There are several options available to tie courses, class sections and/or students together for scheduling purposes. The eSchoolData Scheduler uses four different types of links: Course Links, Class Links, Placeholder Courses and Location Restrictions.
Course Links
Course Links are used to tie one course to another when using the eSD® Sectioner. The Sectioner will place students into sections for each linked course based on availability in the student’s schedule. Course Links must be applied at the course level.
The Sectioner will only apply the course link requirement to students who have requests for EACH course within a link.
If the Sectioner is unable to schedule students into each linked course due to conflicts, then the student will not receive any of the courses and they will appear on the course request reject analysis reports within the scheduling run.
Class Links
Class Links are used to tie section(s) of one course to section(s) of another course when using the eSD® Sectioner. The Sectioner will place students into sections with matching links, or into unlinked sections, of each course based on availability in the student’s schedule. Class Links must be applied at the section level.
If the Sectioner is unable to schedule students into each linked section due to conflicts, then the unfulfilled request will appear on the course request reject analysis reports within the scheduling run.
Location Restrictions
Location Restrictions allow users to tie sections of courses to groups of students, in effect creating teams. Users apply the same location restriction to multiple students and to sections of multiple courses. The Sectioner will match the location restrictions assigned to students with those assigned to sections when placing students into classes. Location Restrictions must be applied at the section level.
If the Sectioner is unable to schedule students into each linked section due to conflicts, then the unfulfilled request will appear on the course request reject analysis reports within the scheduling run.
Placeholder Courses
Placeholder Courses can be used as an alternative to class links, eliminating the need to assign class link codes to multiple sections yet still forcing students to travel together. When placeholders are used, students will either receive all or none of the courses associated with the placeholder.
Placeholder courses allow users to create multiple meeting times within a section, where each meeting-time reflects a different course. For example, a placeholder course name 7th Grade Core could consist of a Math section, a Science section, an ELA section, etc. The decision to use placeholder courses should be made early in the scheduling process because this will determine whether students will be submitting requests for individual courses, or for a placeholder course that consists of several different courses.
At the conclusion of the scheduling process, placeholder course meeting-times are converted to individual sections. When Placeholder Courses are converted (AFTER the Final Scheduling Run has been loaded), each meeting time becomes a new section of the linked course and is assigned the section number of the Placeholder Course section. As part of the conversion, students scheduled into the Placeholder Course sections will be assigned to the new sections of the linked courses.