Timetabling companies charge quite a lot for collecting student subject preferences.
Google Forms offers a simple free alternative.
For a basic example look at the Year 11 example.
For more complicated structures, look at the Year 12 example where students in the same year level have different courses or streams to choose from. In this example, the students can choose either an academic course called VCE or a more practical course called VCAL. Each course has different requirements. Other schools offer different courses like the International baccalaureate.
Once preferences are collected Schools then create elective lines to satisfy student preferences - click here to see blog on Elective line construction.
You can also collect Staff Subject Preferences.
The benefits of Google Forms:
Easy to set up.
Cut and paste all subject names & codes from spreadsheet to the Google Form.
Google Forms collects preferences in a spreadsheet format.
Spreadsheet data can be easily imported into most timetabling programs.
Automatically email, the student or someone else, a summary of what he/she has chosen.
Each entry is time/date stamped so students can change preferences at a later date.
Students can type in special requests; most timetabling systems do not allow for this.
Can force or make optional a particular choice -e.g., the student MUST choose an English subject.
Can use school login to access and verify form.
The Issues
These issues can be solved with a little java-script programming, if anyone knows how to do this and can help let me know.
The Full Subject Name will have to be converted to a subject code.
Some data checking will be necessary.
Can not apply complex rules to override student choices.
