How to allocate elective subjects to students

Most subjects are taken by the whole class. Some, such as a third language or a skill subject, are taken by only some students. If the system treated those as compulsory, students who never studied the subject would show up on its marks sheet, in the "marks missing" count and in their results. Marking the subject as an elective and choosing who takes it removes all three problems. It takes about fifteen minutes for a class.

This guide covers the web dashboard.

Before you start

• The subject must already exist, have its marking set up, and be taught in the class. If it is not, do that first on the Subjects page.
• You need permission to manage subjects to mark a subject as an elective, and permission to edit students to choose who takes it. Without the second one you can still open the Electives tab, but it is read-only and shows a View only badge.
• Do this before marks are entered if you can. It is still safe afterwards, because the system asks before deleting any marks (see Step 4).

Step 1 — Mark the subject as an elective

Go to Classes and open the class (click its name). Open the Subjects tab. Each subject has an Elective switch. Switch it on for every subject that only some students take in this class.

You can also do this from the Subjects page, where each class a subject is taught in has an Elective box. A class where the subject is not Taught has no box there. Tick Taught first.

Step 2 — Confirm the warning

Switching Elective on asks you to confirm:

Everyone currently in the class is enrolled in it. Un-tick the students who don't take it on the electives screen.

That is deliberate. Turning a subject into an elective does not change anything for anyone until you say otherwise, and no marks already entered disappear. You will remove the students who don't take it in the next step. Click Make elective. The class's Electives tab then opens, with that subject's column in view.

On the Subjects page, Review and save lists what the change touches before anything is written. A subject that you tick as an elective at the same moment you make it Taught in a class starts with nobody enrolled instead.

The Elective cell in the Subjects tab now shows how many students are enrolled, for example "38 of 38 enrolled", with a Choose students link to that subject's column.

If you later switch Elective off, you are asked to confirm that its enrolments are removed and every student takes the subject again.

Step 3 — Choose who takes each elective

Open the class's Electives tab. It appears when the class has an elective, or when you are allowed to make one. You can also reach it from the Electives item in the menu on the class's row in Classes, or from a link in the Subjects & report card window.

The tab is a grid. Each row is a student, with roll number and name, and each column is an elective. Each column heading shows how many students are enrolled out of the class size, such as "14 / 38".

• Tick a box to enrol a student in that elective, and un-tick it to remove them.
• Use the tick box in a column heading, Select all for the subject, to enrol or remove everyone currently shown. Search first, and it applies only to the students you found.
• Type in Search students to find a student by name or roll number.
• Click Not allocated to any elective to list the students who take none. Students who are admitted into the class later also appear here, because new students start with the compulsory subjects only.

A column with nobody enrolled says Nobody takes this yet. Nothing is saved while you tick boxes. A banner counts your unsaved changes, and Discard clears them.

Only active students appear. Whoever is in the class when you open the tab is who you allocate.

To change one student's electives without the grid, open the class's Students tab. The Electives column shows what each student takes, and the pencil on a row opens their electives to tick and save with the same review.

Step 4 — Review and save the allocation

Click Review and save. The list shows each student added or removed, for example "Aarav Mehta takes Sanskrit". Click Save changes. Only the students you changed are sent, so another person allocating the same class at the same time does not overwrite your work.

Two things can hold a removal back:

• The student already has marks in that subject. The list shows how many marks entries would be deleted. Click Delete these marks and save if you are sure, or Back to keep them.
• Those marks are in a published exam. The message names the exam, and the removal cannot go ahead. Keep the student enrolled, or unpublish the exam first from its page.

Step 5 — Check marks entry and results

Open Marks Entry or the exam's Marks tab for an elective. The subject is tagged (elective) in the list, and the table lists only the students who take it. The counter reads "of 14 enrolled students entered". If nobody is enrolled yet you see No students are enrolled in this elective, with a Choose who takes it link. A mark for a student who is not enrolled is refused when you save.

In the exam's Overview, an elective's cell counts against the students enrolled in it, so it is never short of students who do not take the subject. A subject with nobody enrolled shows No students enrolled instead of a progress count.

In results, a subject a student does not take is not listed for them. It is not a zero and not a fail, and it is left out of their total, percentage, pass or fail, and rank. Tables show a dash where a student has no entry. Ranks compare percentages, so students who take different electives are still ranked together.

Students, promotion and class changes

• A student's page has an Electives card listing what they take, with an Edit link into the class's Electives tab for that student.
• When you promote students, Carry electives over to the new class is off by default. Tick it to keep each student's electives wherever the new class offers the same subject as an elective. After promotion, a message links to the new class's Electives tab if it has any.
• Electives belong to a class. If you move a student to another class in Students, the form warns you that they will have none allocated in the new class, and a link after saving takes you to the grid.

Common problems

There is no Elective switch or box. On the Subjects page the subject is not Taught in that class. On the class's Subjects tab you do not have permission to manage subjects, so the column is read-only.

The Electives tab says "This class has no elective subjects". No subject is marked as an elective for the class yet. If you are allowed to make one, the tab lists the class's subjects with a Make elective button on each. Otherwise ask someone who can manage subjects.

A new student is not on any elective's marks sheet. New students start with the compulsory subjects only. Find them under Not allocated to any elective and tick the electives they take.