SDSHOWTO:Howto...SetupPreselection

Setting up preselection

System requirements

Edit next year's subjects

All subjects available for preselection should have their preselection information fields edited and reviewed. There are three: preselection description, preselection web description, and preselection information.

Preselection description is available to students on the preselection page by clicking on the toggle subject headers. Preselection information is a one line summary of essential information about a subject that is always visible. Preselection web description is a field provided for future expansion of the system, and intended for Marketing's version of the course description that could be pulled into the main SMUS web site.

The timetable space required for each course (subject) is edited on the edit_subject page. All subjects for a department can be edited using the Add/Edit subjects link on Admin Index. These values will rollover during a year-end subject rollover.

Edit pre-selection grade/subject rules

Required packages are defined using the preseelection subject rules interface.

Subjects can be selected for grade/fee_status_type combinations with one of two flags applied: "is_required" and "is_approval_required". "Is_required" subjects will be automatically added once (as "locked") for any student in that particular grade/fee_status_type. As this happens, a PersonLog record "Preselection: Required courses added" is created with a six month expiration (so that the log does not need to be reset for the next school year). If this log record is present, the automatic addition of required subjects does not occur. This allows administration to remove required courses in exceptional circumstances when they are not applicable to a specific student.

Set the System variable ACADEMIC_PRESELECTION_START

This should be the UNIX timestamp defining the start of student access to the preselection page. This does not apply to administrators or advisors.

Set the System Variable ACADEMIC_PRESELECTION_URL

- the link to the online version of the course descriptions, such as  http://www.smus.ca/courses

Set the System Variable PRESELECTION_TIMETABLE_SPACE

Course counting is governed by a system variable PREREG_TIMETABLE_SPACE. This defines the maximum number of courses (subjects) that can be selected.

Future update: 22028 Preselection course counting and required packages

The student preselection page limits the students by counting the timetable space requirements of the selecter subjects and only allowing additional subjects to be selected if their space requirement is less than or equal to the difference between PREREG_TIMETABLE_SPACE and the sum of all subjects already selected.

The "number of selections page" (Pre-Selection: Academic Count) shows the student's fee status, the timetable space of their selections, and the date of their "Preselection: Required courses added" log record.