schooltool-developers team mailing list archive

[Jen Overgaag <jovergaag@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 5:50 AM, Tom Hoffman <tom.hoffman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 1:44 AM, Jen Overgaag <jovergaag@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 4:35 PM, Tom Hoffman <tom.hoffman@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 3:15 AM, Jen Overgaag <jovergaag@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> >> The question of student enrollment into classes seems to be addressed
> >> >> in FET by aligning students into what they call subgroups  (we would
> >> >> use schooltool groups for this) and enrolling the entire subgroup
> into
> >> >> a set schedule of classes.  That assumes that students will always
> >> >> enroll in classes together in this predictable manner which
> schooltool
> >> >> can support but does not require.  The one thing that I didn't notice
> >> >> in the set of xml files that you sent us is the actual membership of
> >> >> any student in any of these subgroups.  Could you please send us an
> >> >> xml file example of a list of actual student names and their
> >> >> membership in one of these subgroups?  That will allow me to create
> an
> >> >> import of the actual students into schooltool and the classes they
> >> >> belong to.
> >> >
> >> > [JO]  From what I've seen FET does not deal with individual students.
> >> > It
> >> > only manages the groups and subgroups and will never ask you to enter
> >> > the
> >> > names of individual students.
> >>
> >> So presumably you can provide the membership of the subgroups in a
> >> separate format?
> >
> > [JO] I was hoping we could do that when importing the names of the
> students
> > into ST.  However, I just did a mass import yesterday on our existing
> system
> > and realized that there isn't a field on the import spreadsheet for
> group.
> > Is there a way to specify the group when importing XLS?
>
> I just checked -- the "groups" worksheet is a bit hidden on our big
> import spreadsheet -- it is the last one on the right.
>

[JO] Right under my nose, thank you. I had been looking for a column on the
persons worksheet.

>
> >> >> One last question for now: are you intending to move all your FET
> data
> >> >> into schooltool as a one-time thing, and then use schooltool from
> then
> >> >> on, or do you intend to use both together for the years ahead?  My
> >> >> analysis leads to the conclusion that you wouldn't need FET anymore,
> >> >> but I could have missed something.  Please advise.
> >> >
> >> > [JO]Assuming SchoolTool will continue to only support calendaring and
> >> > not
> >> > timetable generation we will need to continue with FET.  The timetable
> >> > changes drastically every term and there are minor changes every
> couple
> >> > of
> >> > weeks (due to the high staff turnover).  I had it in my mind that we
> >> > would
> >> > create a new timetable using FET every term, import, then just make
> the
> >> > minor adjustments as teachers come and go within the Schooltool
> >> > calendar.
> >>
> >> I'm a little confused about terms.  If the schedule changes
> >> dramatically at predictable points in the year, we should probably
> >> define these changes in SchoolTool as changes in term, even if we
> >> don't report them as such on report cards, etc.
> >
> > [JO] Unfortunately the dramatic changes aren't at predictable points.  A
> > staff member can leave at any time, beginning/middle/end of the term.
> For
> > the most part they will just spread that teacher's classes over the
> existing
> > staff's schedule but there are times when the whole timetable has to be
> > reworked.
>
> OK, Justas (our lead developer) is going to start working on more
> flexible timetabling which will hopefully be able to handle these
> situations.
>
> Also, Alan is wondering if you can just zip the entire results
> directory for your FET, so he's sure he's got all the relevant data.
>

[JO]The zip file I had sent before is the entire results directory.  I've
attached it again just in case.

>
> --Tom
>

Attachment: Term2_2010-single.zip
Description: Zip archive