Scheduling Spotlight: Course Restrictions – Part 1

Welcome! Last time, we looked at how the Course tab on course records affects Scheduling. Today, our focus is the Restrictions 1 tab.

Best Practice

Before you start the scheduling process, verify the course limits defined on the Restrictions 1 tab of course records. (Need to refresh your memory about course limits? Review BB701474.)

Time-Saving Strategy

You can review the course limits for all courses at once by using the summary view of Edit Master Schedule.  Here’s how it works:

1. On the Scheduling page, click Edit master schedule.
2. On the View menu, click Summary View.
3. Review and update the values in the Classes Per Term and Class Size columns for each course.
4. The program automatically transfers your updates to the Restrictions 1 tab of course records.

Pretty cool, huh? For more information about the summary view of the Master Schedule window, review BB191330.

Why It’s a Best Practice

We recommend that you review course limits so you can avoid issues like this — “Why isn’t there enough room for all students who need to take Biology?”

For example: This year, my school has enough resources for 88 students to take Biology (4 classes of 22 students) even though last year we could only accommodate a maximum of 60 students.

If we don’t change the outdated course limits on the Biology course record (see below), automated scheduling won’t meet our expectations for enrollments. Twenty-eight students won’t get enrolled in Biology because the maximum number of seats available is 60 (3 classes of 20 students).

(For information about using Create Classes to create more classes than the defined maximum, review BB153632.)

If you schedule manually… Please don’t ignore the Restrictions 1 tab even if you don’t use the automated scheduler. Here’s how the outdated course limits in the example above affect manual scheduling:

• When you create a fourth Biology class, you’ll get a warning.

• Each time you add a student to a class that already meets the target number of students, you’ll get another warning.

So, the moral of the story is: Checking course limits on the Restrictions 1 tab of course records before you start scheduling = a happier you.

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1. In the Title field, enter the keyword Scheduling.
2. Click Search.
3. From the results list, select the self-paced online classes (aka videos) or instructor-led events that work for you.

Note: All self-paced online classes about Scheduling are free with any type of Learn subscription. Have a Learn More or Learn Everything subscription? Then, all virtual instructor-led classes about Scheduling are free, too.

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