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Migrating from ADE / ADE Campus

ADE (published by Adesoft), often used in its web version ADE Campus, is widespread in higher education, particularly universities and grandes écoles. ADE is activity-centric (the "course session") and frequently synchronizes with the institution's information system (Apogée, Pegase, Aurion, UNIT4…). Moving to Omniscol primarily concerns scheduling; the synchronization with your information system still has to be reconfigured on the Omniscol side.

Scope

What carries over:

  • programs (PGE, CPGE, BBA…) and their groups (utility groups, half-promotions);
  • instructors (permanent, non-permanent, adjunct);
  • activities (course sessions) with their type, duration and number of repetitions;
  • rooms and equipment (by building and floor, with their capacity);
  • availability and unavailability of resources.

ADE and Omniscol have broadly compatible models, but the naming conventions differ. Plan for an initial mapping.

Correspondences

ADE (ADE Campus) Omniscol
Program (PGE, CPGE, BBA…) Several classes (one promotion/year = one class)
Utility group / half-promotion Group; a division if two half-promotions attend different lessons on the same time slot
Instructor Teacher
Activity (course session) Course (and its lessons)
Activity typology (lecture, tutorial, lab…) Course type
Modality (in-person, remote…) Modality (Premium attribute)
Cap / enrolled Theoretical headcount — no separate cap (the seat limit comes from the room capacity)
Room / equipment (building, floor, capacity) Room (site, capacity); only movable equipment becomes a resource
Availability / unavailability (color scale) Availability (wishes): 4 levels — impossible / undesirable / preferred / neutral
Activity association Depending on the link: alignment, concatenation or associated lessons
CURSUS / UNIT4 code External identifier (trace of the information-system synchronization)

How-to

  1. Retrieve the data from ADE — programs, instructors, rooms, activities. ADE presents its data as configurable lists (Listing views, choice of columns) that you can print or export to a spreadsheet via the Print menu.
  2. Prepare the Omniscol files from these exports (see Preparing your data for a mass import).
  3. Import from a spreadsheet into a test timetable (see Mass import of courses from a spreadsheet).
  4. Rebuild the links: alignments (the activity associations on the ADE side), alternations, half-promotion divisions — ADE and Omniscol do not use exactly the same primitives.
  5. Run a test generation.

What needs attention

  • ADE schedules on precise dates: the Placement view (week, day, start, end) and the weeks bar make ADE a calendar-type tool. To keep this behavior, use the Omniscol calendar mode, included in the Premium plan (see Calendar mode).
  • Half-promotions and utility groups: a program is often split into utility groups and half-promotions. On the Omniscol side, half-promotions correspond to a division of the class; think through the group granularity from the start.
  • Imposed or "free choice" rooms: in ADE, a room can be imposed on an activity or left to the engine's choice. On the Omniscol side, an imposed room is kept as-is by the algorithm; for a "free choice" room, leave the lesson without a specific room — the algorithm picks one on the site, respecting the capacity and any required specialisation (a set of interchangeable rooms is modeled with a shared specialisation). See Sites, classrooms, resources and Automatic classroom assignment.
  • Graded availability: ADE handles availability on several levels (from green to red, plus a dynamic layer). Omniscol uses 4-level availability (wishes) (impossible, undesirable, preferred, neutral) — carry over the extremes first (impossible and preferred); the intermediate levels can be reworked afterwards.
  • Pedagogical lead: ADE attaches a pedagogical lead to each activity. Omniscol does not carry this role at course level; keep the information through a naming convention or a memo if you find it useful.
  • iCal feeds: ADE often publishes timetables as iCal feeds. The Omniscol import does not read iCal; an iCal export must first be converted into a spreadsheet table.
  • Synchronization with the information system: if ADE was synchronized with your information system (Apogée, Pegase, Aurion, UNIT4…), you will have to reconfigure that synchronization on the Omniscol side — often via the API or the synchronization with external systems. ADE's CURSUS / UNIT4 code field is its trace on the source side. See Synchronization with external systems.

How-to

ADE → Omniscol migration (higher education)

  1. ADE (Adesoft), often in its ADE Campus version, is widespread in higher education. The migration primarily concerns scheduling; the synchronization with the information system (Apogée, Pegase, Aurion, UNIT4) still has to be reconfigured on the Omniscol side.

  2. Retrieving the ADE data: programs, instructors, rooms, activities (with type, duration, repetitions, cap). ADE presents this data as configurable lists (Listing views) that you print or export via the Print menu. An iCal feed must first be converted into a spreadsheet table (the import does not read iCal). If you schedule on precise dates, preserve that aspect too.

  3. Initial mapping: ADE and Omniscol have compatible models but different naming conventions. Prepare the files according to the Omniscol template (see Preparing your data for a mass import). Think through the granularity of the student groups (half-promotions, utility groups) from the start — that is the tricky point in higher education.

  4. Import from a spreadsheet into a test timetable: instructors, programs, subjects, rooms, then activities (see Mass import of courses from a spreadsheet). The course spreadsheet has no external-identifier column; for future reconciliation with your information system, plan on the external synchronization instead (see Synchronization with external systems).

  5. Rebuilding the links: multi-program alignments (the activity associations on the ADE side), alternations, half-promotion divisions. Also revisit the rooms left as "free choice" by letting the algorithm assign them (through a shared specialisation if needed). ADE and Omniscol do not use exactly the same primitives — count on a manual finishing pass.

    If ADE scheduled on precise dates, use the Omniscol calendar mode (included in Premium) to preserve that behavior (see Calendar mode).

  6. Test generation in Omniscol to validate feasibility. Diagnostic, fixes, iteration. The more you test before the switchover, the less you fix afterwards.

  7. Reconfiguring the information system: if ADE was synchronized with Apogée, Pegase, Aurion or UNIT4, you will have to reconfigure that synchronization on the Omniscol side via the API (see Omniscol API) or the synchronization with external systems (see Synchronization with external systems). For Aurion specifically, see integrations.aurion — 3 possible modes.

See also

See also