Build Scenarios Overview

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A build scenario includes the parameters that PowerScheduler references to create a master schedule for the upcoming school year. Use scenarios to work with different combinations of criteria before committing a master schedule. After completing a successful build for a scenario, you can duplicate it and try various modifications to the original scenario.

Though you can create multiple build scenarios, it is suggested that you start with just one. Multiple scenarios may be useful when, for example, your school wants to hire an additional computer science teacher to meet student course request demands. In this case, create two build scenarios: one that includes the additional computer science teacher and one that does not. Present both scenarios to the school committee to make a final decision on which situation would work best.

Some information used to create a master schedule is shared amongst all scenarios, whereas other information is defined per scenario. The following data is exclusive to a particular build scenario:

Master schedule
Student schedules
Constraints
Course rank
Teacher assignments
Course relationships

For example, if you define the constraint that Mrs. Smith must be free first period for the Schedule 1 scenario, the Schedule 2 scenario does not adhere to that constraint.
The following information is shared by all build scenarios that you create for a given build year:

Students
Student course requests
Student course request pages
Teachers
Rooms
All parameters (such as terms)
Course groups

For example, if you enter a student course request, the system tries to schedule that request in all scenarios.
For more information about build scenarios, including how to create a build scenario, see Build Scenarios.

Build Scenarios

Before creating build scenarios, define the basic build information, such as the number of terms, days, and periods in your master schedule. Then, define optimization parameters, which determine how long the system spends scheduling each course, section, and student.

When building the master schedule, PowerSchool evaluates every possible schedule combination before it adds a course to that schedule. Depending on your school's courses, constraints, and other schedule parameters, there could be millions of ways to schedule one multi-section course. Evaluating all of these schedule combinations would take many hours. You might not want to wait for such a thorough evaluation. If this is the case, define build and load optimizations to determine how many combinations the system should review when building your schedule.

When you enter optimization parameters, you define the minimum and maximum number of possibilities the system should evaluate while doing the following:

Building the master schedule
Loading student schedules with courses

You can also define best schedule weights to determine how the system handles conflicts when building your master schedule. For example, if you give more weight to section balance than to student conflicts, the system tries to create similar-size course sections before it tries to accommodate student course requests. Based on the last load for each scenario, the percent of students scheduled, core courses scheduled, and satisfied student requests appear on the Scenarios page.

Create a Build Scenario

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Scheduling Setup, choose Scenarios from the PowerScheduler menu.
Click New.

Use the following table to enter information in the Build Information fields:

Field	Description
[Scenario type]	Select the Build and Load option to build a schedule and then load students into that schedule. Note: If creating a Load Only scenario, see Load Process: Schedule Setup.
Build Name	Enter a name for this build scenario. If you are creating several scenarios, use descriptive names so that you can easily distinguish among them.
Active Build	If you are creating only one build scenario, select the checkbox. If you are creating more than one build scenario, select the checkbox for the one you want the system to use to build your master schedule. Note: You will only be able to edit the course catalog that is associated with the build marked as active.
Build Description	Enter a description of this scenario.
Terms	Click Associate to select the number of schedule terms you want this scenario to include. The Schedule Term Setup page appears. Select the checkboxes in the rows that represent the number of schedule terms you want this scenario to include. For example, if you plan to build a two-semester master schedule, select the checkbox next to the row that includes Semester 1 and Semester 2. Click Submit.
Periods	From the pop-up menu, choose the number of periods per day for this build scenario. For example, if you are building a block schedule, you might choose 4. If you are building a regular schedule, you might choose 7.
Days	Choose from the pop-up menu the number of days for this build scenario.
Course Catalog	Use the pop-up menu to choose the course catalog you want the system to use to build this schedule. If this is your first time creating a master schedule, do not select a catalog. The system will automatically generate a course catalog, which you can modify. For more information, see Course Catalogs.

Use the following table to enter information in the Build Optimizations and Load Optimizations fields:

Field	Description
Percent of schedule combinations to evaluate for each course	Change this value only if you encounter problems with the amount of time the system is using to build the master schedule. The default value of this field is 10. For example, if you enter 25, the system evaluates one-quarter of the possible schedule combinations for each course. If you enter 75, the system evaluates three-quarters of the possible schedule combinations for each course.
Minimum number of schedule combinations to evaluate for each course	Change this value only if you encounter problems with the amount of time the system is using to build the master schedule. The default value of this field is 10,000. For courses with few possible combinations to begin with, use a higher number to prevent the system from attempting too few schedule combinations and not being able to fit the course into the schedule.
Percent of schedule combinations to evaluate for each student	Change this value only if you encounter problems with the amount of time the system is using to load the master schedule. The default value of this field is 10. For example, if you enter 25, the system evaluates one-quarter of the possible schedule combinations for each student. If you enter 75, the system evaluates three-quarters of the possible schedule combinations for each student.
Minimum number of schedule combinations to evaluate before skipping	Change this value only if you encounter problems with the amount of time the system is using to load the master schedule. The default value of this field is 10,000. Enter a high number to force the system to sample a minimum number of student schedule course possibilities.

Note: You can also set build optimizations for a particular course by adding a Course Optimize constraint. This type of constraint takes precedence over the build optimizations you set here. For more information, see Build Constraints.

Use the following table to enter information in the Best Schedule Weights fields:

Field

Description

Student conflicts

To have the system give more weight to student conflicts than section balance when confronted with a conflict while building the master schedule, enter a larger number in this field than in the Section balance field. The default value of this field is 50.

Note: The numbers in both of these fields must add up to 100.

Section balance

To have the system give more weight to section balance than student conflicts when confronted with a conflict while building the master schedule, enter a larger number in this field than in the Student conflicts field. The default value of this field is 50.

Note: The numbers in both of these fields must add up to 100.

Total

The total of the weighting values appears. This number must be 100.

Click Submit.

Edit Advanced Optimizations

In addition to the build and load optimization fields on the Edit Build Scenario page, there are a number of more advanced optimizations. Edit these fields only if you encounter problems while building your master schedule or loading student schedules.

Note: If you are able to run a successful build and load students into schedules satisfactorily, do not edit the Advanced Optimization fields.

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Scheduling Setup, choose Scenarios from the PowerScheduler menu.
Click Edit in the Advanced column of the appropriate build scenario.

Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

Field	Description
Use dynamic student load on all combinations until ( n ) sections	The default value of this field is 4, meaning that if a course has up to four sections, the system will score those sections precisely when loading students. If you enter a 5 or greater in this field, the system will score courses with five or more sections less precisely but faster.
Random number seed value	Change this value only to make sure the randomization function is working. The default value of this field is 123.
Use buildings	Select the checkbox if this scenario uses buildings.
Use houses	Select the checkbox if this scenario uses houses.
Swap rooms after building each course	Sometimes it is not possible to schedule a teacher in his or her preferred room. Select the checkbox so that the system will try to swap rooms as soon as a conflict arises. The checkbox is selected by default. If you deselect the checkbox, the system will not try to swap rooms during the scheduling process. After the schedule has been built, you can manually make adjustments.
Use swap rooms on prebuilt sections and preschedule constraints	Select the checkbox to allow room exchanges. For example, assume you reviewed the master schedule that is being built and made some room changes. Then, if you restarted the build, you would not want to allow the system to swap rooms, possibly eliminating these changes. In this case, do not select the checkbox. The checkbox is deselected by default.
Calculate future assignments for better combinations	Select the checkbox to ensure that the system will take the time to make sure course assignment decisions made now are smart ones. The checkbox is selected by default. Note: Because this process can be extremely time-consuming, you have the option of adjusting the amount of time the system spends on future assignments.
Percent of future assignments to calculate after teacher is scheduled	Use this field to fine-tune the amount of time the system spends scheduling each teacher. Enter a number that represents what percent of time a teacher will already be scheduled before the system starts calculating future assignments for him or her. Note: The higher the number you enter, the faster the system will calculate and the greater the chance that this teacher will encounter scheduling difficulties.
Maximum time to spend on future assignments	If you find in the log that the computer runs out of time when calculating future assignments, you may need to increase this value. The default value of this field is.1 second.
Maximum memory allowed for teacher assignment optimization	If your computer has a great deal of memory, you could increase this value, which might make the system run faster. The default value of this field is 2 MB.
Maximum time to spend on teacher assignments sort optimization	The order in which the system selects teachers to schedule is very useful; however, leaving the default value ensures that the system is never going to spend an excessive amount of time determining this order. The default value of this field is.25 seconds.
Maximum repeat count for validation error messages	This setting minimizes the number of repeated error messages from the system. For example, if you forget to enable an entire grade of students for scheduling, this setting limits the number of invalid request messages that are returned. The default value of this field is 25.
Section type handling	Choose Strict from the pop-up menu to not allow the system to schedule a student into a section of a course if he or she had not requested that section type.

Click Submit.

Delete a Build Scenario

Deleting a build scenario also deletes the following items associated with this build: master schedule, student schedules, teacher assignments, constraints, and course relationships.

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Scheduling Setup, choose Scenarios from the PowerScheduler menu.
Click the name of the build scenario you want to delete.
Click Delete.
Select the checkbox if you are sure you want to delete this build scenario.
Click Submit.

Auto Scheduler Setup

The Auto Scheduler Setup function is intended to give you a head-start when creating scenarios. After you enter basic information related to days, periods, and terms on the Auto Scheduler Setup page, PowerScheduler populates those fields for a scenario. That way, you do not need to set up days, periods, and terms on their respective setup pages; instead, those field defaults can be set using Auto Scheduler Setup.

You will be guided through several pages when using the Auto Scheduler Setup function. As you navigate through the setup screens, it is important to note that no information is saved to PowerScheduler until you submit the Build Scenario.

Run the Auto Scheduler Setup Function

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Scheduling Setup, choose Auto Scheduler Setup from the PowerScheduler menu.

Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

Field	Description
Lowest term level division	Use the pop-up menu to choose the smallest fraction of terms that the school uses. For example, if the school uses quarters and semesters, select Quarters from the pop-up menu.
Number of periods	Use the pop-up menu to choose the number of periods that the school uses. For example, if the school currently uses or would like to create a seven period schedule, select 7.
Number of days	Use the pop-up menu to choose the number of days that the school uses. For example, if the school currently uses or would like to create a schedule using A and B days, select 2.

Click Continue.
Select the checkbox next to the full year term and the term levels that will be used for scheduling. For example, if you offer semester courses, select the checkboxes next to Full Year and Semester - Semester.
Note: You must select the Full Year checkbox.
Click Continue.
Enter the first and last days of each term, using the format mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy.
Click Continue.
Click Submit.
Note: For more information about creating or editing a build scenario, see Build Scenarios.

Auto Create and Fill Scheduling Information

When preparing to build a master schedule, you need to enter information related to rooms, students, courses, and teachers. Though each of these records can be created individually, PowerScheduler can automatically create this information to improve efficiency.

Auto Create Rooms

Though you can still build rooms individually, you may also create them all at once. For example, enter for each department the room start number, increment number, number of rooms, department, facilities, and room maximum. The system generates the list of rooms.

Note: The Auto Generate Rooms function creates rooms from an existing master schedule.
Once the list is created, you can go back to each room and modify names and other information.

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Tools, choose Functions.
Click Auto Create Rooms.

Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

Field	Description
Start Number	Enter the starting number for the room numbers.
Increment Number	Enter the value by which the room numbers increase from the starting number.
Number of Rooms	Enter the number of rooms that should be created.
Room Prefix	Enter a prefix for the room numbers (optional). This value can be alpha or numeric and will concatenate with room start number. For example, entering the prefix MA creates the room number MA23 for the math room 23.
Department	Click Associate to select the department for these rooms. Associating a room to a department does not limit the room to that department. To do this, see the field Department Use Only.
Building	Click Associate to select the building for these rooms (optional).
House	Click Associate to select the house for these rooms (optional).
Use for Scheduling	Select either Yes or No from the pop-up menu to indicate if these rooms should be used for scheduling purposes.
Room is Always Free	Select either Yes or No from the pop-up menu to indicate if these rooms are always free.
Department Use Only	Select either Yes or No from the pop-up menu to indicate if these rooms are to be used only by the associated department.
Facility Use Only	Select either Yes or No from the pop-up menu to indicate if these rooms are used for certain facilities, such as lab rooms.
Room Facilities	If you selected Yes for the Facility Use Only field, click Associate to select the facility or facilities for this room.
Room Maximum	Enter the maximum number of seats for this room.

Click Submit. For more information about modifying room information, see Edit a Room.

Auto Fill Student Information

Use this function to fill in student information simultaneously for selected students. Student information that can be automatically filled includes next year grade, priority, and year of graduation.

You can set the next school indicator for all students before using this function, and you must set the next year grade indicator for returning twelfth graders before using this function. For more information, see Next School Indicator.

Note: The grade level entered affects all students for the grade level column selected whose next school indicator is set for the school submitting the information.

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Tools, choose Functions.
Click Auto Fill Student Information.

Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

Field	Description
Next Year Grade	For each column, enter the next year grade to indicate which students' information to change. For example, enter 12 for eleventh graders who will be in the twelfth grade next year, and enter 12 in the next column for any returning twelfth graders.
Priority	Enter the scheduling priority for the students. For example, enter 1 for returning twelfth graders who need to be scheduled first, and enter a higher number for incoming ninth graders.
Schedule This Student	Select either Yes or No to indicate if the students in each column should be scheduled or not.
Year of Graduation	Enter the year of graduation to indicate in which school year the student will graduate. For example, enter 2009 for twelfth graders graduating at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

Click Submit.

Auto Fill Course Information

Use this function to fill in course information simultaneously for selected courses. To automatically update course information, select courses (for example, by department) using the Update Selections function. For more information, see Update Selections.

When entering course information, use the pop-up menus to select No Change, Yes, or No for certain fields. All pop-up menus will have No Change as the default option. For entry fields, leave a field blank to not update existing course information. To clear any values in field, either enter 0 or select the Clear Value checkbox.

You can edit each course to enter individual information, such as facilities. When you edit a course, you cannot edit the Terms Per Year field unless you change the valid terms on the course page. If you use the Update Selections function to change the terms, this recalculation does not automatically occur; in that case, you must also use the Update Selections function to change the terms per year.

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Tools, choose Functions.
Click Auto Fill Course Information.

Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

Field	Description
Apply To	Choose whether you want to apply the changes to all courses in the active catalog or only to the selected courses. By default, changes are only applied to the selected courses.
Schedule This Course	Choose Yes from the pop-up menu to indicate that these courses should be scheduled. Choose No to indicate that these courses should not be scheduled. Choose No Change to not affect the scheduling statuses of these courses.
Department	Click Associate to select the department for these courses. Select the Clear Value checkbox to remove department information for the selected courses.
Build Type	Build types define the shape of a course. Use the pop-up menu to select either No Change or one of the following options: Standard: This course meets for the same number of periods every time it meets. For example, a course that meets every day for one period is standard, and a course that meets for one period every other day is also standard. Lab: This is a standard course that meets for the same number of consecutive extra periods on certain days in the cycle. For example, a standard Chemistry course meets every day in a six-day cycle (Days A-F). Two days in the cycle, the class meets for two consecutive periods to complete an involved laboratory assignment. LabFloat: This is a standard course that meets extra periods some days in the cycle, but the extra period is not consecutive to the course. For example, a Humanities course meets every day in a six-day cycle. One day during the cycle, the students attend a two-period lab in which they complete a community service assignment. The community service assignment does not have to occur directly before or after the Humanities course.
Maximum Enrollment	Enter the maximum number of students you want to schedule in sections of each course.
Target Number of Sections to Offer	Enter the number of sections to offer for each course. Note: To calculate this number manually, see Define Scheduling Preferences.
Number of Teacher Assignments	Enter the number of teacher assignments for each course. For example, if the school decides to offer four sections of Algebra, the engine requires that four teacher assignments are defined. As a result, Teacher A will have an assignment for one section, Teacher B will have an assignment for two sections, and Teacher C will have an assignment for one sections, totaling four teacher assignments. This tells the Scheduling Engine that four sections of Algebra must be built, and also tells the Engine who must teach those sections. Note: Only Build and Load scenarios allow for teacher assignments. Teacher assignments are not used by Load Only scenarios.
Frequency	Enter the number of times each course will meet per cycle.
Periods Per Meeting	Enter the number of periods each course will meet per day.
Lab Frequency	Enter the number of times each lab will meet per cycle.
Lab Periods Per Meeting	Enter the number of periods each lab will meet per day.
Repeats in Same Term	Choose Yes from the pop-up menu to indicate that these courses are offered more than once in the same term. Choose No to indicate that these courses should not be offered more than once in the same term. Choose No Change to not affect the scheduling statuses of these courses. Note: This setting does not affect the Repeats in Different Terms setting.
Repeats in Different Terms	Choose Yes from the pop-up menu to indicate that these courses can be offered more than once in different terms. Choose No to indicate that these courses cannot be offered more than once in different terms. Choose No Change to not affect the scheduling statuses of these courses. Note: This setting does not affect the Repeats in Same Terms setting.
Balance Terms	If the Repeats in Different Terms option is selected, use this pop-up menu to indicate if these courses should be offered evenly across all terms. For example, if a course is offered for three trimesters and you do not indicate that the terms should be balanced, the course could be offered twice in the first trimester, once in the second trimester, and not at all in the third.
Valid Start Periods	Select the checkboxes for the periods in which these courses can be offered. For example, a marching band course may always meet during the last period of the day. Select the Clear Value checkbox to remove valid start period information for the selected courses.
Valid Terms	Click Associate to select in which terms these courses are offered. Select the Clear Value checkbox to remove valid term information for the selected courses.
Facilities	Click Associate to select which facilities these courses use. Select the Clear Value checkbox to remove facility information for the selected courses.
Load Priority	Enter a load priority for these courses. The lower the number, the higher the priority during the load process.
Load Type	Use the pop-up menu to select the type of course for these courses: Academic Elective
Balance Priority	Use the pop-up menu to select the type of priority that should be used when loading these courses. Section Gender Grade Ethnic Code House
Use Teams	Use the pop-up menu to indicate if these courses should be scheduled by associated teams.
Close at Max	Use the pop-up menu to indicate if these courses should close when enrollment reaches the maximum number of students specified in the Maximum Enrollment field.
Use Section Types	Use the pop-up menu to indicate if these courses should be scheduled by associated section types.
Don't Allow Substitutions	Use the pop-up menu to indicate if students should be scheduled in alternate courses.

Click Submit.

Auto Fill Teacher Information

Use this function to fill in teacher information simultaneously for selected teachers. To automatically update teacher information, select teachers using the Update Selections function. For more information about this function, see Update Selections.

When entering teacher information, use the pop-up menus to select No Change, Yes, or No for certain fields. All pop-up menus will have No Change as the default option. For entry fields, leave a field blank to not update existing teacher information. To clear any values in field, either enter 0 or select the Clear Value or Clear Room checkbox.

On the start page, choose PowerScheduler under Applications in the main menu.
Under Tools, choose Functions.
Click Auto Fill Teacher Information.

Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

Field	Description
Apply To	Choose whether you want to apply the changes to all teachers who are ready to schedule or to the selected teachers only.
Department	Click Associate to select the department for these teachers. Select the Clear Value checkbox to remove any existing values in this field.
Preferred Room	Click Associate to select the room these teachers prefer. Select the Clear Room checkbox to remove any existing values in this field.
Maximum Consecutive Periods	Enter the maximum number of periods these teachers can teach in a row.
Schedule for Lunch	Select the checkbox if you want these teachers to be scheduled for a lunch period. For more information, see Scheduled Lunch.
Schedule This Teacher	Select either Yes or No to indicate if these teachers should be scheduled or not.
Is Always Free?	Select either Yes or No to indicate if these teachers are always free.

Click Submit.