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A. Automatic creation of Pathways
The Programme of Study ME41FY1S1 has the following structure
| Mandatory (Core) Modules |
Optional (Elective) Modules
Students pick one of these
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CEB109
MMB131
PCB136 |
MAB131
MAB180 |
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We expect 150 students to enrol in this Programme of Study.
80 students will take the MAB131 option, and 70 will take the MAB180
option
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| Menu Access: Scheduling, Pathways |
- Click on the Programme tab.
- Select the POS to work with
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This example uses ME41Y1S1.
The numbers in the "Plan" column come from the Size box in the
Module screen.
The numbers in the "real" column will be created, and incremented,
as soon as people start to create their student sets. |
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- Click on the Generate Option Combinations button
- Enter the number of options that students have to select.
- Click on the OK button
Provided the number of pathways is manageable, accept the suggested
number.
If the suggested number appears excessive, follow the procedures on
page 5 of this section.
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We enter 1. This will generate 2 Pathways |
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- Click on the first pathway.
- Enter in the Size box the number of students expected to take
this combination of modules.
- Look at the Required Sets number.
- If sets are required, click on the Generate button.
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Two pathways have been created. Each is also a student set.
We expect 80 students in Pathway 1.
Notice how the Set Size box shows the value 20, and the Max. Set
Size value is 20. The Max.Set Size is the smallest activity template
size of any module within the pathway. Syllabus Plus has checked our Activity
Templates and found that the smallest activity template among the three
selected modules is 20.
Syllabus Plus tells us that we need to generate 3 sets in addition to the
already created pathway. |
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3 additional Students Sets have been generated. There are
now four Student Sets altogether, including the pathway |
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Click on the next Pathway in the list.
- Enter in the Size box the number of students expected to take
this combination of modules.
- Look at the Required Sets number.
- If sets are required, click on the Generate button.
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We expect 70 students in the second Pathway.
Notice how the Set Size box shows the value 20, and the Max. Set
Size value is 20. The Max.Set Size is the smallest activity template
size of any module within the pathway.
Syllabus Plus has checked our Activity Templates and found that the smallest
activity template among the three selected modules is 20.
Syllabus Plus tells us that we need to generate 3 sets. |
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Continue until all Pathways have been examined.
In some cases, you won't need to generate any additional Student Sets ie
a single pathway for each module combination may be sufficient.
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All of our required Student Sets have now been generated. We have 8 altogether.
Pathway
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ME41FY1S1/01 |
ME41FY1S1/02 |
| Student Sets |
ME41FY1S1/01
ME41FY1S1/03
ME41FY1S1/04
ME41FY1S1/05 |
ME41FY1S1/02
ME41FY1S1/06
ME41FY1S1/07
ME41FY1S1/08 |
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Automatic generation of option combinations works best when there are either
- only a few optional modules for the Programme of Study, or
- when a student must take a large proportion of the optional modules.
In these situations Syllabus Plus generates a manageable number of pathway
combinations.
However, when a student is required to take only a few modules from a large
list of options, it may be better to create the common pathways manually (see
next instructions) than to use the Generate Option Combination
method.
B. Manual creation of Pathways
The Programme of Study HS07Y3S2 has the following structure
| Mandatory (Core) Modules |
Optional (Elective) Modules
Students pick 2 of these |
HSB320
HSB322 |
HSB321
HSB323
HSB324
HSB325
HSB326
HSB327
HSB328
PYB208
PYB257 |
| We expect 120 students to enrol in this program. |
| Menu Access: Scheduling, Pathways |
- Click on the Programme tab
- Select the POS to work with
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This example uses HS07Y3S2.
If we used Generate Option Combinations to create pathways
automatically for this POS, we would have 36 of them. That is too many,
so we will create them manually
The numbers in the "Plan" column come from the Size box in the
Module screen.
The numbers in the "real" column will be created, and incremented,
as soon as people start to include modules in their student sets. |
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| Click in the Include Mandatory box to display a tick.
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Selecting this box removes the mandatory modules from view
in the list.
All pathways you create now will automatically include the mandatory modules.
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Now proceed to create pathways comprising the most popular module combinations.
- Select the modules
- Enter the number of students expected to take the selected combination
in the Size box
- Click on the Create Pathway button
The pathway will be created, and Syllabus Plus will advise if you need
any additional student sets.
- Click on the Generate button to create extra student sets if required.
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The most popular combination will be
HSB321 and HSB324. We expect 30 students to take these.
The Max. Set Size is 20, and we have said that 30 students will take
this combination. Therefore, the system tells us that we need 1 extra set.
The Max.Set Size is the smallest activity template size of any module
within the pathway.
Click on the Generate button. |
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Syllabus Plus recalculates and gives us two student sets of
15 students each. |
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| Proceed to create additional pathways of the most popular module combinations |
The next most popular combination will be HSB321 and HSB325. We expect
20 students to take these.
(Remember, the Mandatory modules are automatically included because the
Include Mandatory box is still ticked)
This still satisfies the Max. Set Size criteria, so no further sets
are required. |
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When you have created all of the pathways
- Click on the Include Mandatory box to turn this off
- Check that your "real" numbers are not too greatly different
from your "plan" numbers.
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Clicking on the Include Mandatory box to remove the
tick shows all of the modules, including the mandatory ones.
Note that some modules may have a yellow exclamation mark beside them. This
is a warning that you have estimated that there will be more students taking
the module than the module size. You may wish revise your student set sizes
in these situations. |
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Rules for Pathways and Student Sets
Pathways and Student sets protect our students from clashes. They ensure that
students enrolled in a program can attend all activities for all modules in
that program. We try to ensure that students in a standard program have
a clash free pathway.
- Every Programme of Study must have at least one student set
- The optimum size of a student set should be a multiple of 5. Sets of 5 and
10 are ideal.
- The size of any student set must be equal to, or less than, the smallest
activity for any module in the student set ie student sets must be equal to
or smaller than the smallest class size. For example, if module ABC987 has
a lecture with 100 students, tutorials with 25 and practicals with 10, your
student sets must not exceed 10 in size.
- Less is best! Concentrate on creating a few quality student sets rather
than trying to cater for every possible combination of modules. For example,
if part time courses comprise the same (but fewer) modules as full time courses,
they don't need pathways.
- When the timetable has been prepared, do not turn off student sets.
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Remember:
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When we are developing our timetable
for the coming semester EVERYONE must be finished their student sets before
we can proceed to the next stage.
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