APDL Eductation Resources/APDL Eductation Resources.iso/programs/admin/studentrec/StudrecDoc/Block

Text File | 1992-10-21 | 19.0 KB | 389 lines

This is the user manual for !Block. It is based on the Helpreader system
which makes it much easier to use than an ordinary text file. Throughout the
text you will find buttons like this @%start#.  Clicking with SELECT on
these buttons takes you directly to related parts of the manual. To return
to your original position, double-click with ADJUST anywhere in the text.
HelpReader remembers the last 8 positions. Clicking MENU in this window
allows you to choose the topic which interests you and go  straight to it.

                      (@%helpreader# More about Helpreader)
@#purpose

                                   !Block

!Block is able to do the following things:

   (1) Place students in teaching blocks in an optimum fashion, i.e.
      "block" the students (hence the name).
   (2) Allow yu to rectify "failed" blockings by on-screen editing.
   (3) Assign students to tutors in a sensible way.
   (4) Display the numbers of students in teaching groups and tutor groups.
   (5) Display actual lists of the students in all such groups.
   (6) Split a large group into an 'A' and a 'B' group within the same
       block (and also reverse the process if you wish).
   (7) Produce individual timetables for students.
   (8) Transfer each and every kind of displayed output either to a text
       file or directly to the printer.
@#start

                                 Starting up

  (a) If !Block is already running (i.e. if its icon appears on the icon
      bar) simply drag the required database from the directory window and
      "drop" it on the !Block icon.

  (b) If !Block is not running, double-click on its icon in the directory
      window.  Wait for the !Block icon to appear on the icon bar then
      proceed as in (a).

After entering your password in the usual way, you will be presented with a
small window which invites you to select the number of blocks to be used.
This is the number of blocks which !Block will read from the student file.
The number actually looked at when blocking the file may be less than this.

For instance, if you are using !Block to get information about group sizes
or to print timetables, you probably want to read all the blocks in the
database. This value (currently 7) is offered as a default and you need only
click on 'OK'. If doing an actual blocking on a new intake you will only be
concerned with the first five blocks at most; perhaps even the first four.
This is just as well since blocking slows down dramatically as the number
of blocks increases. To block with 5 blocks takes 5 times as long as with 4.
For 6 blocks the time is 6 times as long as for 5, and for 7 blocks the time
is 7 times as long as for 6! If you ARE blocking and happen to enter 6 or 7
at this initial stage it doesn't matter because you will be offered the
choice again when you select 'Block students' from the menu.

Once !Block knows how many blocks you wish to know about it will read the
database and create, in memory, a list of the students in Subfile 0. It is
assumed that only the records in subfile 0 are of interest to the user of
!Block.  The hourglass shows the progress of this read operation. When
completed, the student list, showing names, subjects taken and tutors is
displayed in a window. Saving and printing this list are described below.

@#save
                    Saving and printing displayed data

To save the data displayed in a window in !Block click MENU with the mouse
pointer over the window. The menu displayed varies in complexity from one
window to another, but one entry usually leads to a 'Save' box. In some
cases there will be nothing else except the 'Save' box. The writable icon
in the 'Save' box offers a sensible default file name and simply typing
RETURN or clicking the OK button with SELECT will save the data as a text
file under that name in the 'PrintJobs' subdirectory of the database's
application directory. You may delete the name up to the last full-stop
(but not the full-stop itself), type a new name and save it in 'PrintJobs'
using RETURN or SELECT on OK. You may also delete the entire contents of the
writable icon with CTRL-U then enter a new name and drag the icon, using
SELECT, to any filer window.

The above paragraph describes the standard RISC OS method of saving a file.
If it is already familiar to you it will come as no surprise to learn that
you can drag the file icon straight to the printer icon (if the latter is
displayed on the icon-bar) for immediate printing. Text files saved on disc,
e.g. in 'PrintJobs' can be dragged out of their directories to the printer
icon. Note that there is also an item, 'Show jobs done', on the main menu to
display the 'PrintJobs' directory.

The only case where saving is a little different is in the case of
validation tables @%table#. These MUST be saved to a specific place in the
database application and !Block therefore gives you no choice in the matter,
providing merely the word 'Save' when you open a menu over such a table.


@#edit
                             Editing the list

The first item on the menu varies according to where the mouse pointer is
when you click MENU. If you are pointing at a student's name, or at the
blank space after the name, the entry will say <null> and will probably be
greyed out as well. When you click over a subject or tutor code however,
that code appears in the menu item. A right arrow leads to a writable
sub-menu item into which a different code (or no code at all) may be
entered. On typing RETURN or clicking with SELECT the old code is replaced
by the new. Group totals @%total# are automatically updated, as you will see if
you make such changes with the 'Group sizes' window for subjects or tutors
open.

@#subblock
                             Subject blocking

This entry leads to a sub-menu which gives access to the blocking routine
itself ('Do blocking' @%block#) and to choices which will display various types of
information in separate windows - the Group sizes @%total#, Block weightings @%weight#
and Problem cases @%problem#. The latter will be greyed out if you have just read
the database but not blocked it yet.

@#total
Group sizes

Selecting this menu choice opens another window over the first. The
appearance of the two windows is rather similar but, instead of a list of
student names, it contains a list of subject names. Under the block headings
are the numbers of students in each block, a final column giving the grand
total for each subject. If the file has never been blocked @%block# these numbers
will have little meaning. If the file has been blocked, a zero in a column
probably means that the subject is not available in that block. If a subject
has two teaching groups in the same block, e.g. BL1A and BL1B, their numbers
are added together to give a single number for BL1. The total for each
subject is also given in an extra column headed ALL.

If you point to any of the numbers in the table and click MENU you can
choose to print a list of the students making up the relevant total. This
list will appear in yet another window and takes the same form as the main
file-list which you saw first.

@#weight
Block weightings

This choice displays a window very similar to the one used for the group
sizes @%total# except that the numbers under the block headings are likely to
all be either 0 or 500. A value of 0 means that the relevant subject is
offered in that block, a value of 500 means that it isn't. The blocking
routine @%block# makes use of these weightings and there are occasions when
you may find it advantageous to alter them yourself, e.g. to change the
blocks in which a subject is available.  To do this, point the mouse at the
number you wish to change and click MENU. A short menu appears, the first
item of which indicates the subject and block which you have pointed to.
Moving the pointer over the right-pointing arrow takes you to a writeable
menu item which shows the current weighting. Type in the new value and then
either click SELECT or press RETURN. To allow a block which was previously
unavailable, change 500 to 0. To prohibit a previously available block
change 0 to 500.

There is another reason why you might want to alter the weightings, but this
is left for later discussion @%double#.

@#block
Do blocking

Choosing this option starts the blocking process without further ado, but it
should be noted that the changes which result from it affect ONLY THE LIST
IN MEMORY. The actual DISC DATABASE will not be changed until you choose the
'Write to database' option from the menu. You may therefore experiment with
different block-availabilities @%weight# without doing anything irrevocable.

You may continue with other jobs whilst blocking is in progress. As long as
the mouse pointer is over the small green window the hourglass keeps you
informed of how much of the job has been completed. When the blocking is
complete the window will be redrawn. You will then see that most of the
student entries are printed in blue. These are the ones which have been
successfully blocked. Where blocking has failed the entry will be in red.

@#problem
Show problems

This option gives a list of those students for which blocking failed. The
reason for failure can always be traced to a combination of subjects which
simply cannot be timetabled. The commonest instances of this are of two
single-block subjects which occur in the same block or two double-block
subjects in the same pair of blocks together with a third subject offered
only in one of these blocks. Place the Problems window and either the
Weightings window or Subject validation table @%table# side-by-side on the screen
and try to find the errors. Corrections may be made by editing in the main
window @%edit# (not the 'Problems' window) and might involve removing a
subject or changing it for an acceptable alternative (e.g. ELL in place of
ELI or MAT in place of MST). When you think you have solved all the
anomalies you might wish to write the blocked data back to the database
@%update#. On the other hand, you might want to assign tutors first @%tutor#.

@#double
                        Double groups in the same block

A group which is too large may be split (subject to availability of staff
and rooms) and !Block will do this for you. The method of listing the
students in a group has already been described @%total#. The menu which may be
opened over the resulting window contains an option to 'Split group'. If you
choose this, the window will be redrawn after a short delay and will now
display the list split into two halves. The split is performed by assigning
students alternately to the two sub-groups. When the data is sent back to
the database @%update# the upper half of the list will be written to the 'A'
block and the lower to the 'B' block. If you use !Block to read a database
which already contains such split groups you will find that they are
recognized as such when you display the group as described, even though the
two sub-group totals are lumped together in the 'Group sizes' table.

Once a group is split the 'Split group' menu entry is greyed out, but the
'Join halves' entry is enabled instead so that you can undo the split if
you wish. Please note that groups splits will be "forgotton" if the file
is re-blocked.

If you have 30 students applying for a single block subject there is no
problem since the situation can be handled as just described. A more complex
situation occurs where students taking a TWO-block subject have to be split
into THREE groups. Suppose, for example, that Psychology is offered in
blocks 1 and 2 and there are 48 students taking it. It is decided that block
1 will contain two groups (BL1A and BL1B), and block 2 will contain one
group. We want these three groups to be roughly equal in size.

!Block, however, knows nothing of your special intentions with regard to
block 1. As far as it is concerned there are 48 students to distribute as
evenly as possible between blocks 1 and 2. You will therefore end up with
about 24 in each block, whereas what we require is 32 in block 1 (to be
split later into A and B groups) and 16 in block 2. To achieve this we must
fool !Block into favouring block 1 over block 2. This can be done by
altering the intial weighting of Psychology block 2 from 0 to about 16
BEFORE we attempt the actual blocking. !Block then thinks that block 2
already contains 16 students, i.e. that it has to deal with 64 students
instead of 48. It will attempt to distribute these so that you have 32 in
each block. The 32 in block 1 will all be real, but only 16 of the  block 2
students are real - the other 16 are figments of your imagination. When you
display the totals after blocking only the numbers of real students are
shown!

Similar considerations apply when fitting 4 groups to a three-block subject
or 5 groups to a four-block subject. Two examples follow.

(1) 68 Physics students to be placed in blocks 1, 2 and 3. Block 2 is to
    ====================================================================
    contain 2 groups.
    =================
    There are 4 groups altogether, therefore the average group size is 17.
    The ideal numbers in the three blocks are 17, 34 and 17 respectively.
    Set the weightings of each ofblocks 1 and 3 to 17 before blocking.

(2) 80 Mathematics students to be placed in blocks 1, 2, 3 and 4. Block 3
    =====================================================================
    is to contain 2 groups.
    =======================
    There are 5 groups, giving an average groups size of 16.
    Ideal block numbers are 16, 16, 32 and 16 respectively.
    Set weightings of each of blocks 1, 2 and 4 to 16 before blocking.

The above procedures will not always yield the best results. It may be
necessary to bias !Block further by increasing the weightings beyond the
values given.

@#tutor
                              Tutor groups

Once all students are in the right subject blocks they must be assigned to
course tutors. Before !Block can do this for you it is necessary to complete
the 'Tutors' validation table @%table#. This contains a row for each tutor in
the year, the data in each row consisting of the following:

    (a) The staff code for the tutor
    (b) A single letter code specifying the tutor's type of work. The codes
        used are:
                  A   Arts & Humanities A-level
                  C   Creative Arts
                  H   Health Studies (BTEC)
                  M   Lancashire Music Foundation
                  S   Science & Maths A-level

    (c) The maximum size allowed for the tutor group
    (d) The classes taught in the relevant year. Class codes take the
        form CHE4A, COM3B etc. A space or some such separator must be
        left between classes.

Assign tutors

This will allocate students to tutors according to the following rules,
which are applied in the order stated. A student taking CHE, BIO and GEO is
used as an illustration.

(1) Student is basically a science student. Therefore, are any of the tutors
his CHE or BIO teacher?  This would be the favoured choice, provided the
maximum group size wouldn't be exceeded.

(2) If we can't give him one of his science teachers as a tutor, what about
his GEO teacher?

(3) If he can't be placed with any of his own subject teachers, is there
another teacher of CHE or BIO who is a tutor?

(4) If not, is there another GEO teacher who is a tutor?

(5) if we still haven't placed this student, put him in the smallest of the
Science/Maths tutor groups.

'Problem cases' (if any) are displayed exactly as for subject blocking @%problem#.
Group sizes may be displayed in a small window of their own and a click with
MENU over any line will list the students in that group, just like it does
for subject groups @%total#. Tutors may be changed @%edit# and the changing totals
will be automatically updated in the 'Group totals' window.

@#table
                            Validation tables

This option on the main menu allows you to display most of the validation
tables used by !Block. As always, when a program is able to display a
validation table the user is able to edit and save it (subject to having the
appropriate password). The menu produced by clicking MENU over the Subject
list contains an entry to 'Update weightings'. You MUST choose this if
changes made here to the blocking are to be reflected in the weightings and
therefore used when the students are blocked. Validation tables can also
usually be sorted.


@#update
                             Write to database

When you have blocked the students in a satisfactory way and solved all the
problems you will want to finalise the blocking by writing the blocked data
back to the database. When you choose this option you will be asked to
confirm that this is really what you wish to do.

@#time
                              Print timetables

@%one# individual
@%group# tutor groups
@%all# everyone

@#one
If you point the mouse pointer at a name in the student list, click MENU
and then follow the right arrow from the Print timetables entry you will
find the name of the chosen student at the top of the new submenu. Clicking
on this will generate the timetable and display it in a window, from which
it may be saved and printed @%save#. An easier method is simply to point at the
name in the list and double-click with SELECT.

@#group
The second option on the timetables submenu allows you to print the time-
tables for all students in a tutor group. Simply type in the tutor code and
click OK. A single file is created containing all the relevant timetables.
If you enter ALL instead of a tutor code then the file will contain sets
of timetables for all tutors. The List codes button will show you who the
tutors are and what are their codes.

When sent to the printer the timetables are printed two to an A4 page. If
a file contains ALL tutor groups and a group contains an odd number of
students timetable for the last student in the group will be on a page by
itself so that distributing the timetables to tutors doesn't involve
cutting pages.

@#all
Timetables for all the students in the year, in alphabetical order, can be
produced by choosing 'Everyone in file' from the timetables submenu. The
timetables will, when sent to the printer, appear two to an A4 page.

@#closedown
                                 Closing down

Open the icon-bar menu by clicking MENU over the !Block icon.  If you have
finished with !Block choose 'Quit'.  If, however, you have work to do using
another database choose 'Close database' instead.

@#credits
*************************************************************************

 Interface Manager 2.00
 © Simon Huntingdon

 Provides 'three dimensional' icons. Interface Manager is Public Domain and
 is not part of !Block.

*************************************************************************

 Sliding Heap 2.00
 © Steven Haslam

 The Sliding Heap Manager is Public Domain and is not part of !Block.
 Details are available from 'Heap Support' at the address below.

*************************************************************************

 !Block version 3.00
 © Derek Haslam