Result Conflicts

When teachers are working on offline files at the same time as changes are being made in the database by Accelerus administrators, subject coordinators, or other teachers, there is always the potential that database changes will impact upon the work being done by teachers. Therefore, when teachers synchronise, data they have entered since their last synchronisation may conflict with the database.

For example, the Accelerus administrator may have changed a marking scheme for an assessment item, thereby now making the result the teacher had added invalid. Or the one result for a particular student might have been changed by the teacher in the offline file and the subject coordinator also changed it in the database, but the results conflict.

Invalid data will not be updated into the Accelerus database, and where more than one value for the same result is encountered, the database cannot store both. Therefore, some results are not going to be kept when the teacher synchronises.

So that data is not lost without a trace, these types of situations are checked for by the Synchroniser and, where conflicts are encountered:

•	The teacher is informed in the Synchronisation Log that appears at the end of the synchronisation of their offline file, and

•	An entry is made into the database's Result Conflicts table which may be accessed by the Accelerus administrator via the Result Conflict Explorer.

Res ResultConflictExplorerNumbers

The Result Conflict Explorer has all of the standard exploring and selection features of all Explorer windows. Aspects of the Result Conflict Explorer and features that are peculiar to it are outlined below:

Feature

The result conflicts reported in the Explorer are those for subjects that belong to the displayed academic cycles in the Explorer's title bar.

Even if the synchronisation occurred in one cycle but the subject belonged to another, eg a semester 1 subject contained the conflict, but the offline file was not synchronised until semester 2, the conflict will appear only when the semester 1 cycle is selected. As seen above, some results were modified in 2012, but they belonged to a subject from 2011.

Apart from the standard entity fields such as the subject, class and assessment item code of the result, the Result Conflict table contains several other fields of information about the result, including:

•	The code of the teacher who modified the result and whose results was not kept.

•	A Reason column that summarises why the result was not synchronised and, therefore, was sent to the Result Conflicts table.

•	The date and time that the result was changed.

•	The entered value of the result.

All of the columns in the Explorer may be searched, sorted, and rearranged, as with all other Explorers.

All of the table row selection procedures may be used in the Explorer, in order that rows may be either exported to a CSV file or deleted.

Should a school need to retrieve results that were not synchronised back into the Accelerus database, eg assessment items were modified or deleted in error, students were removed from classes rather than withdrawn, etc, they may do so by highlighting the rows they require and then clicking the Export CSV file icon.

The CSV file that is produced has the correct format of a result CSV file that may be imported into Accelerus via the Import CSV Files window, thereby repopulating the database.

The result conflict records need to be deleted periodically. For example, when an academic cycle has been completed, all of the conflicts for that cycle may be selected, and the Delete icon clicked. As with all deletion procedures in Accelerus, the rows selected in the table will be marked for deletion with a red line and they may be reinstated by clicking the Reinstate icon or permanently deleted by saving the Explorer.

Not every result that is deleted or changed in the database ends in the Result Conflict Explorer.

Accelerus is a multi-user system, with people having different and hierarchical levels of permission, and even multiple people having permission at the same level, eg two teachers of the same class.

It is assumed that users are not, willy-nilly, changing each other's results, but are doing so because an error has been made or some special circumstance applies. If two teachers make a change to the same result directly in the database, there is no record of this being the case.

In the case of teachers working on offline files, they are informed when another user has made changes to their results, via the Synchronisation Log. However, these are not all result conflicts.

Only those results where all of the following are true, are result conflicts:

•	The teacher is working on offline files.

•	A change has been made by the teacher to a result in the offline file that has not been synchronised into the database.

•	A change has been made in the database by another user which impinges on the result changed by the teacher.

•	The teacher synchronises and the result cannot be updated into the database. Instead a record of it is stored in the Result Conflict table.

It is assumed that those who have been given permission to make major changes in the database do so with care. Therefore, for example, if someone has a school role that allows them to create and delete subjects and they use this permission to delete a subject and all of the classes, enrolments and results that go with it, that they did so advisedly. The teachers working in offline files, one would hope, would not be bothering to add results for a subject that was not meant to be there. Therefore, in most cases, teachers will never receive messages about conflicts. The only time, in this example, that they would is if they had added or changed a result for a student in a class of the deleted subject.

There are fifteen different result conflict situations that may be encountered during the synchronisation of offline files. An appropriate message appears in the teacher's Synchronisation Log at the end of the synchronisation process.

In addition, a row is added to the Result Conflict Explorer, with all of the relevant fields about the result - subject, class and assessment item code of the result, the teacher who modified it, etc. In addition, there is a Reason column.

The table below explains the different scenarios that cause the different reasons you might see in the Result Conflict Explorer.

Reason column	Explanation
Result conflict	This occurs when two people have made a change to a student's result since the last time the offline file was synchronised, and the results entered are not the same. If the change was made in the database by a user with higher level privileges, their result is kept and the teacher's is not. The offline file will reflect the result that was kept.
Result AOF conflict	This is the same sort of scenario as above except that the result that is kept is the the one in the offline file and not in the database.
Ass item deleted	The assessment item has been deleted in the database, together with any results for the item that were already in the database. The teacher has results in the offline file for the item that no longer have an assessment item to belong to.
Ass item locked	The assessment item has been locked in the database but the teacher has results in the offline file for the assessment item that have not been synchronised into the database. Because the item is locked, results cannot be added to it. Therefore, the offline file will revert to the value prior to the teacher changing it.
Ass item calculated	Results cannot be added to assessment items that contain a calculation. However, the assessment item may not have had a calculation to begin with, and the teacher has entered results in the item in the offline file. In the meantime, a calculation has been added to the subject's assessment item in the database. Therefore, when the teacher synchronises, the results cannot be added to what is now a calculated field. The offline file will reflect the calculated results, after the synchronisation.
AI class calculation	This scenario is similar to the previous one, except that the calculation that has been added has been added at the class level, ie another teacher of the same class has added a calculation into a subject assessment item. The offline file will reflect the calculated results after the synchronisation.
Enrolment deleted	Results have been added in the offline file for a student whose enrolment has been deleted from the database or the student has been deleted from the database, thereby deleting the enrolment.
Subject closed	The teacher has added results to students in subjects that have subsequently been marked as closed by the Accelerus administrator. Closed subjects are not able to be changed by any users and, therefore, the results may not be updated into the database. The classes of the subject are removed totally from the teacher.
Subject deleted	Since the teacher last synchronised, the subject that the class belongs to has been deleted from the database and, therefore, the class has been deleted also.
Class deleted	In this case, only the particular class that the results have been added to has been deleted since the last synchronisation of the offline file.
Result deleted	An Accelerus administrator may have deleted a result in the database totally, but the teacher has inserted a result for the same student, class and assessment item in the offline file. The offline file will have a blank result where this has occurred.
Result locked	This occurs when the teacher has made a change when the whole cycle has been locked in the database and, therefore, not only is the assessment item locked, but the student's enrolment and all other records belonging to the cycle, including all of the results. The offline file is set back to its pre-locked value.
Result permission	Since the teacher last synchronised, changes have been made to their permissions in the database and they are no longer allowed to add and modify results. For example, the teacher may have had modify and view privileges and now only has view privileges. The offline file is updated with the result from the database.
Invalid value	This occurs when the result no longer matches the marking scheme that is now associated with the assessment item, where the Accelerus administrator has changed this. For example, the assessment item may have used an A to E scheme to begin with and A to E results have been added in the offline file. If the assessment item has been changed to use an S/N scheme, the A to E results will be invalid and will not be added to the database. Such invalid results will be deleted from the offline file. This will also occur with a comment assessment item where the number of characters has been decreased, thereby making the comment result too long for the marking scheme. In this case, the comment will be truncated to the maximum number of characters allowed. In the case of a numeric scheme's parameters having been changed and the result now falling outside the item's minimum and maximum values, such invalid values will be deleted from the offline file.
Teacher changed	A result is sent to the result conflict table when the teacher of the class has now been changed in the database but the original teacher still has the class in their offline file and has unsynchronised result changes therein. When the teacher synchronised, the class is removed from their offline file but the changed results are not added to the database as the teacher no longer has permission to make changes to the class.

Where result conflicts have been encountered and results were not synchronised back into the Accelerus database, they will appear in the Result Conflict Explorer. Should a school need to retrieve any such results, they may do so from the Result Conflict Explorer. A CSV file of the selected results is produced, as follows:

•	Go to Explore > Result Conflicts.

•	Use all of the standard search procedures to find the results you want to retrieve, including using wildcards.

•	Use any Explorer features required, eg to sort records, customise columns, etc.

•	Select the rows that you want to retrieve.

•	In the bottom left of the Result Conflict Explorer, click the Export CSV file icon.

Res ResultConflictExportIcon

•	In the Save window that is displayed, select the location and assign a name for the CSV file to store the exported results, clicking the Save button.

The results will be exported to a CSV file that has the correct format of an Accelerus result CSV file.

Res ResultConflictCSV

•	Click OK at the completion message.

•	If you wish to reimport the results back into the Accelerus database:

➢	Go to File > Import CSV Files.

➢	In the Import CSV Files window, select the Results option button.

➢	Follow the standard procedures to import results data, including preprocessing and checking the issues, errors and warnings that appear.

Result conflicts are stored in the database against the academic cycle they belong to permanently, unless you clear them out.

It is a good idea to clear result conflict records periodically as they are obsolete once a report run has been completed or an academic cycle has passed. Therefore, it is recommended you do so at the end of each year, or as part of your starting a new year procedures.

To delete old, obsolete result conflicts:

•	Ensure that the cycles from which you want to delete result conflicts is unlocked in the School Settings window.

•	Select the academic cycles for which you want to delete result conflicts via the Academic Cycle Selector.

•	Go to Explore > Result Conflicts.

•	Use all of the standard search procedures to find the results you want to delete, including using wildcards, eg enter the academic cycle you require in the Academic Cycle Name column.

•	Use any Explorer features required, eg to sort records, customise columns, etc.

•	Select the rows that you want to retrieve.

•	In the bottom right of the Result Conflict Explorer, click the Delete result conflicts icon.

Res ResultConflictDeleteIcon

As with all deletion procedures in Accelerus, the rows selected in the table will be marked for deletion with a red line.

•	Click the Save icon or press Ctrl S to permanently delete the records or they may be reinstated by clicking the Reinstate icon.