Scheduler Scenarios and Results Overview

Overview

The Veracross Scheduler functionality is constructed around two main concepts: scenarios and results.

Scenarios

A Scenario is what stores the set of constraints you have configured in the Scheduler. Each school begins with an “Initial Scenario” that stores the constraint configuration from last year and any other constraints that may have been pre-configured in Axiom. When you log in to the Scheduler you’ll be working in the Initial Scenario to continue configuring your constraints for this year (learn more about Scheduler Constraints).

Active Scenario

The Active Scenario appears at the top of the Scenarios page and is the scenario you are currently editing constraints for. When you first log in to the Scheduler, the Initial Scenario is the only scenario available and is therefore the Active Scenario.

The Scheduler also tells you what the Active Scenario is in the upper left corner of the page from any page in the Scheduler. As you work to set up or change constraints, the Active Scenario shown at the top automatically stores those settings.

To Activate a different existing Scenario, click the  Activate button next to the Scenario’s name for the one you wish to make active.

Using Multiple Scenarios

Automatically saving changes to the Active Scenario as you go is helpful for making sure your most recent configurations are always saved. However, this makes it impossible to quickly undo a series of changes and go back to the way your constraints were configured at an earlier point. To go back to a previous configuration, you would need to manually undo each constraint change you had made since then.

Instead of manually re-tracing your steps, you can create another scenario in which to store a separate set of constraints you wish to experiment with, and keep your original constraints in tact in the Initial Scenario. This allows you to have two different sets of constraints configured in the Scheduler at the same time, and enables you to simply switch between the scenarios to use a different constraint configuration. This option prevents you from having to change all the constraint options by hand each time you want to switch back and forth between different constraint configurations.

Creating a New Scenario

To add a scenario, use the “New Scenario” button at the top of the Scenarios page. When you create a new scenario, the Scheduler copies the constraint configuration from an existing scenario so you do not start completely from scratch with no constraints set. The first time you create a new scenario, you will have to copy constraints from the Initial Scenario.

After creating a new scenario, you can switch between them on the Scenarios page by clicking the  Activate button on the scenario you want to use.

Deleting a Scenario

If you find that you no longer want to keep a Scenario you had been working on, you can delete it from the Scenarios page. This will delete all the results within that Scenario, so be sure this is something you want to do. The Scheduler will not allow you to delete a Scenario that is active.

To delete an inactive Scenario, click the Delete button on the Scenario you want to remove. This will also delete all the constraints and results within that Scenario as well.

How Many Scenarios Should You Use?

You can have as many scenarios as you like and how many different scenarios your school uses is up to you. Schools that want to try different constraint configurations may create multiple scenarios in the Scheduler so they have many ‘save points’ they can toggle back to. Other schools may find they don’t have a lot of constraint options to experiment with and will be fine tracking everything in one scenario. What works best is up to you.

Once you have a scenario configured with all the constraints you want to use, the Scenario is what you run through the Scheduler to produce your schedule, or Result.

Results

A Result is what is produced when you run the Scheduler with the scenario (i.e. set of constraints) you configured. The Result contains the class schedule records and eventually the student enrollment records that the Scheduler produced. Because a result is created whenever you run a scenario, each result belongs to a specific scenario. This helps you identify which scenario (i.e. set of constraints) you ran to produce that result. Each Scenario can be run multiple times, which means each Scenario can also have multiple Results.

Active Result

Similar to the Active Scenario, the Active Result is the result you are currently editing schedule or enrollment data for. The Active Result number appears in the Results tab at the top of the page and you can switch the Active Result from the Results menu by clicking activate next to the one you want to use.

Any changes you make to class schedules or student enrollments are contained only within this Active Result. However, if you wish to save any class schedules or student enrollments for future results, you can do so by locking them to the Template Result.

Template Results

Before ever running the Scheduler, each Scenario will have an existing “Template” result. The Template Result is what the Scheduler uses to store class schedule and enrollment data that you have locked. Any records that are stored in the Template Result will automatically be copied to any subsequent results within that scenario. Because you can have different sets of constraints across Scenarios, each Scenario has its own Template Result to store any class schedules or enrollment records that are locked for that Scenario.

Each time you create a new Scenario and copy the constraints from an existing Scenario, you will also have the option to copy the Template Records of that Scenario as well. If you choose to “Include Template Records” when creating your new Scenario, all the locked records in your existing Scenario will be copied in to the Template Result on the new Scenario.

When finalizing your schedules, or enrolling students, the Template result doesn’t have any ability to “Schedule Classes,” “Enroll Students,” or Commit to the database. This is because the Template is simply that: a Template for the results in that scenario. The subsequent results in a scenario, not the Template, are where activity in scheduling, enrolling, or committing to the database occur.

Editing Template Results

The Template Result on a Scenario can be edited at any time. Whenever class schedule or enrollment records are locked, they are automatically added to the Template Result and will be copied to any subsequent results that are run in the scenario.

To delete a few existing template records, you can unlock records individually from either the class or student screen. You can also clear all class schedule records or all student enrollment records from the Template Result page of the scenario. To delete all class schedules from the Template Result, click the “Clear Schedule Templates” button. To remove all locked class enrollment records from the Template Result, click the “Unlock All Enrollments” button.