Using Brackets with the OR Operand

Collections can be grouped together to reflect the valid course combinations available to students. By grouping course options together and displaying the relationship between these options it is possible to strictly control the course combinations available.

Using the OR operand it is possible to offer students the choice of selecting their courses from one or more course collections.

The DPT course options displayed below currently require the student to select courses from both collections as represented by the AND operand.

The following example will demonstrate how the DPT can be amended so that selections can only be made from one OR the other course collection.

When using the OR operand the course options should also be grouped together using brackets, this becomes critical when multiple operands and collections are used to ensure the rule structure of the DPT is clearly defined both visually and in system terms. See Using Brackets with Multiple Course Options

Click the Edit rule structure for options link.

The Edit Rule Structure screen will open as displayed below.

The course options for the DPT are displayed in order of sequence number. The relationship between the options is displayed in the far right Operand column, in this case the AND operand is selected.

The Open and Close Brackets columns can be used to group options together. Use the dropdown lists to place an opening bracket in sequence 040 and a closing bracket in sequence 050.

The importance of sequencing is highlighted here as only sequences that appear consecutively in the DPT can be grouped together by brackets.

The operand reflecting the relationship between the options should be updated from AND to OR using the dropdown list.

Check that both an Open and Close Bracket have been selected and that the Operand column has been updated.

Click  to commit the changes and return to the Amend DPT screen.

The course options within the brackets have been grouped together in a new box (shaded pink) and the relationship between the options updated to OR.

As students will now be required to select credits from only one of the course options the credit weighting for each option will need to be the same.

Click the Edit Collection Credits link in sequence 050.

The Edit Collection Credits screen below is displayed.

Update both the Minimum and Maximum credits for the collection to 40 and click .

If the store was successful a confirmation message will be displayed. Click the Go back to DPT to return to the Amend DPT screen.