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Overview
The Course Distribution Report shows you how spread out the sections of each course are and is used to help judge the quality of your class schedules. The more spread out your sections, the fewer enrollment conflicts you’ll have and the higher the quality of your schedule.
The report shows you how spread out your classes are by finding the fewest number of sections that can be scheduled per block for a given course. For example, if you have ten sections in a course, and ten blocks in your schedule, the fewest number of classes you can schedule in a block for this course is 1.0 – one class per block. On the other hand, if you have ten classes in a given course, but only five blocks in your schedule, the fewest number of sections you can schedule in a block for this course 2.0 – two sections per block.
Averages
The top of the report shows you three averages: Average Classes per Block, Target Average and the Difference. These numbers can be used to help quickly compare how spread out your classes are between Results.
Average Classes per Block: The average of the Classes Per Block column which shows you how spread out all your sections are across all courses. Individual courses may be more or less spread out that this, but on average, this is how spread out the classes in this Result are. The value of this number on its own is irrelevant, but ideally this number should be close to the Target Average.
Target Average: The average of the Target Classes Per Block column which tells you the most spread out all of your classes could be across all courses. Individual courses may have a larger or smaller targets, but on average this is the goal for how spread out you classes should be in this Result. If this number is greater than one, it means some courses have more sections than there are blocks in your schedule. It does not mean the quality of your result is low or high.
Difference: How far off the Average Classes per Block is from the Target Average. The smaller this number is, the closer your average is to the target and the higher the quality of your Result. If the Difference were zero, all your classes are perfectly spread out.
Individual Courses
In addition to the averages, the report lists out how well spread out each course’s sections are.
Course: The name of the course
Classes: How many sections the course has to schedule
Classes Per Block: The number of classes that were scheduled in to a block. This number on its own does not tell you how well the sections of the course are spread out, but should be compared to the Target Classes Per Block number. Ideally these two numbers should be the same.
Target Classes Per Block: The most spread out the classes of this course could be and the goal for scheduling your classes*. If this number is greater than 1.0, it means there are more sections in this course than there are blocks in your schedule. It does not mean the quality of your schedule is low.
*Note: The target classes per block number does not take in to account constraints you may have set that strictly limit which blocks courses can be scheduled during. This number only looks at the absolute number of blocks that are available in the Scheduler.
Graph
The bar graph is green if the Classes Per Block is equal to the target. Otherwise, the blue area shows where the target graph should be, and the red is how far beyond the target the value is. Courses that have more blue than red in the bar graph were spread out fairly well when compared to the target. Courses that have more red than blue were not spread out well at all when compared to the target.