Session Group and Class

This page will discuss the Session Group and Class fields when creating a Paradigm Session event type in Rapla and when to use them.

Overview

Coding Paradigm Sessions can become complicated if you want to offer session options or enforce predefined session enrolment combinations options to a Scheduled Unit, e.g. choose to enrol between morning or afternoon sessions, etc. Paradigm supports this particular business requirement, however, we would strongly advise you to let us know first if ever you will decide to use the Session Group and Session Class in adding Paradigm Session to your Scheduled Units as discussed in this knowledge article.

NOTE:

When creating sessions with the group and class number values in Rapla with multiple appointments, and you don’t want the student to attend ALL of the appointment series in that session/event, you have to make sure that each unique group and class number combination is created as one Paradigm Session/Event. Each new appointment created within a session/event will inherit the group and class number values being set for that session/event, see Use Multiple Appointments.

WARNING:

Doing a resync to your sessions can have implications on your previously imported data. Learn more about the level of impact your changes can do when you do a resync of your sessions to Paradigm in this article: Change Event.

We would highly recommend that you only import your sessions once everything is finalised.

Session Class

The Session Class is used to limit what a user may select when enrolling in sessions. The restrictions work in two layers:

1. Selecting a Session Class will also select all other sessions that share the same Session Class value.

2. When a Session Group AND a Session Class are both sets, then the user must select one and only one session, from each group – and will auto-select all the other sessions that share the same Class value of the session group selected.

The use of Session Class simplifies the process of selecting a suitable, non-clashing set of sessions. It is especially useful when there is a need to define a pairing or set of sessions consisting of multiple Session Groups where you want to enforce predefined session enrolment combinations.

We recommend starting the Session Class value with the digit 1, incrementing it by 1 for each new Session Class.

NOTE:

Paradigm makes an important assumption that ALL sessions where the Session Class IS NOT SET are compulsory enrolments.

Session Group

The Session Group is used when there are multiple session types or session sets associated with the same scheduled unit. Assigning a Session Group will visually group the sessions when viewed from within Paradigm. When used together with Session Class it is possible to prevent users from enrolling on more than one session from each defined Session Group.

One way of grouping sessions is by session type. Examples of common session group types include Lecture, Tutorial, Workshop, Seminar, etc. It is also possible to use Session Group to group a set of sessions with different types or of the same type and in which you would only allow a student to select one and only one session from each set.

We recommend starting the Session Group value with the digit 1, incrementing it by 1 for each new Session Group.

NOTE:

When the Session Class IS SET but the Session Group is BLANK, then Paradigm will assume that there is an implicit Session Group value of 1.

Paradigm Sample Enrolment (Class Times) Screen

In Paradigm Course Plan/Enrolment User Interface, when Session Group and Session Class are used, the following will come into play:

Sample Sessions Group Number and Class Number Values Coded in Rapla/Paradigm:

Session Type	Session Schedule	Group Number	Class Number
Lecture 1	Monday (09:00 AM - 11:00 AM)	1	1
Lecture 2	Wednesday (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM)	1	2
Workshop 1	Tuesday (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM)	2	1
Workshop 2	Thursday (9:00 AM - 12:00 AM)	2	2

Based on the sample coded groups and classes values table above, it will render an enrolment screen the same as the screenshot below, when a student selects the Monday Lecture, it will automatically select the Tuesday Workshop as both belong to the same Class 1. The same goes for the Wednesday Lecture, it will automatically select the Thursday Workshop as both belong to the same Class 2.

And since you only want the student to select only either the Monday or Wednesday lecture, you group the Monday and Wednesday lectures as 1 and the workshops as 2.

Note the logic behind the grouping and class, the grouping is designed to limit the student’s selection to only one of the groups being defined, and whichever of the session from the group being selected will auto-select the session with the same class number of the session group selected.

Refer to our Session Group and Session Class scenarios next and see how they would apply to your business or institution’s requirements.