In order to set up a Lottery, you need to first set up the Elements that will make up the Lottery, and the Groups that will participate in the Lottery.

These are referred to as the Elements.

• Groups: This is applicable for a set of Events or a Sequence Groups to be taken as a Group.
• Courses: This is applicable for a Course. This option does not have any logic for prerequisite.
• Events: This is applicable for one or more Events (ex. a Simulation Center exercises).

Think of these as the ingredients required to create a Lottery. Refer to Course Lottery: Add or Edit Elements

What are conflicts? How are they used in lotteries?

Conflicts are course sections that can be added to a lottery in much the same way as the lottery elements. However, conflicts serve the purpose of preventing a student from ranking a course section in which they are already enrolled. Typically, conflicts would be used when running a course block lottery. If you are running sequential lotteries (e.g. 6-week courses then 4-week courses),  you can add courses as conflicts to prevent students from ranking courses that overlap with courses in which they are already enrolled. This can also be helpful if students are participating in a block lottery but are already enrolled in one or more of the courses that are selections for the lottery.

Add conflicts to a lottery record by going to Elements > Options > Conflicts.

Question: Do I have to set up and assign Groups?

Yes, you have to set up and assign Groups for Lotteries. Otherwise, if Group Access to the lottery is not specified - Leo will allow unrestricted access to Leo users to the lottery. Refer to the article on Set Up Group Access.

Question: Is the Lottery process for Courses, Groups, and Events the same?

Yes. The process is the same. from the Edit Lottery Screen, select Groups or Events

Question: How are Student placements in a Lottery handled?  

Whether a student has an early submission or a late submission to an open Lottery, there is no bearing on placement as Leo randomly orders the full list for each rank.

Question: Do students get alerted of when the Lottery has finalized and they have been 'enrolled' into a Group, Course, or Event?

Once a Lottery has been finalized the selection of the Course or Event which they are 'enrolled' into will appear either on their Calendar or on the Course listing or if it is a Group it will appear under their Profile Groups. Additionally, students can be notified via email from the Finalized Lottery screen.

Question: What is the best practice for those students who have priority in a Lottery and then there is a group of students who do not get priority, how does this affect the choices which are awarded to them?

In this situation, DaVinci recommends to run the initial lottery for those individuals' to get their preference, but to not finalize it. Once the Lottery is closed use the Preview option to review the selections and manually enroll those students. Once enrolled then add the new group to the Lottery.

For more information about how to set up the priorities to meet your institutions' needs, please schedule a consult throughout our Help Desk.

Question: How do I delete a Course from a Lottery

This is a multi-step process:

Step 1: Path: Home > Admin Toolbar > Course Management >  Lotteries/Signups 

Step 2: Select the Lottery to Edit > Select Elements

Step 3: Click the specific Element (Course/Event/Sequence Group) you would like to remove.

Step 4: Set the Deleted flag to YES.

Step 5: Be sure to click Save Record to complete the removal process.

Question:  Can Administrators see the Lottery placements after the Lottery is finalized/closed before the Students?

Yes, Administrators are able to preview a Lottery and  before it is Finalized.

Refer to these steps: Preview the Lottery

Question: Can we make changes to student schedules from the Preview mode?

No, Leo provides you with the capability to preview the results of your Lottery before you finalize them. This allows you to run your Lotteries with confidence, examine your results, and make sure you're happy with the outcome before the results are released to students. If you need to make changes you will need to either reset the Lottery or make the appropriate changes once the Lottery is finalized.

Refer to the following article for more information: Running, Preview and Finalize Group Lottery

Question: Can students hide a Lottery reminder once they have completed it?

Yes. Students can hide the Lottery/Signup notification once they have made their selection.

Step 1: They can click on the notification in their Activity Report, which can be accessed by clicking on the Activity Bell.

Step 2: They can click on the Lottery notification to be taken to the selection page. Once they make their selection, they can close that screen.

Step 3: They can come back to their Activity Report and check the Delete check-box for that particular notification. This will hide the notification from their Activity Report.

Refer to the article hide a Lottery/Signup reminder

Question: What happens if I close a Lottery and some students have not made a selection?

You can preview a closed Lottery before Finalizing it. Once you Finalize the Lottery, Students who have not participated will be left out. You will need to manually add those Students to the individual Course/Group/Event's roster.

Refer to the article Close to Preview Lottery Results

Question: If I want to try out setting up a Lottery and running it, how can I do this as an Administrator?

It is a good idea to practice setting up and running a Lottery in your Leo Training System before you run it live in your Production System. This way you can become familiar with the process and ask us any questions you might have via the Help Desk before you have to run a Lottery with real students.

However, if you practice running a Lottery in your Training system, do not expect the same placement/results when you actually run the Lottery in your live Production system, because the Lottery placements are unique to each time the Lottery runs (because of the element of randomness involved in computerized lotteries).

Question: Can I re-use the same Lottery that I set up last year because it went well, and just change the dates?

We do not recommend this approach. It is best to set up a new Lottery each time you want to run one.