displays request tallies, computes number of sections needed, and compares students requests and sections to last year's calendar to see how these changes may affect section staffing needs. Any scheduling related course item can be modified in the Course Planner, including course constraints, room placement and teacher assignment.

A new stand-alone Course Planner tool was released in the Campus.2315 Release Pack (April 2023) and can be used interchangeably with this Course Planner.

Screenshot of the Course Planner. Course Planner

The Course Planner can be used throughout the scheduling process, but is best used after calendars for the next school year are created and enrollments have been rolled forward and student requests are entered.

Course Planner Layout

The Course Planner lists the names of courses (and departments, if selected) on the left hand side in alphabetical order. Then, the following information is listed for each course:

Course data, entered on the Courses editor
Section templates assigned to the Course
Assigned Room Types
Course Requests, entered during the Course Registration process and viewable in the Walk-In Scheduler
Section information
Course Constraint information

Any area on the Course Planner that is not grayed out is editable.

At the bottom of the Course Planner, scheduling rules can be added, teachers can be added to course sections and rooms can be scheduled for each course section.

In addition, placement restrictions can be selected. This limits where the course section is placed based on staff availability.

Course Details

The following defines the items listed for each column available for Courses on the Course Planner.

Item	Description
Section Templates	Indicates to which section template group the course is assigned. If this field is populated, the Terms, Schedules and Periods fields cannot be modified. If sections have already been placed, assigning a Section Template does not affect those sections. Any sections not already placed when building courses are affected.
Room Types	Describes the type of room (gymnasium, class room, auditorium, etc.) for the room name. District users are required to populate the options in the Attribute Dictionary that are available for selection. See the Room Types for more information.
Terms	Total number of terms a section of the course meets.
Schedules	Number of the total period schedules in which the course section meets.
Periods	Total number of periods a section of the course meets.
Seats	Total number of student seats for each course section. This field is limited to three characters.
Priority	Value for the priority this course takes in the Schedule Wizard loading process. If a value is entered in the Terms, Schedules, Periods, Seats or Sections to Build fields is not a numeric value, the value in this field changes to a zero.

Requests

The following defines the items listed for each column available for Requests on the Course Planner. This area lets the scheduling staff see how many new course sections they may need, potentially causing new teachers to be hired.

Item	Description
Last Year	Total number of student requests (Required and Elected) for the course for the active school year. If scheduling is being done for the 2019-2020 school year, Last Year is the 2018-19 school year.
Current	Total number of requests (Required and Elected) for the course in the upcoming school year. If scheduling is being done for the 2019-2020 school year, Current is the requests for the 2019-20 school year.
Change	Difference between the active year's request total and the upcoming school year. If scheduling is being done for the 2019-2020 school year, Change is what is needed for the 2019-20 school year.

Sections

The following defines the items listed for each column available for Sections on the Course Planner.

Item	Description
Last Year	Number of sections built in the past school year for the course. For schools with multiple calendars in the previous year, the calendars must be numbered (System Administration > Calendar > Calendar > Calendar > Number) in order to properly report the Last Year value. See the Calendar Details article for more information.
Needed	Number of sections needed in the upcoming school year for the course.
Change	Difference between last year's section number and the upcoming year's section number.
To Build	Total number of sections that will be built for the course. If an existing value in this field is increased AFTER currently built sections have been locked, the new sections do not override the existing sections.
No Auto	If selected, the builder does not build the course. Sections of courses marked as No Auto need to be built manually.
Placed	Total number of sections placed.
Avg Size	Average size of each section (student count).
Remaining	Once everything is built and loaded, this total is the remaining number of seats available.

Constraints

The following defines the items listed for each column available for Sections on the Course Planner.

Item	Description
Rules	Number of rules associated with the course.
Teachers	Teachers assigned to the course.
Rooms	Rooms assigned for the course.
Placement	Selection indicates a restriction exists for the placement of course sections.

Course Planner Tools

The Course Planner contains tools to mass edit course restrictions. When a calendar has multiple schedule structures that have a varying number of course periods, the Course Planner removes any placement restrictions and displays the period schedules appropriately for each schedule structure.

Mass Set Course Values

The Mass Edit Course Values allows the setting of course information (e.g., terms, schedules and periods) for more than one course at a time. This tool is viewed like a query, where the user can select which items to set, enter the value of the change for the courses and select existing information to be overwritten.

Screenshot of the Mass Set Course Values options. Course Planner Tools - Mass Set Course Values

Options for Mass Edit Course Values

The following tables define the options available for mass editing course values.

Item	Options
SET	Terms Schedules Periods Seats Priority Sections to Build
TO	Terms Schedules Periods Seats Priority Sections to Build Last Year Sections Sections Needed Sections Placed
WHERE	Terms Schedules Periods Seats Priority Sections to Build Last Year Sections Sections Needed
OPERATOR	= (equals) > (greater than) < (less than) >= (greater than or equal to) <= (less than or equal to) != (does not equal)

Use the Mass Edit Course Values Tool

Select the option from the SET dropdown list for the courses that need to be modified.
Enter the Value in the blank field or select the TO option in the dropdown list.
Select the option from the WHERE dropdown list indicating what item should be changed.
Select the Operator from the dropdown list.
Select the Courses that should be modified.
Click the Save button on the tool. This updates the courses selected and highlight them in green.

Mass Set Placement Restrictions

The Mass Edit Placement Restrictions allows the selection of periods and terms where the selected courses should not be placed or built.

Screenshot of the Mass Placement Restrictions. Course Planner Tools - Mass Placement Restrictions

Placement restrictions can be appended (added to) or replaced (overwritten). If adding additional restrictions to existing restrictions, click the Append button. If adding new or changing existing restrictions, use the Replace button.

Existing restrictions do not display on this mass edit tool. Restrictions only display when the course is selected in the Course Planner.

Use the Mass Edit Course Placements tool

Select the Courses that should be modified.
Place a checkmark in the appropriate period and term combination where the course should not be placed.
Click the Append or Replace button as appropriate. Restrictions are updated.

Replace/Append/Remove Constraints

The Replace/Append/Remove Constraints tool is designed for use by districts that have never used constraints before in the scheduling process or have limited use of constraints. Information is built based on the previous year's course information. The district can use that same setup, replace the existing constraints, append the existing constraints or remove the constraints.

For example, if a teacher taught a class in a certain room last year, the tool looks at that course and assume that setup is an authorized constraint and build the teacher to room to course constraint.

For any existing placement restriction, room assignment or teacher assignment, the Replace/Append/Remove Constraints tool can modify the existing information or the recently modified information. These items can be changes from last year's schedule, replaced from last year's schedule or deleted, allowing the user to plan course constraints from the beginning.

Screenshot of the Replace, Append, Remove constraints. Course Planner Tools - Replace/Append/Remove Constraints

Course to Teacher constraints, Course to Room constraints and Teacher to Room Constraints are selected by default. If only a specific option should be modified, remove the checkbox from the unnecessary items.

The dropdown list selection determines what should happen to the constraints:

Replace updates the existing constraint.
Append changes the existing constraint.
Remove completely removes the existing constraint.

Use the Replace/Append/Remove Constraints Tool

Select the desired constraints to remove.
Select the Action to perform from the dropdown list.
Select the Courses for which to remove the constraints.
Click the Save icon. Constraints for the selected courses are removed.

Add Course Planner Information

The Course Planner displays all constraints, rules, teacher assignments and placement restrictions in one place. Any rules, rooms or teachers already assigned to the courses display here.

Before adding this information, a course must be selected in the Course Planner. Do this by placing the cursor in any cell of the applicable course.

Save any changes made by clicking the Save icon at the top of the Course Planner. When changes have been made, this icon displays in red text.

If any Rules, Teachers, Rooms or Placement Restrictions need to be removed, select the item for removal and click the X next to the item. A warning message displays, asking the user if this is the desired behavior. Click the Delete button to continue with the removal.

Rules

See the Course Rules article for descriptions of each rule.

Place the cursor in one of the course fields to display course editors at the bottom of the page.
Click the Add New button at the bottom of the Rules editor. A blank row displays.
Click in the Course field. This acts as a dropdown list.
Select the course for the rule.
Click in the Type field. This acts as a dropdown list.
Select the desired Rule to apply to the course selected above and to place a restriction on the selected course in the dropdown list.

If a scheduling rule needs to be removed from a course, it removes it from both the selected course and the course to which the rule applies.

Using a combination of rules or multiple rules limits the placement of sections on the Whiteboard and limit the fulfillment of student requests. Only add rules when absolutely necessary.

Screenshot of the adding scheduling rules Course Planner - Add Scheduling Rules

Teachers

Assigned teachers display on the Section tab and are added to sections outside of the Wizard on the Staff History tab.

Click the Add New button at the bottom of the Teachers editor. A blank row displays.
Click in the Name field. This acts as a dropdown list.
Select the teacher to assign to this course.
Modify the Minimum and Maximum sections that can be taught by that teacher.

Screenshot of adding teachers Course Planner - Adding Teachers

Rooms

Rooms are assigned on the Sections tab. Rooms assigned a Room Type are listed first.

Click the Add New button at the bottom of the Rooms editor. A blank row displays.
Click in the Room field. This acts as a dropdown list.
Select the room to assign to this course.

Course Planner - Adding Rooms

When selecting a room for a placed Section, the logic in the build process of the Schedule Wizard follows this order:

Selects the Room from Staff Planner, if Rooms are designated in both Course Planner and Staff Planner and the Room for the Section to Build appears in both Planners.
Selects the Room from Course Planner, if Rooms are designated in both Course Planner and Staff Planner and the Room for the Section to Build appears only in the Course Planner.
Selects the Room from Course Planner, if Rooms are designated in only the Course Planner.
Selects the Room from Staff Planner, if Rooms are designated in only the Staff Planner.
If Rooms are not designated in either Planner, a room is not automatically assigned for the section.

Placement Restrictions

Place a checkmark in the appropriate period and term combination. These checkboxes indicate where the sections of the course will not be placed on the Wizard when course information is loaded. This restriction is different than the Placement Restrictions assigned to staff when using the Staff Planner. Course Placement Restrictions determine when a course will not meet. For example, if band has to meet in Period 7 for the entire school year, checkmarks should be placed in all periods and terms except Period 7. Or, to eliminate the placement of courses over the lunch period, select that period for each term.

Screenshot of the Placement Restrictions Course Planner - Placement Restrictions

Automatic placement restrictions occur when the Before and After scheduling rule is in place and a certain percentage of the requesting students have requests for both courses. For example, German 1 has a rule of before German 2; German 2 has a rule of After German 1.

German 1 has 10 requests, but only 5 of those students also have a request for German 2; the placement constraint will not be added for German 1 because not more than 50% of those students have requests for the other course. If 6 of the 10 students who have a German 1 request also have a German 2 request, the placement constraint is added.

Course Planner Reports

To generate the current layout of courses for the selected trial, use the Save Course Planner Display to save the layout to the location of your choosing, in CSV or HTML. When one of these options is selected, follow the instructions for saving a report to your computer or other shared location. Selecting the Current View saves the course layout as it is currently displayed.

Screenshot of the Course Planner Reports Course Planner Reports

Next Steps

Review the Checklist for Scheduling and Other Scheduling Tools documentation.
Use the Staff Planner to enter requirements for each staff based on their licensure, desired room information and courses each staff person can teach.
Build the Schedule using the Building Tools.
Load course requests using the Loading Tools.
Generate Reports to review the placement of courses.
If all scheduling items have been completed and any additional changes will be made in the Campus application, mark the Trial active.

The course planner allows users to mass edit values, restrictions and constraints in the Scheduling Wizard. This video demonstrates how to use the course planner tools to set values, restrictions and constraints.

The Course Planner allows the user to view and manage all the course data, requests from the walk in scheduler, section information and constraints that exist. This video demonstrates how to use the course planner.

The rules and constraints on the course planner allow users to select specific rules, teachers, rooms or to block out periods where course sections should not meet. This video demonstrates how to manage rules and constraints for a selected course.

The Schedule Wizard is being removed from the product as of the Campus.2435 Release (August 2024).

Use the following tools for scheduling and planning purposes:

Tool Search: Schedule Wizard

The Student Constraints tool in the Schedule Wizard Planning Menu allows users to limit a student's interaction in classes with another student, or with multiple students. Constraints are used when loading course requests, and can be either a strict constraint (student are not placed) or a not strict constraint (student should not be placed).

Student Constraints can also be entered using the Student Constraints tool in the Scheduling Module, and can be rolled forward into future calendars using the Student Constraints Roll Forward tool.

Screenshot of the Student Constraints tool in the Schedule Wizard. Schedule Wizard Student Constraint Tool

Constraints can be added for any reason deemed necessary by the staff (Principal, Counselor, Teacher) or by a Parent/Guardian's request. Mostly, constraints fall into these two scenarios:

Not Strict Constraint. Abigail and Anna are twins. Their parents have requested that whenever possible, Abigail and Anna are not in the same course sections at the same time. This would be a "not strict" constraint. For example, if both Abigail and Anna need to take Spanish II in third period because Abigail has Soccer the other time it is offered, and Anna needs to stay with the same teacher she had for Spanish I, they may be in the same section.
Strict Constraint. Ryan and David have frequent behavioral issues when they are in the same class as James. It can be distracting for other students, and prohibits them from learning, and causes more tension than needed for all of the other students and the teacher. The logic creates a constraint all combinations of all three students, and prohibits their placement in the same course sections. Strict constraints can be overwritten in the Schedule Wizard, if necessary.

Note that the more frequent use of constraints may limit the successful placement of students in their requested courses.

View Existing Student Constraints

All students enrolled in the calendar for which the trial is open display in the Student column. This list of students can be sorted by any of the columns included - Student Name, Grade Level, Student Number, Gender or number of existing Constraints. Click on the gray header to change the sort order.

Select a student from the list (by clicking on any header). The students name displays in the bottom section of the tool. If the selected student has constraints with another student, those students are listed.

Screenshot of the current student constraints. Existing Student Constraints

Add New Student Constraints

Select a Student from the list.
Click the Add New button at the bottom of the editor. A blank line is added to the bottom section.
Click in the blank line and scroll to locate a student.
If the student should have zero interaction with the selected student, mark the Strict checkbox.
If the student can be placed in the same course section if necessary, leave the Strict checkbox unmarked.
Click the Save in the upper left corner.

Import Student Constraints from Last Year

To import existing student constraints from the last school year, select this option from the Tools menu.
A popup displays asking if the constraints should be imported. Click the Import button. Constraints are imported into the selected trial.
When finished importing, the Save icon is red. Click the Save icon.

View Constraints In Other Scheduling Tools

Constraints display in the following areas.

Scheduling Tool	Details
Student Constraints Tool	From this option in the Scheduling module, all constraints for all students can be viewed.
Schedule Wizard Manual Roster Builder	When building a roster for a particular course, students who have conflicts with other students who are scheduled in the same section display in red (if the constraint is strict) or yellow (if the constraints is not strict). NOTE: The red or yellow display only occurs when the View > Conflicts > Student to Student option is marked in the Schedule Wizard.
Schedule Wizard Section Roster	Constraints display for the section roster in the yellow pop-up box.
Walk-In Scheduler	When viewing the Walk-In Scheduler, and the list of student requests display on the right, click the @ symbol to highlight where that section meets on the Schedule grid. When a student constraint exists, that section is highlighted in red. The hover text indicates such, but does not indicate which student(s) may be involved. If the student should still be placed in the section, click the bold text. A warning message then displays indicating a constraint exists. Clicking OK places the student into the section, overriding the student constraint restriction. The course number and section display in red, and the hover text continues to indicate there is a constraint with another student. Note that overriding the constraint does not remove the record in the Student Constraints tool; the override applies to the placement of a student into a section when a constraint exists.
Student Constraints Roll Forward	The Student Constraints Roll Forward tool copies the selected student constraints from the Source Calendar into the Destination Calendar.

The Student Constraints tool is used to create restrictions between students. This video demonstrates how to prevent students from being scheduled in the same section with both strict and non-strict constraints.

The Schedule Wizard is being removed from the product as of the Campus.2435 Release (August 2024).

Use the following tools for scheduling and planning purposes:

Tool Search: Schedule Wizard

The Building menu uses the information entered in the Course and Staff Planners and adds it to the course and section display on the White Board.

A Full Build populates all entered course information.
A Full Unbuild removes all entered course information.
The Builder Configuration tool sets the requirements for how the wizard builds the courses.

Courses can be built individually as well, and then locked so no further changes are made, including the removal of that information when a full unbuild is done.

If a Section Template is assigned to a course, sections for that course can only be placed where the Section Template allows.

Screenshot of the Building options available in Schedule Wizard Schedule Wizard Building Options

The Building Tools do not load student requests. Student requests are added in the Loading Tools.

Builder Configuration

Before loading information from the planning tools, select the Builder Configuration option from the Building menu. These options determine how the course sections are built. This is not a required function, but choosing configuration options may increase the percentages of completed schedules and reduce the amount of manual schedules that need to be built.

These selections roll forward into future calendars.

Schedule Wizard Building Configuration

The following table defines the available Build Configuration options.

Option	Description	Comments
Builder Search Depth	Selected numeric value determines how far the builder looks in the planning tools to build the section the selected number of times to meet requests.	The default value for this option is 3, which means the Builder attempts different placements to fit the master schedule. Start with this default value, and increase or decrease as needed. Recommended search depth is between 3 and 5. The higher the value, the longer the wizard could run to place sections.
Automatically fix builder conflicts	When marked, the builder automatically fixes the conflicts in section placement before completing.	The Builder attempts to find another teacher (if possible) when the first teacher has a conflict. For example, Teacher A is scheduled to teach Band during Period 3, but a new section for that teacher for a different course is dragged onto the White Board. The Builder finds another teacher to teach the new section. A user builds the course sections for the Math Department using the building menu available when right-clicking on the department name in the left hand side of the builder. Then, a new section is manually placed onto the white board. This hand built section is assigned a teacher, but the teacher has a conflict due to an assignment from the auto-built sections. When this auto-fix option is turned on, the builder finds a new teacher to teach the manually placed section; when this auto-fix option is turned off, the user needs to manually fix the teacher assignment or rebuild the department. Course Planner settings provide the building with logic to fix the build.
Drag and Drop: Engage the Builder to automatically assign teachers/rooms	When marked, the builder automatically assigns teachers and rooms when possible. The manual building of sections also does this.	When the Staff Planner and/or Course Planner (takes priority) has data assigned for each teacher and rooms are created and set for available sections, the builder assigns an available teacher and an available room. If there are not that many constraints entered for teachers or for courses, turning this on may cause more wrong assignments than necessary. The section would stay empty and flagged, alerting you to make an assignment. If there are a lot of constraints, using this option would reduce the amount of manual assignments needed. Options set in the Staff Planner override this selection. When selecting a room for a placed Section, the logic in the build process of the Schedule Wizard follows this order: Selects the Room from Staff Planner, if Rooms are designated in both Course Planner and Staff Planner and the Room for the Section to Build appears in both Planners. Selects the Room from Course Planner, if Rooms are designated in both Course Planner and Staff Planner and the Room for the Section to Build appears only in the Course Planner. Selects the Room from Course Planner, if Rooms are designated in only the Course Planner. Selects the Room from Staff Planner, if Rooms are designated in only the Staff Planner. If Rooms are not designated in either Planner, a room is not automatically assigned for the section.
Drag and Drop: Enable preferred section placement	When marked, the builder uses a Conflict Matrix or "heat map" to determine the best placement for the section.	The three best placements for that new section are displayed, and includes the teacher and room assignments. The first placement is the same location the Auto-Build logic would choose if a single section were placed.
Periods taught for 100% FTE	Entered numeric value is considered the teacher's full time employment value per term. This value is represented by a zero (0) in the Staff Planner.	A teacher may have a prep period in a seven period day, which means 100% capacity is when the teacher is assigned to six course sections during the term. If a course section spans multiple periods, each period associated with that section is included in this value. Options set in the Staff Planner override this selection.
Maximum different courses taught per day	Maximum number of courses a teacher can be assigned during the term.	This reflects a negotiated or preferred number of periods the teacher is allowed to teach. Options set in the Staff Planner override this selection.
Maximum consecutive periods taught per day	Maximum number of consecutive periods the teacher can teacher during the day.	This reflects a negotiated or preferred number of courses a teacher is allowed to teach in a row without a prep period. Options set in the Staff Planner override this selection.
Minimum percentage used in sections needed calculated (default is 60%)	Minimum percentage of seats filled to consider the creation of another section.	This value, when met, does not recommend another section for the same course until the current section(s) is at least at the entered capacity for student requests. The default value is 60%. It is an average of all sections. For a course that has 100 requests, and there are three sections of 30 students each, the builder adds a fourth section to fit the remaining 10 requests, and then reshuffles the requests so all four sections have a more even distribution of students (in this case, 4 sections of about 25 students). When hovering over the course name in the list of courses built, a total number of section built and sections needed displays. This is a three-step calculation: A threshold value is calculated based on the Max Students field times the Minimum Percentage. If the Max Students value is 30 and the Minimum Percent field is 90, the threshold returned is 27. A potential Recommended Sections value is calculated to satisfy requests. This is based on the Max Students field. If a course has 65 requests, and the Max Students field is 30, Section 1 is filled to capacity (30), Section 2 is filled to capacity (30) and Section 3 has 5 students. For each potential section, a balanced average number of students that could be placed across all sections is found and compared to the threshold. If the balanced average is greater than or equal to the threshold, it is added to the Recommended Section Count (Calculating for Section 2 in #2 above: Section 1 = 30; Section 2 = 30; 30 + 30 = 60 / 2 = 30; Add Section 2) If the balanced average is less than the threshold, it is not added to the Recommended Section Count (Calculating Section 3 in #2: Section 1 = 30; Section 2 = 30; Section 3 = 5; 30 + 30 + 5 = 65 / 3 = 21.6; Do not add Section 3).
Course Filter	Selection limits the courses that are loaded to only those that meet the section limits. Options are: Not filtered - no preference is given to any type of course section. 1 (Singletons) - the course section is only scheduled for one time during the school year 2 or less sections - the course section is scheduled for two or less times during the school year 3 or less sections - the course section is scheduled for three or less times during the school year 4 or less sections - the course section is scheduled for four or less times during the school year	For courses with limited sections and high student requests (i.e, Journalism or Yearbook), building these courses first may satisfy more requests and ensure students are scheduled into these sections. When running a full build, the wizard builds the lowest number of sections first. The selection chosen is considered a stopping point for the builder - when the value has been met, the builder is finished.

Set Builder Configuration Values

From the Building menu on the White Board, select the Builder Configuration tool.
Select the value for Builder Search Depth.
Mark the Automatically fix builder conflicts checkbox.
Mark the Drag and Drop: Engage the Builder to automaticallyassign teachers/rooms checkbox.
Mark the Drag and Drop: Enable preferred section placement checkbox.
Enter the value for Periods taught for 100% FTE.
Enter the value for Maximum different courses taught per day.
Enter the value for Maximum consecutive periods taught per day.
Enter the value for Minimum Percentage used in sections needed calculation.
Select the desired Course Filter.
Click the Save icon.

Run a Full Build

When running a full build, it is best to manually place special sections or singletons (if desired) first on the white board. A full build does not overwrite the placement of those sections, nor does a full unbuild remove those sections.

From the Building menu on the White Board, select the Run a Full Build option. The wizard performs a process and display a status of the work completed. All courses marked as active and those that have data added in the Planning tools (Course and Staff Planners) are loaded.

Notice in the image below that sections are placed on the white board prior to a build being done. These are manually placed sections that are not be affected by the build and display in bold text. These sections remain when the build is removed (Run a Full Unbuild). See the Course Section information for more details.

Screenshot of the Processing message for building. Full Build Processing

When the build is complete, review the placement of sections. Use the click-and-drag functionality to move from the original placement if desired. This makes the section function like a manually-placed section (appears in bold text, cannot be unbuilt, etc.).

The build can be locked if the section placement meets the desired results. This can be done by right-clicking on the Department header, the section itself or the course name.

Locking a Build by Department changes all courses and sections in that department to appear in bold.
Locking a Build by Course changes all sections for that course to appear in bold.
Locking a Build by Section changes just that section to appear in bold.

Auto-Build Failures

If not enough teachers are allocated to a course for the number of sections being built, an Auto-Build Failure occurs. The course turns red and any sections affected by the failure are not built. Auto-build failures can occur for a variety of reasons, some of which are as follows:

If there are no rooms at the school, but all other data is available.
If teachers or rooms cannot be assigned to a section.
If teachers are assigned to sections but there are too many constraints associated with that section.
If teachers have been allocated for some sections but not all sections of a course.

Check the Staff and Course Planners for red sections to ensure accuracy in the teacher assignments, room assignments, number of sections needed, etc. before building the schedule.

Screenshot of the Auto-Build Failure message Auto-Build Failure

Lock a Build

Right-click on either the Department, Course or Section.
Select the Building Option and then Lock Build. Updates to the placed items are made.

Screenshot of locking a build for departments, courses and sections. Locking a Build

Unlock a Build

If a build is locked in error, it can be unlocked as needed. This removes the bold text from the placed sections. If a full unbuild is performed, those sections are removed from the white board.

Right-click on either the Department, Course or Section.
Select the Building Option and then Unlock Build. Updates to the placed items are made.

Screenshot of unlocking a build by department, courses and sections. Unlocking a Build

Run a Full Unbuild

A Full Unbuild removes the courses that were auto-placed when a Full Build was run. If any courses were locked or manually moved, their placement is not removed when an Unbuild action is performed. Unbuilding can be done at any time. When a Full Build is done again, the course placement may be altered because of changes made in the locked course sections or departments or reworking some course or staff planning items.

Screenshot of how to unbuild a schedule. Full Unbuild

From the Building menu on the White Board, select the Run a Full Unbuild option. The wizard removes all non-manually placed course sections from the White Board. Rework the course planning options as needed, rebuild a department or course as needed and rerun the Full Build option.

This process can be done as many times as necessary to meet the needs of the school.

Suggested Practices for Building Tools

Use the Building Tools as it fits your scheduling needs. Between auto-building, manually building and a hybrid of these two, you can adjust course layouts and teacher assignments as needed. Lock between each layer of the build.

Auto-building should be thought of as a spectrum. On one side of the spectrum, the wizard decides everything. On the other side of the spectrum, you decide everything - course placement, teacher assignments, etc. Between these two options is where most districts land; some things are hand built, some things are auto-built. You can layer building of courses where you build a few major courses with lots of student requests but not much teacher availability, and other courses are fit around that.
Manual building begins with rolling sections into the wizard from last year's schedule. Then, due to teacher changes and more students, use the building tools to modify section placements. You can also start from nothing and place each section individually from a road map of courses (a physical white board, a spreadsheet, etc.). NOTE: If a Section Template is assigned to a course, sections for that course can only be placed where the Section Template allows.
Hybrid building lets you build singleton courses (courses that have one possible meeting time, like band or orchestra) and then manually place other courses around those singletons. Or, you can build a single department that may have a variety of courses and a wide range of student requests, and then build the remaining departments. You can also manually build sections from last year's schedule and rebuild new sections. NOTE: If a Section Template is assigned to a course, sections for that course can only be placed where the Section Template allows.

Next Steps

Review the Checklist for Scheduling and Other Scheduling Tools documentation.
Load course requests using the Loading Tools.
Generate Reports to review the placement of courses.
If all scheduling items have been completed and any additional changes will be made in the Campus application, mark the Trial active.

The Builder Configuration tool in the Schedule Wizard helps to determine how course sections will be built when we run a full build in the Wizard. This video explains how to use this tool.

The Schedule Wizard is being removed from the product as of the Campus.2435 Release (August 2024).

Use the following tools for scheduling and planning purposes:

Tool Search: Schedule Wizard

The Loading menu adds the student's requested courses into the placed courses and sections added to the White Board using the Building menu.

A Full Load populates all entered student requests into a course section that best meets the needs of the student.
A Full Unload removes all entered student requests from course sections.
Lock Rosters and Unlock Rosters by grade levels.
The AutoLoader Configuration tool sets the requirements for how the wizard loads the courses.
The Section Balancing Configuration tool places certain weights on specific factors that may be needed in course sections.
The Manual Roster Builder tool allows users to create rosters for selected sections.

Screenshot of the Schedule Wizard Loading Menu Schedule Wizard Loading Menu

Loading courses uses a complicated algorithm that follows these steps to assign a course placement for students:

If the student is assigned to an Academic Plan where a requested course is included on a Course Requirement that is marked as Priority, those courses load first.
Remaining courses are sorted by Schedule Load Priority set on the Course/Course Master editor and loaded in order.
Courses in a given priority with only one available section (singletons) are loaded before other courses of the same priority.
Remaining courses are loaded in a manner that attempts to balance section rosters equally on the same criteria as the Schedule Wizard (see the Section Balancing Configuration information in this article for this logic).

If a student is associated to a Scheduling Team, the student can only be loaded into sections that match their assigned team or have a null team assignment. The Load functionality does not load a student into a section that is assigned to a different team.

AutoLoader Configuration

The Schedule Wizard can be configured by the user to automatically reload student requests when a section is either created, moved, or deleted. This configuration tool provides options that affect the loading of student requests into different course sections or no course sections, depending on the settings.

Screenshot of the Load Configuration options AutoLoad Configuration

The Wizard gives students in the upper grades a higher priority at the seats in the section and also is biased towards completing student schedules. Some counselors or schedulers turn this option on to determine if a new section placement better meets the needs of their school and then run a full unload/load to give all students an equal opportunity at the seats.

Upper grade levels do have a built-in priority to have their requests loaded first. However, there is no priority of loading based on the student's person ID or last name. Requests are loaded randomly.

The following table defines the available AutoLoader Configuration options.

Option	Description	Comments
Full Load Search Depth	Selected numeric value (1-15) determines the number of times the wizard attempts to satisfy each course request.	This field MUST have a value other than zero (0) assigned. If it is set to zero, a full load does not occur. Change the setting to be a value between 1 and 15, depending on your needs at the school.
Default Course Priority	Course priority allows those courses that do not have a load priority to be mass-assigned a load priority. This allows for the prioritization or deprioritization of other courses by using numbers greater or smaller on other courses.	If set to 1, all courses marked with a Schedule Load Priority of 1 are loaded first. Other courses are loaded after that in least number of sections order.
Auto-loading Configuration
Autoload Search Depth	Selected value (1-15) means the wizard works to that level to meet the entered requests and is used in conjunction with the Autoload checkboxes. The wizard only tries to place the request that is being moved, it does not reshuffle the entire schedule.	If set to 3, the wizard reworks student requests three times to place the student in a matching course section.
Autoload when a new Section is created or deleted	When marked, students are placed in other sections based on their other requested courses and section placements when an existing section is created or deleted.
Autoload when a Section is moved	When marked, students are placed in other sections based on their other requested courses and section placements when a section is moved to a different period.
Loading/Unloading Filters
Grades	Only those grade levels in the selected school appear. By default, all available grade levels are marked and student requests for those grades are included in the load. When not marked, students enrolled in that grade for the next school year do not have requests loaded.	One grade level can be loaded at a time and those requests worked as needed. Some prefer to complete senior schedules first before the other grades. When those schedules are complete, their placement can be locked and then the configuration can be reset to load the remaining grade levels.
Course Filter	Selection determines in what order course sections are loaded. Options are: Not filtered - no preference is given to any type of course section. 1 (Singletons) - the course section is only scheduled for one time during the school year. 2 or less sections - the course section is scheduled for two or less times during the school year. 3 or less sections - the course section is scheduled for three or less times during the school year. 4 or less sections - the course section is scheduled for four or less times during the school year.	For courses with limited sections and high student requests (i.e., Journalism or Yearbook), loading these courses first may satisfy more requests and ensure students are scheduled into these sections. When running a full load, the wizard loads the lowest number of sections first. The selection chosen is considered a stopping point for the loader - when the value has been met, the loader is finished.

Set AutoLoader Configuration

From the Loading menu on the White Board, select the AutoLoader Configuration tool.
Select the value for the Full Load Search Depth.
Select the Default Course Priority level.
Select the Autoload Search Depth value.
Mark the Autoload when a new Section is created or deleted checkbox.
Mark the Autoload when a Section is moved checkbox.
Mark the Grades to include in the Loading/Unloading Filters.
Select the desired Course Filter.
Click the Save icon when finished.

As sections are created or moved, the Wizard re-loads requests based upon that section placement.

Section Balancing Configuration

The Schedule Wizard allows the user to define weights on five factors that tell the Wizard how hard to work to achieve balance between sections of a course based on five factors. The degree to which the Wizard seeks balance in each area is governed by a percentage slider control accessed from the Weighted Section Balancing option found on the Loading menu.

For example, if the course needs to have a male/female balance, the Gender Balance slider would be placed at 50.

Screenshot of the Section Blanacing Configuration Section Balance Weighting

When attempting to place a student, candidate sections where the student could be placed are retrieved, but before the student is placed, the sections are sorted using an algorithm that takes into account the following.

Discouraged Peers (student constraints). The section with the fewest number of discouraged peers is given preference and no further evaluation takes place. There is no slider for this.
Evaluation of Gender/Minority/Special Education/Discipline. A composite score is calculated using the placement of the sliders. The values for each slider are summed and used as a target weighting or balance for each section.
Lowest Sum Score Placement. Based on the composite score above, a student who is a minority, is a special education student, is in the gender minority for the type of class, or has discipline issues, the section that has the lowest sum score based on students already placed in the section is ranked first for placement, the second lowest scoring section is ranked second, and so on.

These categories are not evaluated separately, but rather the composite of the students in the section across all of the categories is used to create balance.

The following table defines the available AutoLoader Configuration options.

Balance Option	Definition
Student	Favors putting students into the section with the lowest number of students.
Gender	Favors putting students into the section with the lowest number of students of their gender.
Minority	Favors putting students into the section with the lowest number of minority students. Minority status is determined by whichever race/ethnicity code is set as the default value of the Campus application.
Discipline	Favors putting students into the section with the lowest number of total behavior events.
Special Education	Favors putting students into the section with the lowest number of IEPs. This number is based on the following: The student has IEP exists in the current calendar, and the student has an enrollment record in the future calendar but no IEP in the future calendar. The student has an active IEP as of today.

Manual Roster Builder

The Manual Roster Builder may be used if the scheduler needs to manually add or remove students to section rosters, as in the case of Special Education students who together require the services of a paraprofessional in the classroom, or to schedule students with a specific teacher. Using the Manual Roster Builder locks the student into the roster. This tool can be used before or after other sections are built.

The left section shows all students enrolled in the school, the middle section shows students who have requested a particular course, and the right section shows students scheduled into a particular section of the course. If all students who have requested a course have been scheduled, no students are listed in the request field.

Screenshot of the Manual Roster Builder Manual Roster Builder

When a student has a constraint with another student, their names display in red. See the Student Constraints article for more information.

Use the Manual Roster Builder

Use the keyboard left and right arrow keys to move students from one column to another column.

Select from the Course Requests dropdown list the course for which to build the roster.
To move the student from the Enrolled Students column into the Course Request column, highlight the student's name in the left-hand column and use the right arrow key to move the student into the Course Request Column.
To move the student from the Section Roster column into the Course Request column, highlight the student's name in the right-hand column and use the left arrow key to move the student into the Course Request column.
Close the Roster Builder and click the Save icon at the top of the Wizard.

Run a Full Load

Student requests are added to placed course sections using the Full Load option. This option, when selected from the Loading menu, populates all courses and sections for which there are requests on the white board. A load can also be done for a selected group of courses, sections, terms, departments or periods. If there is a certain set of courses that should be loaded first, load requests from one of those areas and then lock the results when satisfied. Any further changes to the load do not affect locked loaded.

The Schedule Loading Options chosen on the Trials editor determine which student requests are loaded.

The Full Load option follows the preferences set in the weighted section balancing commands and loads courses using the order defined in the priority field on the course.

From the Loading menu on the White Board, select the Run a Full Load option. The wizard processes and display the results on the white board (takes seconds to complete).

Screenshot of the Run Full Load option. Run a Full Load

When it's finished, sections may be color-coded depending on entered preferences. Review the placed sections and note the percentage of requests met and schedules completed in the upper left corner. To increase the percentage, review course placement restrictions, section placements and try moving sections around on the white board to increase requests met. If the numbers don't change or are reduced, change the loading preferences and try again.

The load can be locked when the section placement meets the desired results. This can be done by right-clicking on the Department header, the section itself or the course name. Locking a section means that at that moment, students currently in the section are prevented from moving out of the section. This does not limit future students from being added to a locked section or course. When new students are added, the section needs to be relocked to prevent the new students from being removed.

Lock a Roster Load

Select Lock Rosters from the Loading menu options. Choose the grade levels for which to lock rosters. Locking rosters this way locks all rosters for all courses.

Screenshot of the Lock Rosters option. Lock Rosters

This can also be done by right-clicking on a department name, course or section.

Select the Loading Options and then Lock Rosters.
Choose the grade levels for which to lock rosters. As continued loading and unloading is done on the rest of the schedule, the locked sections remain filled.

If there is one section of Color Guard during third period of the day, students who participate in Color Guard could be scheduled first, the course can be locked, and the remaining open spaces of those students’ schedules are modified but Color Guard is not changed.

Another use for locking rosters for certain grade levels is to ensure all seniors are locked into the course sections they may need for graduation.

Screenshot of the option to lock rosters by course. Locking Rosters by Course

Unlock a Roster Load

Select Unlock Rosters from the Loading menu options. Choose the grade levels for which to unlock rosters. Unlocking rosters this way unlocks all rosters for all courses.

Screenshot of unlocking rosters. Unlocking Rosters

This can also be done by right-clicking on a department name, course or section.

Right-click on either the Department, Course or Section.
Select the Loading Option and then Unlock Rosters.
Choose the grade levels for which to unlock rosters.

Run a Full Unload

A Full Unload removes all students from sections that do not have a locked roster entry. If any sections, courses or departments were locked after the load, those rosters are not be affected. Unbuilding can be done at any time. When a Full Load is done again, the course placement may be altered because of changes made in the course placement or reworking some staff planning items or through the manual building of rosters.

Sometimes when running a full unload, it is necessary to exit the Schedule Wizard completely to clear the temporary cache to completely remove manual entries without requests to be removed. Then, relaunch the Wizard and continue as your normal scheduling process allows.

Screenshot of the Run Full Unload option. Run a Full Unload

Next Steps

Review the Checklist for Scheduling and Other Scheduling Tools documentation.
Generate Reports to review the placement of courses.
If all scheduling items have been completed and any additional changes will be made in the Campus application, mark the Trial active.

This video explains how to use the Autoloader configuration tool in the Schedule Wizard, which gives users the ability to configure preferences for loading student requests prior to running the Schedule Wizard.

Tool	Primary Use
Walk-In Scheduler	Give a single student a complete schedule or move a student to other section AFTER the school year has started. PRO: Restores schedules for students who have left the school and returned, tracking appropriate start and end dates as needed. CON: Can only be used for one student at a time.
Roster Setup	Schedules an entire section of students prior to the start of the year. PRO: Adds multiple students who have the same term dates and removes section history when the student was never scheduled. Rosters can be copied from one section to another. CON: Removing a student from a section midyear deletes all corresponding historical data (attendance, grades, etc.).
Roster Batch Edit	Edits a section roster for students who have left the school or enrolled in the school midyear. PRO: Saves time when a group of students are enrolling in a section or leaving a section as all students can be modified at once (not one at a time as the Walk-In Scheduler does). CON: Only one set of start and end dates can be entered per student roster record. The Walk-In Scheduler must be used to add returning students into the same section.
Roster Copy	Places students in a course section from one calendar to another. PRO: Does not allow students to be duplicated and does not copy students who have dropped the source course. CON: Only students who are enrolled in the destination calendar are copied.
Schedule Gap Filler	Searches for students who have an empty instructional period on their schedule. PRO: Only populates those open periods with sections that have open seats. CON: Populates all empty periods on a student's schedule, which may not fit with every student's enrollment option (PSEO, part-time, etc.).
Build Constraints Wizard	Assigns or removes rules or placement settings for courses. PRO: Can be used as often as necessary in the preparing of the courses for the next school year. CON: Course sections are built using these constraints and doesn't take into account teacher's schedules.
Fill Teams	Assigns students to courses based on the team membership. PRO: Copies team assignments from the student's schedule from the active trial into the static team assignment. CON: Only places the student in a course that has the same team assigned to it as is assigned to the student.

Schedule Wizard: Mass Schedule Students - Study Guide

Scheduling Process and Checklist

Part 1. Calendars and Enrollments, Calendar Rights, Departments

Calendars

Responsive Scheduling

Enrollments

Reports and Transportation Data

User Security

Teacher Assignments

Part 2. Preparing Courses, Entering Requests and Generating Reports

Course Preparation

Introduction to the Scheduling Board

Request Entry

Part 3. Teacher and Course Planning

Planning the Schedule

Scheduling Board

Part 4. Scheduling Students

Manipulate the Schedule

Schedule Cleanup

Scheduling Matrix

Trials

Trials (Schedule Wizard)

Trial Editor

Trial Properties

Locked Terms

Schedule Loading Options

Locked Trials

Copy Trials

Delete a Trial

Save a Trial

Make a Trial Active

Select a new trial from within the White Board of the Schedule Wizard

Next Steps

Trials

Tool Rights

Trials Navigation

Locked Trials

Staff Planner

Set Values, Restrictions And Constraints

Staff Planner Layout

FTE per Term

Add FTE per Term

Constraints

Add Staff Planner Information

Courses

Rooms

Placement Restrictions

Staff Planner Reports

Next Steps

Edit Teacher Course Load

Course Planner

Values, Restrictions, Constraints And Parameters

Course Planner Layout

Course Details

Requests

Sections

Constraints

Course Planner Tools

Mass Set Course Values

Options for Mass Edit Course Values

Use the Mass Edit Course Values Tool

Mass Set Placement Restrictions

Use the Mass Edit Course Placements tool

Replace/Append/Remove Constraints

Use the Replace/Append/Remove Constraints Tool

Add Course Planner Information

Rules

Teachers

Assigned teachers display on the Section tab and are added to sections outside of the Wizard on the Staff History tab.

Rooms

Placement Restrictions

Course Planner Reports

Next Steps

Rules, Constraints And Placement Restrictions

Constraints On Selected Course

Student-to-Student Placement Restrictions

View Existing Student Constraints

Add New Student Constraints

Import Student Constraints from Last Year

View Constraints In Other Scheduling Tools