Define course scheduling parameters

Before you build your master schedule, define scheduling parameters for each course in your course catalog.

Note: If a scenario does not use shared schedule attributes, appears next to each of the schedule attributes to indicate they are privately owned by the current scenario.

To define scheduling parameters for a course:

1. Log on to the Build view.
2. Click the Courses tab. The list of courses appears.

Note: You can automatically enter all course scheduling parameters from the previous schedule. On the Options menu, click Refresh.

3. Click a course number. The parameters for that course appear.

4. 

   Note: Most schools can use Mass Update on the Options menu to enter values in the course parameter fields for several courses at one time.

4. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

1. Note: The information at the top of the page is defined in the School or District view for the course.

2. Field	Description
   Master type	One of the following course types appears: Class Activity Duty Lunch Package Program Recess Study Note: This field drives what type of course it is. Eighty-five to ninety-five percent of courses are of the Class type (attendance is taken, grades are entered, and a transcript record is created).
   Number	The course number appears.
   Department	The department responsible for this course appears.
   Description	The course description appears.
   Short description	The short description for the course appears.
   Grade level	If the course is tied to a grade level, the grade level appears.
   Credit	Type the number of credits student earn in this course.
   Weight	The weight for this course appears.
   Academic level	The academic level for this course (for example, honors or college prep) appears.
   Honor roll type	The type of honor roll for which the system should include grades for this course appears.
   Teacher preparation code	The teacher preparation code on the course appears. The system uses this code to group courses in terms of preparation effort required by a single teacher. For example, you might assign both English 9 and English 9 H the preparation code ELA9. Then, you can assign a value in the Max preps field for teachers. When building the schedule, the system does not assign a course with another preparation code to a teacher who is already assigned to courses that cause them to reach their maximum number of preps.
   Alternate group	The group of alternates that are acceptable for the system to use if it cannot schedule a student in this course appears. For example, if the course is Drawing 101, you might select the E (elective) alternate group, meaning the system can schedule the student in another elective course they request if it cannot schedule him or her in Drawing 101. This field works with the Are Subs Allowed checkbox.
   Max requests courses that students have requested to attend for the next school term	The maximum number of students who can request this course appears. This helps counselors, or whoever enters student requests, from blindly entering requests for a course that is already full. For example, assume your school offers five, 20-seat sections for Civics, and counselors enter 400 requests for the course. Because only a quarter of the students will actually get in the course when you build, your schedule’s overall percentage of requests satisfied is drastically affected. If you enter 125 in this field, and a counselor attempts to enter a request for the 126th student, the system alerts the counselor that the course is already oversubscribed. This way, when you build the schedule, the percentage of requests satisfied is not overburdened by the course.
   Course package	The list of courses in the current course package appears. Note: Create course packages to speed up student request entry. For example, assume all freshmen must request five core freshman courses. You can create a course package with all five course numbers, and then quickly enter those course requests for all freshmen at the same time.
   Include in scheduling	Select this checkbox if you want to include this course in the build process.
   Sections scheduled	Type the number of sections you need to schedule for this course. To calculate this number, divide the number of requests for the course by its enrollment maximum. There are two ways the system can help you determine this number: Run the Course Tally report. Use the Calculate Section Count option.
   Section enrollment max	Type the maximum number of students that the system can enroll in this course. Note: You might use Mass Update on the Options menu to update the values in this field for several courses at the same time.
   Covered terms per year	Type the covered terms for this course. The covered term represents the fraction of the base term this course meets. For example, if this is a course that meets Semester 2 of a two-semester year, the base terms are 2 and the covered term is 1.
   Base terms per year	Type the base terms for this course. Base terms are the total number of schedule terms this course is offered. For example, full-year courses have a base term of 1. If a course meets half the year (a single semester), the base term is 2.
   Periods per cycle	Type the number of periods in the schedule cycle that this course meets. For example, it might meet two days in a six-day cycle. You can type values with decimals. For example, assume the course has different periods per cycle across terms, such as meeting one period semester 1, and two periods semester 2. You can enter 1.5. The system uses the value in this field to help calculate the percentage a student is scheduled.
   Schedule Pattern Set Name	Select the schedule pattern set for this course.
   Preferred room exempt	Select this checkbox to indicate that if the scheduler cannot schedule the course in the teacher’s preferred room, it can attempt to schedule it in another room.
   Balance by term	Select this checkbox if you want to evenly distribute sections of the course across terms. For example, assume you want to schedule a semester course with four sections. If you select this checkbox, the system schedules two sections in each semester, rather than three sections in one semester and one in the other. Note: Selecting this checkbox does not guarantee the system will be able to balance by term. To guarantee a balance, pre-schedule the courses on the Workspace.
   Course Bind Next Number	Type or select the course number that must be scheduled during the same time slot in the following term. This field can be used to schedule semester courses as full-year courses, for instance. Chain the current course with another partial-term course. For example, pair British Literature and American Literature, which share the same teacher, room, and students – and feel like a full-year course. Note: The two courses have to have the same number of sections.
   Load priority	Type a number to indicate the order you want the system to schedule this course in if there’s a conflict in a student’s schedule. For example, you might type 5 for AP courses; 10 for singleton courses such as Band and Music; 20 for other academics; and 30 for electives. This way, if a conflict arises between Pottery and Calculus for a student, the system schedules the student into the Calculus class first.
   Are subs allowed	Select this checkbox for Aspen to replace this course with an alternate request, if this course is unavailable to a student. If you leave this checkbox deselected, Aspen will not replace this course request if it cannot fill it with a student’s alternate request.
   Section balance type	Select one of the following to balance section types: Ethnic Code Gender Grade Other Note: The system automatically balances sections by an equal number of students. For example, you might want the system to balance the five sections of Physical Education by gender. If you select Other, the system balances sections on the value you enter in the Balance code field when you define student scheduling parameters. For example, you might use the Mass Update option to enter the student house in the Balance code field. The system would then balance the sections by house.
   Term balance type	To ensure that students’ schedules contain a balance of course types each schedule term, select Academic or Elective to determine the nature of the course. This feature is most often used in a semester block schedule, where students take a full-year course in one semester. In this type of schedule, a student might take eight courses: four in each semester. The school does not want the student to take English, Algebra, Chemistry, and US History (all academic courses) in the first semester and Gym, Band, Keyboarding, and Cooking (all elective courses) in the second semester. Or, you might try to balance based on subject matter. For example, assume a student requests two semester English courses, and you want the system to schedule the student in one English course the first semester, and another second semester. You would create the reference code English in the Load Type reference table, and select it here for your semester-based English courses. Although the system references the value you enter, other schedule building factors might affect the balances of the sections. Note: The value you enter in this field impacts only 1/2 and 1/4 year courses.
   Repeat Type	Do one of the following if a student can enroll in this course more than once this year: Select Same Term Only if a student must enroll in the course several times in the same term. Select Different Terms Only if the student must take the course in different terms. Note: This is often used for gym classes.
   Allow partial content, Valid content terms	Schools have the option of determining that students who fail a schedule term of a course, such as the second semester, do not have to repeat both semesters. To do so: Select the Allow partial content checkbox. In the Valid content terms field, type the schedule terms that a student can re-take. Note: This field appears if you select the Use Content Term Code checkbox in the scenario preferences.
   Student weight exempt	Select this checkbox if you want to exempt this course from student schedule weights. For example, you might not want student schedule weights to apply to elective courses, such as Physical Education. Note: This field appears only if the build scenario you are using has the Use student schedule weight checkbox selected in the Scenario-basic preferences.

5. Click Save.

Note: Add the Recommendation Code field to the field list to group courses into a list other than the department code that teachers can choose from when recommending courses for next year. For example, create a recommendation code such as Humanities for all courses in the English and Social Studies departments. Teachers in both departments can recommend classes in either department. Or, use recommendation codes to limit the list of courses teachers can recommend. For example, create a recommendation code English 1 to group the English 2 courses that English 1 teachers can recommend for next year.