Do I have to use Terms when scheduling a Class? No, however School Terms provide the User with several functions that can help group Classes and schedules as well as speed data entry. A School Term is defined as a period of time within a date range. Schools usually offer Classes within Terms for scheduling purposes and for billing purposes, especially if they offer financial aid to their Students. As mentioned before, creating School Terms can be done for several reasons, however you must decide what reasons are most important to your school’s operations in order to create Terms that allow you to get the most out of the system.
First off, a School Term’s date range can be an entire fiscal year (July 1st – June 30th), a “semester”, which usually is half of a fiscal year and defined as Fall and Spring Terms, or a “quarter” which is a quarter of the fiscal year. Some schools will refer to their Terms as Sessions because their Classes begin every 30, 45, 60, etc. days and they end up with 6-12 “sessions” in a year’s time. So what is the best way to name your school’s Terms? Let’s find out more about how SchoolDESX uses Terms to decide.
School Terms will allow a User to, first of all, “group” their Class offerings. In other words, some schools will offer a series of Classes for different programs within an enrollment period that begins Aug. 1st and ends Dec. 20th. This enrollment period could be referred to as the “Fall Term” or Fall Semester” for example. However, some schools will enroll Students into Class that run for an entire fiscal (school) year, possibly starting Aug. 20th and ending May 20th. This enrollment period may be referred to as the “2006-2007 Term” or “2006-2007 School Year”. Classes that fall within the date ranges for each Term are able to be, and actually are by default, “grouped” by that Term. This means that a report can be run that shows all Classes that were held within a selected Term or a User could Locate all Classes within a certain Term within the system.
Are Terms Needed for Every Date Range Throughout the Year? A User might think that they need a Term for every session that the school offers within a year. This is not necessarily true depending on how a User would like to group and sort their data. For instance, a school may have a Business Technologies program that runs for 45 days. This means that this school can offer several sessions each year. Each of these sessions can fall under the same Term, which would be a year long Term, in order for a User to view all these sessions’ enrollment, for example, within a chosen Term.
Besides a “grouping” feature, SchoolDESX’s School Terms will also automatically populate the Class Start Dates and End Dates for a Class that is being scheduled. When a Term is created, it is created using a Term’s Name and Beginning & End Dates. These Terms are then available to the User from the Class information form’s Scheduling page, which will be covered later in this manual. Once a chosen Term, from the School Terms table is recorded, it is displayed as a value in the Class information form’s Term field. When a Term is selected, the Start date and End date fields are automatically populated for speed of data entry and Class scheduling. This does not mean that a User will need a Term for every Class Start and End dates. The dates for each Class can then be altered, while keeping the Class “grouped” under the selected Term. More information as to how these Terms related to the Class will be covered later in this manual.
Do I have to use Periods when scheduling a Class? School Periods provide the User with a function that can cut the time for scheduling a Class down by half. A School Period is defined as a period of time within a day. Schools usually offer Classes using Periods for several reasons; however you must decide what reasons are most important to your school’s operations in order to create Periods that allow you to get the most out of the system.
A School Period is any timeframe throughout a day that can be setup in a recurring pattern. SchoolDESX’s School Periods will then automatically populate the Classes Meeting Days and Meeting Times for a Class that is being scheduled. When a Period is created, it is created using a Period’s Name and meeting days/times and therefore is then available to the User from the Class information form’s Scheduling page, which will be covered later in this manual. Once a chosen Period, from the School Periods table is recorded, it is displayed as a value in the Class information form’s Period field. When a Period is selected, the days of the week as well as the meeting times for those days are automatically populated for speed of data entry and Class scheduling. This does not mean that a User will need a Period for every Class Start and End day and times. The Days of the week and their meeting times for each Class can always be altered, even if originally populated using a Period. More information as to how these Periods related to the Class will be covered later in this manual.
Are School Periods Required
for Every Possible Class Start & End Time?
Setting up
Periods in the system can allow for easier data entry when scheduling Classes in
SchoolDESX. Periods do not have to be used, however if you have distinct periods
of the day, or a group of days, for which you will base your scheduled Classes,
then you should setup School Periods. Periods are usually defined as “1st
period, 2nd period, 3rd period, etc.”, a “Morning or
Afternoon period”, or a “Day and Evening period”. Other Periods can be setup
based on their Start and End times, such as the “5:30 -8:00 Period”. Because
these Periods can be altered per Class schedule, certain Periods can be
combined. For example, the 5:30-8:00 Period may have two different patterns. One
of these patterns meets on Mondays and Wednesdays, whereas the other pattern
meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A single Period can be set up to run from
5:30-8:00 Monday thru Thursday. When using this Period to schedule a Class, the
days of the week can be altered at that time, depending on the actual meeting
days of the Class at hand. More information on scheduling Class will be found
later in this manual.
How do I assign an Instructor to a Class? Selecting “Person” presents the Locate Staff Member form from which a Staff member for this Event can be chosen and scheduled (Entering a Staff member record was discussed in an earlier chapter). When asked to do so, simply Locate the correct Staff member who will need to be scheduled for this Event. If this Staff member is not currently assigned to another Class or Event that is meeting on the same days and times as the current Event being scheduled, then no conflicts will be found and the Staff member will be scheduled out for the times specified. If a conflict is found in this scheduling, the system will display a dialog notifying the User of this conflict asking if the User still wants to proceed or not. A User may choose to proceed with the scheduling despite the conflict if so chosen.
I'm trying to assign an Instructor to a Class, but I can't Locate the person I need. Before an Instructor can be assigned as a resource for a Class, that Instructor must first have a Staff record entered into the system and marked as an "Instructor" on the General page of the Staff Information form.
How do I assign a Room to a Class? Selecting “Place” from the Resources section presents the Locate Room/Facility dialog in order for the User to Locate a Facility/Room in which this particular Event will meet. When asked to do so, simply Locate the correct Facility/Room record specifying where this Event will take place, such as for a conference Event. If this Facility/Room is not currently assigned to another Class or Event that is meeting on the same days and times as the current Event being scheduled, then no conflicts will be found and the Facility/Room will be scheduled out for the times specified. If a conflict is found in this scheduling, the system will display a dialog notifying the User of this conflict asking if the User still wants to proceed or not. A User may choose to proceed with the scheduling despite the conflict if so chosen.
I'm trying to assign a Room to a Class, but I can't Locate the Room I need. Before a Room can be assigned as a resource for a Class, that Room must first be entered on the Room page of the correct Facility Information form as well as have been marked "Active" on that form.
Can I add an extra day to my Class Schedule without rescheduling the entire Class? Yes. once a Class has been scheduled the User can select the Session Dates button in the bottom right corner of the Class Information form's Scheduling page. The Session Dates form will appear for the selected Class. By selecting "New" at the bottom of the Session Dates form, the User is able to enter in Start and End Dates and Times to add a new session to this Class. Simply add any Day and Time, for when the form is reloaded, it will appear in the proper place in the list. No Date Ranges can be used here. Only one day and time can be added at a time.
Can I add several more days, such as a date range, to my Class Schedule without rescheduling the entire Class? Using the Add mode feature on the Class Information form's Scheduling page, the User can add an entire range of dates to the already existing Class schedule. If is important to make sure that the red circle is filled in next to the Add Mode text before selecting the scheduling parameters and certainly before the "Save". This function saves new dates and times to the Class without deleting or scheduling over existing scheduled dates.
What is Add Mode on the Class Information form's Scheduling page? This function saves new dates and times to the Class without deleting or scheduling over existing scheduled dates.
How am I supposed to use the Attendance Scale field on the Class Information form's General page? The Attendance Scale is a Lookup List that is populated with items that directly related to a point scale in order to provide an Attendance Grade to a Student if, a. the Grade Book is used for this Class, and b. an Attendance grade item is setup as a Grade Activity in the Grade Book. See, “Creating an Attendance Grading Scale”, later in this chapter for more information.
Can my Class Section Codes have duplicates? It is very important to note that no Class Section Code can be repeated per Course record. According to the example above, if two “COS” Classes were to be offered in the “AM”, simply entering a Class Section Code of “06-AM” would not suffice. The reason for this is that there would be two Classes that were identified as “COS/06-AM”, therefore making it quite difficult to distinguish between the two Classes. Simply adding a “1” or “2” at the end of each Class Section Code would solve this issue, therefore having a Class defined as “COS/06-AM1” and “COS/06-AM2”. Next year or Term, the new Classes offered will be identified as “COS/07-AM” and so on.
Do I need to reference the Course Code in my Class Section Codes? Class Section Codes are, for all intended purposes, the identifiers of Class records. These Codes are offered as options for locating a Class record. It is important to remember that a Class is created from a Course record, therefore information about the Class’s subject matter is already defined. A Class Section Code should contain information specifically to the Class’s scheduling identification and not to the topic of study this Class is offering.
There are many different identifying options to creating Class Section Codes. There are schools that use the Class’s Term information as a Section Code identifier. Other schools use the time of day that the Class meets, such as “AM” or “PM”, for the Section Codes. It is important to understand that the Course Number is automatically displayed preceding the Class Section Code. For example, a Cosmetology school may have created a Course record with a Course Number equaling “COS”. A Class may then be scheduled from that Course with a Class Section Code equaling “06-AM” (the term and time of day the Class is to meet). The Class would be then identified as “COS/06-AM”. Half of the information is supplied by the Course Number, and the other half is dictated by the Class Section Code.
The Lookup Lists on the Class Information form don't have the choices that I need. Can I change them?
How can I easily reschedule a Class? If you choose Options on the Main Menu while on the Scheduling page of the Class Information form, you'll see that there is an option called "Reschedule Class". Select this option and the Class reschedule.
How can I easily reschedule all my Classes at once? A Special Utility is available to reschedule all Classes, or a specified group of Classes. Call your support representative at (800) 324-9393 for help.
I don't want to schedule a Class against the Events Calendar. Is there another Calendar that I can use?
How is the Status on the Class Enrollment Detail form different from the one on the Student Information form? The “Active” value is the default value for the Class Enrollment Status field. A Student, with at least one “Active” Class Enrollment record, is considered an Active Student. In fact, the “Active” value, within the Student’s Status field on the General page of the Student Information form, is directly related to the “Active” value in the Student Class Enrollment table. In short, if a Student has an “Active” Class Enrollment, then the Student’s Status field is set to “Active”, if not, the Student’s Status is set to “Stand By” or “Prospect”, depending on whether or not the Student has had an “Active” Class Enrollment in the past. Only “Active” Class Enrollments allow for a Student’s Status to be set to “Active”. In other words, no Student’s Status can manually be made “Active”, for it is done automatically when the Student enrolls into a Class.
How do I drop a Student from a Class
Enrollment?
The act of a
Student dropping a Class Enrollment usually suggests that the Student ceases the
Enrollment prior to the Class’s End Date as well as prior to the Student
completing the requirements of the Class. Students may do this at any time and
for many different reasons, which are important for the User to record using the
Exit Code field of the Class Enrollment Detail form.
Click Here
to “Drop” a Student’s
Enrollment in a Class via a training video.
What happens to the Student's Class
Charges when I Cancel their Enrollment?
I have a
Student whose demographic data has changed since he/she took a previous Class.
Can I recall this history?
Certain demographic data that a
User can store on a Student’s Information form needs to be stored in a format
that allows for the User to retrieve previous values of that data based on a
specific timeframe during the Student’s enrollment at the school. The reason for
this is simply because certain pieces of demographic data, such Education Level,
Benefits, and Populations, can change from term to term, however a history must
be kept in order to regain access to past data, even though the field values
have since changed.
The Additional Data area from the Options Menu of the Class Enrolment Detail form, records this information as a “snapshot” of a Student’s Demo page on their Student information record at the time of Enrollment. In other words, when a Student is enrolled into a Class, a display of that Student’s Demo information is stored with the Class Enrollment record. Does this mean that if you change the demographic information on the Demo page of the Student’s Information form, that it will update the Enrollment record? No. Again, when the Student enrolls, a “snapshot” is taken and stored in order to report historical data at a later date.
What is the difference between Positive and Negative Attendance? The most common method for tracking Attendance records is using the Negative Attendance option. The Negative option asks the User to track the occurrences that a Student does NOT attend a scheduled Class, whereas Positive Attendance records only the time a Student was present. The Negative option is chosen most often because it will more easily track the “hours in”, “hours out”, and “hours possible”, as well as the fact that it requires an instructor to record less Attendance entries per day.
When choosing the proper Attendance method for a Class, the curriculum is based on whether or not enrolled Students are required to attend a full Class period on the scheduled days. For example, if a Class meets Monday thru Friday from 8:00am till 1:30pm and the Students who are enrolled are required to attend that Class on those specified days and times, then using Negative Attendance is prudent. Using this Attendance method, a Student will only be marked Absent when they are NOT in attendance for a particular Class meeting period. However, if the Student does attend the scheduled Class period, the system will automatically assign the proper hours to the Student for that day. In other words, the only Students who are marked for a particular Class meeting period are the exceptions, saving time for the Instructors. Of course, total time “in class” will be calculated for all enrolled Students.
Using Positive Attendance, each Student who attends on a given Class meeting day, will need to be marked as “Present”. This Attendance method is most commonly used when a Class meets for a specified amount of time which allows for the enrolled Students to come and go as they please. This Attendance method is strictly used for those Classes where only Attended time needs to be recorded, because there is no structure or expectation for the Students to attend when the Class meets. Overall, Negative Attendance records the amount of time that a Student was “In Class” as well as “Out of Class”. Positive Attendance records only time Students spent “In Class”. If Positive Attendance is chosen, it is especially suggested to use the SchoolDESX Attendance Time Clock (TimeDESX), for easier Attendance record keeping.
What is the "Other" column on the Student/Class Attendance form calculating?
How do I create more Attendance Types?
What does the asterisk (*) next a Student's Attendance Type mean?
Can I take Attendance for a past date?
How do I Decide Which Attendance Method Should be Used for a Class? As mentioned earlier in this section, choosing “Absence” Attendance will require the User to record only Student Absences, whereas using “Presence” Attendance requires the User to record Student Present occurrences. When choosing the proper Attendance method for a Class, the curriculum is based on whether or not enrolled Students are required to attend a full Class period on the scheduled days. For example, if a Class meets Monday thru Friday from 8:00am till 1:30pm and the Students who are enrolled are required to attend that Class on those specified days and times, then using Absence Attendance is preferred. Using this Attendance method, a Student will only be marked Absent when they are not in attendance for a particular Class meeting period. However, if the Student does attend the scheduled Class period, the system will automatically assign the proper hours to the Student for that day. In other words, the only Students who are marked for a particular Class meeting period are the exceptions, saving time for the Instructors. Of course, total time “in class” will be calculated for all enrolled Students.
Using Positive Attendance, each Student who attends on a given Class meeting day, will need to be marked as “Present”. This Attendance method is most commonly used when a Class meets for a specified amount of time which allows for the enrolled Students to come and go as they please. This Attendance method is strictly used for those Classes where only Attended time needs recorded. This is because there is no expectation that the Students need to attend ever time the Class meets.
Overall, Absence Attendance records the amount of time that a Student was “In Class” as well as “Out of Class”. Positive Attendance records only time Students spent “In Class”. If Positive Attendance is chosen, it is especially suggested to use the SchoolDESX Attendance Time Clock (TimeDESX), for easier Attendance record keeping.
Can I mark all Students absent at one time rather than one by one? At the bottom of the Class Attendance form there is a "Mark All" button. When this option is selected, the Type Lookup List is displayed allowing the User to select an Attendance Type that will Mark every Student in the list with that chosen Type. In other words, if every Student was Absent for a meeting period, then the User could Mark All “A” to save time.
I made a mistake entering a Student's Attendance last week. How can I change it?
How do I record Make-up time for a Student?
I have a Student who is not required to be in Class for the full length of the Class. What should I do? If a Student is not required to be present for the total amount of time that a Class will meet on the days that are scheduled, simply enter a value equaling that amount of hours that this particular Student will NOT attend this Class on a given meeting day. For example, if the Class convenes for 5 hours each day that it is scheduled to meet, however this Student is only required to be present for 3 hours each day that the Class is scheduled to meet, then the Attending Variance field will equal a “2” for this Student Class Enrollment record.
I have Students who are Tardy often and it is cumbersome to change the "Hrs." column each time. Can I set a default time for my Tardies?
How am I supposed to use the
Attendance Scale?
If it is
decided to use SchoolDESX Attendance to track Student Attendance for a
particular Class and the Grade Book will also be used to track an Attendance
Grade for each Student in the Class, then an Attendance Grade Scale must be
selected in order for the grade item to track properly. In other words, the
Attendance Grade Scale sets the value as to how many points a Student has
deducted from their Attendance Grade in the Grade Book if the Student happens to
be absent (or tardy) for a particular Class meeting time. “Free Days” are also a
function of the Attendance Scale as well if so chosen to be used. To learn more
about Attendance Grading, turn to the “Acquiring a Grade for Attendance“ section
of this manual.
Can I lock a Grade Activity item from being deleted?
I give a quiz on a specific day of the week, every week. Do I have to create each quiz as a separate Grade Activity item?
Should the Grade Book be Used for my Class? The Grade Book grades are traditional grades that are given to Students as they complete regular program exams, quizzes, homework assignments, projects, etc. Competency grades should be used when a Student is required to prove a skill to an instructor. Competencies are usually an embedded part of a program’s curriculum because Competencies are usually skills that a Student must have in order to gain employment on completion of their program, whereas Grade Book grades are usually created as curriculum designed by the instructor of a class to make sure that all lessons are being completed.
The Grade Book should also be used if more than one Final Grade needs to be reported at any time within the Term the Class is scheduled. Other grade items of this nature could be for example, quarter or semester grades. The Grade Book can also be used to track Attendance grade items or Daily grades such as quizzes. If an instructor decides that it is best for them to use their own Grade Book to track their Student Grades, simply make sure that their Class in SchoolDESX is NOT using the Grade Book and they will be able to enter the Final Grades for each Student in the Class on the Student’s Class Enrollment Detail form as discussed later in this manual.