o!Exam Exam Timetable Download {STIMEEX-3}

This program is used to generate data to be used in the ITS Abacus o!exam timetable product to generate an optimised exam timetable.


To effectively use this option, the academic structure must be up-to-date , staff with active service records must exists and venue information with an indication of the number of seats available for lecturing must be defined.

A number of files are created when this program is executed. The path- and file name of each of these files can be pre-defined in {STIMEEX-6}. The field 'System' that is required in {STIMEEX-6} will in all cases be 'STUD' and each 'Function code' is given in the User Selection table below for each file.


 
User Selection Prompt Text
* an item between square brackets [ ] is the default answer 		Type
&
Length		 Comments
  Enter Academic Year for Which Data Must be Downloaded to O!time YYYY  
Enter Exam Year for Which Data Must be Downloaded to O!time YYYY
Enter Exam Month for Which Data Must be Downloaded to O!time N2
Only Extract Subjects for Which Students are Registered (Y)es/(N)o A1
Enter The File Name for the First Download File A80 Contains student registration data
Function Code: OEXDL1
Enter The File Name for the Second Download File A80 Contains exam paper data
Function Code: OEXDL2
Enter The File Name for the Third Download File A80 Contains exam venue data
Function Code: OEXDL3
Enter The File Name for the Fourth Download File A80 Contains staff detail data
Function Code: OEXDL4
 

Sort Order Per Comments
No specific sort order is applied in any of the output files.  


System Select  
  Registration Data:
  • Student number
  • Subject code
  • Campus code
  • a repeat indicator*
  • for the 
    • exam year and 
    • month entered
Exam Papers Data:
  • Campus code
  • Department description
  • Subject code
  • Subject description
  • Subject level as defined on {SACADO-10}
  • Paper type. Currently this defaults to a 'P' and is a unique attribute of the o!exam product
  • Paper number as defined in {SSTUD3-2}*. 
  • Duration of the paper
  • Unique o!exam values that defaults to NULL
    • Day
    • DayOp
    • Session1
    • SessOp
  • Paper group*
  • for the
    • exam year
    • exam month
    • student registered Yes or No
Exam Venues:
  • Campus code
  • Venue - this is a concatenated value where the 'pipe' (|) symbol separates the different fields. It consists of
    • Building
    • Floor
    • Room
    • e.g. 147|0|0021
  • Venue description. This is the description of the room.
  • Capacity. This is taken from the field indicating the number of seats available when the venue is used for exams. It can differ from the capacity when the venue is used for lecturing.
    • only venues where the capacity is greater than zero will be included
Staff Details:
  • Personnel Number
  • Surname
  • Initials
  • Title
  • of all staff with an active service record.
*Note: Please read the notes under 'Processing Rules' below


Example:

Example of {STIMEEX-3}




Processing
Rules		  
Registration Data If a student was previously registered for the subject, he/she will be indicated as a 'Repeat' student. This indicator plays an important role in the o!exam optimizer.
Exam Paper data  Exam papers
  • Exam papers are defined per exam type. It is thus possible that a subject can have multiple exam paper records. 
  • If the exams for the different exam types takes place during the same exam opportunity, the different exam type paper definitions must be exactly the same. 
  • If the definitions are not the same, duplicate records will be created in the download file. This is illogical and must be corrected.
Paper Groups
  • Papers with the same value in this group field will be scheduled in the same date and time slot
The SOD = PS/SR ‘Scheduled indicator Null’ on {SMNT-12} is used to test against the field “Schedule Paper on Exam Time Table?”..
If ‘N(o)’ and “Schedule Paper on Exam Time Table” field is NULL, the subject / paper combination will not be selected in the exam files download.
If ‘Y(es)’ and “Schedule Paper on Exam Time Table” field is NULL, the subject / paper combination will be selected in the exam files download.

See Also:
History of Changes

Date System Version By Whom Job Description
15-Oct-2008 v01.0.0.1 Phlip Pretorius
 T145483 New manual.
04-Nov-2008 v01.0.0.1 Phlip Pretorius T153785 Added processing rules
11-Jul-2014v03.0.0.0Melanie ZeelieT199840Added processing rules for SOD PS/SR
30-Mar-2015v04.0.0.0Magda van der Westhuizent205922Convert to INT4.0.
03-Feb-2016v04.0.0.0Magda van der Westhuizent199841ATOV 197843 - SOD PS / SR