- View the chart as you place courses:
When placing a course, click View Chart to review the report and identify the best period to place the course at that time.
- Place all pre-placed courses:
❏ Select the course to be placed:
Course to be Placed Type or click
to select the first pre-placed course to be placed.
View Chart Click to view the placement charts, which will help you determine the periods in which to place sections. Review, save, or print the report.
❏ Under Sections:
Sec Type the number of sections for the course.
Seats Type the number of seats available for the section.
Team Code (Optional) Type the one-character team code for the section. When MSALGO determines which sections meet all of a student's restriction criteria, if there is a team code in the section record, it will check the student demographic team code for a match.
MSALGO uses the following rules for the order of placement:
Singletons (i.e., courses that are only offered once) are placed first. Within the singletons, the sections are placed sequentially from highest to lowest number of total potential conflicts.
Example: Courses 1004 and 2003 are both singletons. Course 1004 shows 223 conflicts, while course 2003 shows 145 conflicts. MSALGO selects course 1004 to be placed before course 2003.
Once all of the singletons are placed, MSALGO moves on to the doubletons, and so on.
This process continues until all sections have been placed on the master schedule.
❏ Under Meeting Times:
The meeting times for the selected section are listed. A course-section must have at least one meeting time and can have up to four meeting times.
❏ Click +Add to add a meeting time. A row is added to the grid.
Sec-Meet A sequential number is displayed for each meeting time you add.
Sem Select the code indicating the semester(s) the class meets.
Frm
ToSelect the beginning and ending periods when the class begins and ends.
Instr Click
to select an instructor.
Room Type the room number in which the class meets, up to four characters.
Days Select the code indicating the day(s) the class meets.
Delete a meeting time. 1. Click
to delete a row. The row is shaded red to indicate that it will be deleted when the record is saved. You can select multiple rows to be deleted at the same time.
2. Click Save. You are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the row. Click Yes to continue. Otherwise, click No.
You can save edits and delete records in the same step (i.e., the changes are all committed when the record is saved).
Meeting time 1 cannot be deleted. At least one meeting time is required for each section.
❏ Click Save.
This updates the Courses to be Placed ellipsis lookup with information about any sections that are now placed. It also automatically retrieves the next course to be placed, as determined by MSALGO.
You can save data at any time.
Next Crs to Place Click to retrieve the next course to the Course to be Placed field, which will be the first course not completely placed that has the highest priority for placement, as determined by MSALGO.
A section is considered placed if meeting time 1 has a semester code, beginning period, and ending period. The information must be saved.
All sections of a course must be placed for MSALGO to consider the course completely placed.
The next course to place is not accurate unless all meeting time information entered is saved.
KEEP IN MIND: You can override the suggested courses at any time. However, it is to your advantage to follow the MSALGO logic as closely as possible.
- Place all singleton courses:
❏ The course with the most conflicts is displayed first.
Course to be Placed A course number is automatically displayed. This is the course that MSALGO determines should be placed first. To select another course, click
to select the course.
The courses in the ellipsis lookup are sorted by the ranking in an algorithm: from the least number of sections and greatest number of conflicts within the number of sections, to the greatest number of sections and number of conflicts, from greatest to least, within the number of sections.
For each course, the course number and title, number of conflicts, and the number of sections placed are displayed. (The lower the number of conflicts, the more difficult to place.)
If all sections of a course are placed, the message “Placed” is displayed. Otherwise, the number of sections placed out of the number of sections available is displayed (e.g., 0 of 1).
The algorithm ranks the most difficult courses to place first, but any course can be selected for placing.
Data for the selected course is displayed, including the course title, number of semesters and periods, number of conflicts, number of sections placed, and number of requests.
❏ Place all singleton courses as described previously.
❏ Click Save.
This updates the Courses to be Placed ellipsis lookup with information about any sections that are now placed. It also automatically retrieves the next course to be placed, as determined by MSALGO.
You can save data at any time.
Next Crs to Place Click to retrieve the next course to the Course to be Placed field, which will be the first course not completely placed that has the highest priority for placement, as determined by MSALGO.
The next course to place is not accurate unless all meeting time information entered is saved.
KEEP IN MIND: You can override the suggested courses at any time. However, it is to your advantage to follow the MSALGO logic as closely as possible.
- Back up MSALGO tables before continuing:
Before continuing, it is recommended that you back up the MSALGO tables in case you need to start over from this point.
Scheduling > Maintenance > MSALGO > Process > Utilities
❏ Select Backup MSALGO Tables:
This option backs up MSALGO tables. This process creates a zipped file.
The Password and Verify Password fields are displayed.
Password Type a password for the file. To restore this file using the Restore MSALGO Tables utility, the user must type this password.
Verify Password Retype the password to confirm that you typed it as intended.
❏ Click Run Process.
❏ You are prompted to open or save the zipped file. Save the file in a known location.
CAUTION:
- Remember your password and the location of the saved file.
- Files saved on the same day will overwrite previously saved files.
- Place all doubleton courses:
❏ Place all doubleton courses as described previously.
CAUTION: When changing section numbers, the updated section number must be unique.
❏ Click Save.
This updates the Courses to be Placed ellipsis lookup with information about any sections that are now placed. It also automatically retrieves the next course to be placed, as determined by MSALGO.
You can save data at any time.
Next Crs to Place Click to retrieve the next course to the Course to be Placed field, which will be the first course not completely placed that has the highest priority for placement, as determined by MSALGO.
The next course to place is not accurate unless all meeting time information entered is saved.
KEEP IN MIND: You can override the suggested courses at any time. However, it is to your advantage to follow the MSALGO logic as closely as possible.
- Back up MSALGO tables again before continuing:
Before continuing, it is recommended that you back up the MSALGO tables in case you need to start over from this point.
Scheduling > Maintenance > MSALGO > Process > Utilities
❏ Select Backup MSALGO Tables:
This option backs up MSALGO tables. This process creates a zipped file.
The Password and Verify Password fields are displayed.
Password Type a password for the file. To restore this file using the Restore MSALGO Tables utility, the user must type this password.
Verify Password Retype the password to confirm that you typed it as intended.
❏ Click Run Process.
❏ You are prompted to open or save the zipped file. Save the file in a known location.
CAUTION:
- Remember your password and the location of the saved file.
- Files saved on the same day will overwrite previously saved files.
- Place all tripleton courses and so on:
❏ Place all tripleton courses as described previously, and so on.
