Lottery

Elentra's Lottery module is designed to streamline the process of populating Rotation Schedules for the clinical portion of a curriculum.

Article Content 

This article covers the following topics. Click on the topic to go to that section of the article.

• Lottery Module Introduction
• Prerequisites to Build
• Building your Lottery
  • Configuration Decisions
  • Data Building
  • Creating a Lottery
• FAQ
• Running your Lottery
• Learner view of Lottery Stages

Lottery Module Introduction

Elentra’s Lottery module is designed to populate a rotation schedule in the Clinical Experience module with bookings for the audience of the rotation schedule. 

To access the module, go to the navigation menu and select Admin >  Manage Lotteries. The following is the general workflow of a lottery in Elentra:

• Administrators will create potential schedule options or “tracks” based on clinical capacities and block dates. Track data must include a rotation, and can optionally include site(s) and preceptor(s) assignment data. Capacities for each rotation booking must be provided.
• Learners first rank “tracks” by preference. The ranking stage must come first in the lottery module.
• Then the Elentra algorithm generates five potential schedule variations for the entire group of participating learners, in descending order of most-to-least learners having received their #1 ranked choice, while respecting your specified capacity limits. 
• Administrators select the preferred schedule variation, then release the tentative schedule to learners for the swapping stage(s).
• Learners can participate in up to two types of swapping stages, depending on lottery configuration.  All swapping is blind, meaning that learners (and administrators) cannot view the requestor of the swap.
• Swapping options: 
  • Swap tracks: Learners can swap entire schedule tracks with other learners, or pick up an unassigned track, if available.
  • Swap rotations: Learners can swap specific rotation assignments within the same rotation.  For example, a learner can swap a pediatrics rotation at hospital A for a pediatrics rotation at hospital B.
• Once the swapping stage is complete, the administrator publishes the results of the lottery to a previously-created rotation schedule shell. 
• Changes can be made to the schedule within the CE module prior to publishing the schedule for learners to view on their Elentra calendar.

Prerequisites to Build

Before you are able to build in the lottery module you will need to have the following prerequisite items built in Elentra:

• Curriculum layout, period, & block schedule(s) created
• Learner cohort created & populated with learners
• Courses created and marked as a Clinical Experience course that need to be part of the rotation schedule associated with the lottery
• Learners enrolled in the courses associated with a lottery ensuring they are enrolled in the correct curriculum period
• Rotation schedule shell created with all relevant courses associated with it

• Rotations created
• Sites created in Manage Locations (Optional)
• Have the instructors added in the Manage Instructors module (Optional) 
• Rotation slots created with capacities (Mandatory) with preceptors and/or sites (Optional)

Building Your Lottery

Prior to building a lottery in the Lotteries Module and after completing the prerequisite building in the system there are configuration decisions and import data building to consider.

Configuration Decisions

The Elentra Lotteries module requires one ranking stage and supports two different types of swapping stages within a single lottery.  

• Ranking: Learners will rank pre-defined schedule options in order of preference. This must be the first stage in a lottery.  The swapping stages are dependent on learners being assigned schedules/rotations to swap from the ranking stage.
• Schedule Swapping: Learners have the opportunity to swap the track the lottery assigned to them from the Ranking stage. 
• Rotation Swapping: Learners have the opportunity to swap an allocated rotation for another rotation of the same kind. For example, a learner can request to swap their Pediatrics rotation at Hospital A, with a different Pediatrics rotation at Hospital B, during the same block. 
  • Learners cannot swap rotations of different disciplines, i.e., a learner cannot swap a pediatric rotation for an emergency medicine rotation.

Data Building

Along with the prerequisite building work and the configuration considerations the following data will be required inside of the lottery module:

• Occupancy Limits
• Track Options CSV Import (Your Translated Schema)

Occupancy Limits

Each slot in a rotation that is part of the lottery needs to have the capacity limits set.  Use the Elentra data templates provided to you during implementation or by Elentra Support to help you gather your data and create the options CSV file to be imported. 

In this template you will collect and build the following data:

• Data keys or codes: You will need to create new or collect existing unique identifiers for the following components:
  • rotations (defined by you when setting up the rotations)
  • blocks (assigned by the system)
  • rotation slots (defined by you)
    • The rotation slot codes are unique codes you define. These codes are used to reference a particular rotation offered in a particular block with possible particular sites and/or preceptors assigned to the offering.
    • You can import the rotation slots and rotation slot codes via the user interface in the associated rotation schedule.

• • sites (defined by you & only if using sites)
  • preceptor emails used on the user profile & preceptor codes (the preceptor codes are created by you & only if using preceptors) 

• Slot occupancy limits: You will need to define the minimum and maximum capacity limits on each slot. This is done through the slots import in the rotation schedule.
  
  
• Encoded Schema: The schema lists out all of the possible tracks you would like to offer to your students to rank and swap. You will use the rotation slot codes in this schema and this will help to create the Options CSV import. 

Track Options CSV Import (Your Translated Schema)

After filling out the data import workbook you will be able to generate your track options CSV file that you will import into the user interface in the ranking stage.

Track options import: A track is a sequencing of rotations that a student could move through for the curriculum period. A CSV file of each track or potential schedules that your learners will rank will be required for import into the lottery on the ranking stage.  Assigning preceptors and/or sites to rotations in the track options may be required for your lottery, but is not mandatory for a lottery to function in Elentra.  

The Track Options CSV import is comprised of the Option Name field and the Track Option Code field.

• The Option Name field is the name of the track.  Learners will see the name of the track when they are interacting with the lottery.
• The Track Option Code field is a potential schedule students can choose while ranking or swapping schedules. You list out your rotation slot codes, separated by a comma with no spaces all within a single cell in this field (see example below). This is created when you create your encoded schema in the data template workbook.

Once the building prerequisites, your occupancy data, and track option CSV import have been created, you can create your lottery in Elentra. 

Creating a Lottery

To make a lottery in the user interface do the following:

Step 1: Navigate to Admin > Manage Lotteries.  Click the + button to create a new lottery.  Select the rotation schedule shell you previously created and give your lottery a title.

Step 2: Create and configure the stages of the lottery. There are two stages to choose from, the ranking stage and the swapping stage which are detailed below.  The first stage must be a ranking stage and then stages can be set up in any sequence of stages after that. 

Ranking Stage

To add a ranking stage click the + button next to the word Stages and select Ranking. 

The following will need to be configured:

• Rules: As of right now there is only one rule to choose from.  To configure the Rule click Edit, then Save to continue. 
• Options: To import your track options CSV click on Edit and follow the directions to upload your options CSV file. You will be able to preview your track options before saving. 
• Exclusions: If a learner needs to be assigned a schedule but should not have the privilege of ranking schedules, you can exclude them here. To add students to the exclusion list for the ranking stage click on Edit, select the students who should be excluded from this stage and click Save. After the stage is closed the learner will be assigned a random schedule from the unassigned schedules.

Swapping Stage

After your Ranking stage, you can add and configure any Swapping stages you are including in this lottery. To add a Swapping stage do the following:

Click the + button to add a stage and select Swapping. Next configure the following stage settings:

• Rules: To configure the swapping rules click on Edit on the Rule.  Select either Schedules or Rotations to choose the swapping stage type. If you wish to use both types of swapping stages, you will typically configure Schedules to come first, then a second Swapping stage with Rotations selected here.  
• Exclusions: If you want to ensure a learner cannot swap their lottery-assigned schedule, exclude them here. Reminder this will exclude them from this stage only.  

Step 3: Open and close the stages per your schedule. At this time opening and closing stages is a manual process and cannot be set up on an automated schedule. See the Running Your Lottery Section in this article.

Excluding Learners From A Lottery

Schedule Tab: When configuring your lottery, use the Schedule tab to view any pre-bookings assigned to learners in the selected rotation schedule. Use the toggle next to each learner name under the Include column to remove the learner from participating in the lottery and from being assigned a schedule.  At this time there is no way to exclude learners from a lottery in bulk.

FAQ

• Can Elentra support a lottery that uses multiple block schedules?  We have 2- and 4- week rotations in the same schedule. 
  • Yes, we can accommodate lotteries that use multiple block schedules.  We advise you have a “nested” schedule wherein your various time-frames nest together congruently. IE, a 12-week rotation houses two 6 -week rotations within the same time frame, or three 4-week rotations in the same time frame, or both. 

• Can Elentra support a lottery that leverages custom rotation start and end dates?
  • No, Elentra can only run a lottery using pre-defined blocks of time.
• Can we have blank spots or “holes” in track options?
  • Yes, you can include open, unscheduled time within a track option.

Running A Lottery 

Once you have your lottery created and configured it is time to run it. To run your lottery you will need make your lottery visible to students then open and close your stages starting with the first one - the ranking stage. 

Lottery Visibility

Visibility Tab: Toggle your learner’s ability to view lottery stages here. Lotteries can be made visible to learners prior to being opened. If the lottery is not visible to learners upon opening the first stage of the lottery the system will give you a warning message saying your lottery is not visible to learners.  You can at that time go to the visibility tab and make the lottery visible to learners.

Ranking Stage

In the ranking stage participants in the lottery will rank the uploaded track options according to their preference.  After collecting the participants' preferences and closing the ranking stage, the system runs an algorithm that generates five different variations of the rotation schedule for the entire rotation schedule audience. The algorithm tries to give as many participants as possible their first choice of schedule. Each variation indicates the percentage of learners that received their top pick in the ranking stage.

When a variation is selected, the schedule options are tentatively assigned to the participating learners. It creates a tentative schedule that they can see through the Lottery module until the admin publishes it.

Opening the ranking stage

When your lottery is due to begin, click the Open Stage button on the Ranking stage. You will be required to click a confirmation button to proceed. 

• Once open, your learners will be able to participate in the Ranking stage.
• To pause your lottery, click Cancel Stage.  Learner rankings will be saved. 

• When your lottery Ranking stage is due to end, click Close Stage to run the schedule-generation algorithm. 
• Once the Status says Pending variation confirmation your potential schedules have been generated and can be viewed from the Schedules tab. 

Choose a Schedule Variation

From the Schedules tab, you can view the five different potential schedules that have been generated. Schedules are displayed in order of learner satisfaction, as defined by number of learners who received their top-ranked choice. 

Swapping Stages

Once you have selected a schedule option on the Schedules tab after the ranking stage, you can begin the swapping stages. 

When participating in a stage to swap schedules or rotations, learners have the option to toggle if they want to participate in the swapping stage or not.

If a learner chooses to participate in a schedule or rotation swap they will have one of two options:

• Learners can send swap requests to other learners. This requires both learners to approve before the swap is finalized. The request is anonymous.
• The other option is that learners can request to swap their tentative schedules or rotations with Unassigned Tracks/Rotations.
  
  • Unassigned Options/Rotations indicate that the institution still has capacity available after the ranking stage is closed.
  • If a student selects an Unassigned Tracks/Rotations that are available, the swap will happen immediately. 
• If the student chooses not to participate in a schedule or rotation swap, their schedules will be unavailable for other learners' swap requests.

Publishing Your Lottery Schedules

Once your lottery stages are complete, you are ready to publish your schedules to the rotation schedule you selected when you set up the lottery. Publishing will officially populate the learner's schedules in Elentra while respecting any manual bookings on the learner's schedules done through the Clinical Experience module. Schedules will not be published to learner calendars until the rotation schedule is published in the Clinical Experience module.    

Step 1: Go to Admin > Manage Lotteries    

Step 2: Select the Lottery you wish to publish, click the Publish Schedule button and confirm. 

Step 3: The Lottery status will change from Draft to Published.

Learner View of Lottery Stages

Accessing my Lotteries

Step 1: Click on your user profile icon, then on Lotteries to access lotteries available to you. 

Step 2: Click on View Lottery of a particular lottery to view the different stages of that lottery.

Step 3: Click on Participate to participate in the current stage of the lottery.

Ranking Stage

The first stage of an Elentra lottery will always be a Ranking stage. In this stage learners are ranking track options in the system provided by the administrators of the lottery.

Step 1: Find a tracks to rank. To find and rank the track options learners can use the block filters. 

• Different ways of ordering tracks:
  • Drag-and-drop tracks to the particular position in the list
  • Select tracks in bulk and Move to Top and Move to Bottom
  • Move an option to a particular rank number

Step 2: Click Save to save your ranked schedule preferences. You can return to this stage and update your rank preferences for as long as the Ranking stage is open. 

Swapping Stages

To participate in a swapping stage, navigate back to My Lotteries and select the lottery you want to participate in. The swapping stage will be either to swap your entire schedule, or to swap out one rotation option for another. 

Opt Out: If a learner is happy with their schedule and does not want to receive swap requests, they can opt out of the swapping stage by selecting the toggle. 

Swapping Schedules:

• The Request a Swap tab
  • In this tab, a learner will see tracks assigned to other leaners who have not opted out of the swapping stage. 
  • Only one request can be made at a time
• The Unassigned Tracks tab
  • Tracks with capacity that have not been assigned to learners will appear here, if any exist. 
  • Tracks in this section do not need to be requested, they are automatically granted to the requesting user
• The My Requests tab
  • Review any open requests you have in this section

• Swaps are 1:1 - no multi-step swapping within a single request.
  • IE a Pediatrics rotation in block 1 at Hospital A can only be swapped out for other Pediatric rotations available in block 1.
  • You cannot swap out a Pediatrics rotation for a Neurology rotation, for example Cross-rotation swaps are not permitted

Notifications

Notifications for students regarding lottery stage actions & swap requests are available through the Centralized Notification Dashboard (currently in beta mode and not generally released).  Contact your Elentra Account Manager to learn more.