Texas Tech University Janessa Leisy Academic Support & Facilities Resources 806-742-3658 Version 6.0.11-1 Section Preferences The academic scheduling process in Astra Schedule begins with a careful analysis of the objectives and goals of scheduling; creating preferences that take into account these goals, is paramount to getting the most out of Astra Schedule. There are 5 available types of preferences that are used to determine possible room assignments for section records: Room Type Determines what type of room the section should be scheduled into Features room features are attributes that are a permanent part of the room. Only rooms with the required feature will be considered. Be careful! Region already set in for your user ID Building Already set to your user ID Can request a preferred building but not schedule it Room Preferred room Global Preferences New Section records are added to the Astra Schedule system every term, therefore, placing preferences at the section level would be an exercise that would have to be repeated as well. Instead it is recommended that preferences be configured at the meeting type, subject, course, and instructor levels. For the most part, these remain static term to term and after the initial configurations must only be edited to reflect changes & Additions. Meeting Types Preferences Assigning a preference to a meeting type (Lecture, Lab) narrows down the room type (Classroom, Class Laboratory) when searching for a room. Preferences set at the meeting type level are generally seen as defaults and are restricted to Room Types. These preferences are generally too generic for optimal scheduling 1. From the Configure menu select Meeting Type Preferences 2. To assign preferences to a meeting type (Lecture, Lab), select it from the list and double click, or click the Edit button
Page 2 Meeting Type Preferences Continue 3. Click in the Room Type grid to select types and set weights. See figures below. 4. After selecting the appropriate preferences, click OK to save. Subject Preferences 1. From the Configure menu select Subject Preferences 2. Select a subject from the list and double click or click the edit button 3. Click the Building grid to select the preferences and set weights 4. After selecting the appropriate preferences and setting the limit to list flag if desired, Click OK to save.
Page 3 Course Preferences The course level is the recommended area for configuring global preferences. For optimal scheduling, preferences should be set in regard to the actual needs of each course offering and not the wants of the instructors or departments. 1. From the Configure menu on the main form select Course Preferences 2. Highlight the course in the grid and double click, or click on the Edit button 3. Double click in the Meeting Types grid to select the type of section offering to set preferences. See figure below. 4. Once in the Course Preferences By Meeting Type dialog, set the proper defaults and weights. See figure below. 5. After selecting the appropriate preferences, click OK and save. 6. Repeat for each meeting type.
Page 4 Instructor Preferences It is recommended that the instructor preferences are restricted to necessary needs in order to optimize space utilization and avoid territorial scheduling; therefore, Academic Support and Facilities Resources will be in charge of Instructor Preferences. Applying Global Preferences Before the production environment goes active you will get the opportunity to enter your preferences and we will manually update the preferences for the courses/ sections. However, after that, you will have to manually apply the global preferences to sections, one at a time. A room type is required before a building and room can be assigned. You can always do them on each section; however, setting your global preferences will allow faster section scheduling, room utilization, and optimization. 1. Select the section from the main section s grid and open it for editing. 2. Section preferences can be added by clicking on the desired preference grid and adding the desired requests, or where global preferences are available by clicking on the Apply Default Preferences button. See figure below 3. Select the option and click OK
Page 5 Section Preferences Exercises I. Using the preferences worksheet (provided separately) enter global preferences for the 2 courses listed. What courses did you have? What steps did you take?