Configure Your Lottery Design

Learn how to create a Lottery Design

What's included in this article?

• What is a Lottery Design?
• Creating a Lottery Design
• Lottery Design Options
  • Tiered
  • Weighted
  • Entries / Make Entries Cumulative
  • Guaranteed Placement
  • Quota: Percentage Limit or Number of Seats
  • Add Score Field
• Summary: Lottery Design Types

What is a lottery design?

This is where lottery priorities, seat quotas, lottery weights, and more are used together to set up the “rules” that a program’s lottery should follow.

We ask that all customers share their lottery policy with us so we can confirm that your lottery is configured correctly in the system. Typically, a lottery policy will outline that students with X priority will be placed first, then students with Y or Z priority, then everybody else. 

Creating a Lottery Design

When creating a lottery design, first ensure that all lottery priorities have been created. Then, navigate to Settings > Manage Lotteries > Lottery Designs.

• If you are editing a design, click Edit (pencil icon)
• If you are adding a new design, click Add New Lottery

Complete the Lottery Name and Lottery Description fields

Lottery Design Options

Choose between a Tiered or Weighted Lottery

• see this Help Article for additional details on tiered v. weighted

Next, choose if you would like to enable additional lottery design options:

Guaranteed Placement: This is not a lottery type as much as an option that is available for lottery designs. When selected, the system will ensure that any students in a particular sub-lottery are guaranteed placement even if it exceeds capacity (over your cutoff numbers).

Quota: Allows you to set a percentage or seat number limit for the designated priority per your lottery policy. To add a quota, the “Add Quota” link must be selected. 

This will show a popup that allows the user to select whether the quota is a percentage or set number of seats as well as configure the value and whether it should be “at least” that value or “no more than” that value. 

Percentage limit quota allows you to indicate that a specific percentage of the overall number of seats set in the cutoff numbers will go to students with the priority listed.

Number of Seats quota allows you to indicate that a specific and exact number of the overall number of seats set in the cutoff numbers will go to students with the priority listed.

Add Score Field: This lottery type gives you the ability to have a score-based lottery where students are placed on the lottery list according to the scores they receive. This option uses the values input for each student into a configured scoring field.

Students are first grouped by their assigned Priority Group, and then, within each individual priority group, students can be placed based on their score.

In the example below, there is one sub-lottery that prioritizes students of board members, and then ranks them in descending order by the selected field.  This would achieve an outcome where everyone is sorted in one group.

You can also configure additional sub-lotteries that also sorts students by the same score field, a different one, or none at all.  This structure provides complete flexibility in grouping students by priorities and sorting them within such.

 

Summary: Lottery Designs Types

Prioritized Lottery	This lottery will place students in a designated priority order, highest to lowest. Students will be placed in their highest assigned sub lottery.
Extra Entry Sub Lottery	This uses different values for the number of entries for particular criteria. So, if a student meets specific criteria worth more entries, that student would have a better statistical chance of getting a placement than a student who met criteria worth fewer entries.
Scored Lottery	A score-based lottery is a lottery where students are placed on the lottery list according to the scores they receive. This score and how it is calculated will vary based on the lottery setup, but students can receive this score either through a formula created with a calculated field type, an import, or manual scoring documentation by admins. This lottery setup is likely to be used in conjunction with the calculated fields feature.
Cumulative Lottery	A cumulative lottery calculates the priorities/criteria the student meets, then assigns a cumulative value for the number of entries for one sub-lottery. The more priorities a student meets within a sub-lottery, the higher the value will be, giving them a higher chance of placement.
Weighted Lottery	A weighted lottery assigns a weight to each priority group/criteria. Weight values are different than entry values. Additional entries increase a student's odds of selection but it's still random. With weights, students with the highest weights are selected first, and only students with equal weights are randomly shuffled. So it is randomized only within a particular weight value.
Quota Lottery	This lottery design type allows administrators to set a quota for students in specific priority groups. Quotas can be set with percentage limits or minimums but also by total seats.
Guaranteed Lottery	This is not a lottery type as much as an option that is available. When selected, the system will ensure that any students in a particular sub-lottery are guaranteed placement even if it exceeds capacity.