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Additional configurations for other specific cases that you can use in the schedule generator of Additio App
Index
- Setting the start time of a course or lesson in the schedule
- Creating meetings in teachers' schedules
- Allowed and prohibited days
- Configuring the number of lessons and minutes per week
- Group splitting and parallel courses
- Course labeling
In this tutorial, you will find ways to configure specific scheduling cases for your institution using the Additio App schedule generator.
Setting the Start Time of a Course or Lesson in the Schedule
Before or after generating the schedule, the schedule generator allows you to set the start time for a specific course or lesson.
This functionality is key when, before or after generating, you want the generator to place a course on a specific day, time, or location.
Setting the start time before generating the schedule
In the Schedule Data > Courses tab, you can add start time preferences for a course or lesson.
To apply restrictions to all the lessons of a course, simply enable the columns for Allowed Days, Time Frame, and Preferred Time.
Once enabled, you can set these preferences at the course level.
For example, day preferences (e.g., the course is on Mondays), time frame preferences (e.g., from 10:00 to 11:00), or both (e.g., on Wednesdays from 12:00 to 13:00). You can also use the Preferred Time field to indicate your preferred time, although this preference will be desirable but not mandatory during schedule generation.
To apply restrictions only to one of the course’s lessons, you can expand the lesson menu and apply the same settings at the lesson level (e.g., one lesson on Monday and another on Friday).
You can also use the Preferred Time field to set a specific day and time for a lesson to begin.
The Preferred Time option should only be used for courses or lessons that must start at a specific time or day, but not generally for all courses. Overusing this setting can limit the program’s ability to generate the best possible schedule.
Setting the start time after generating the schedule
You can also fix a lesson at a specific day and time after generating the schedule. To do this, simply click on the lesson and then the PIN icon in the Lesson Configuration panel.
Once fixed, the lesson will not move, even if you regenerate the schedules.
This option is very useful if you want to lock the position of some lessons before regenerating the schedule, so the program regenerates everything except the fixed lessons.
Creating Meetings in Teachers' Schedules
This feature allows you to reserve time for faculty meetings, coordination, and any event that should only appear in teachers' schedules, not in student group schedules.
Meetings can be created before generating the schedule (so the program places them according to teacher availability) or after generation (so you can manually place them according to teacher availability).
We recommend creating meetings after generating the schedules if teachers have limited availability. This way, the program prioritizes good schedules for groups and students, and you can place meetings later as a secondary priority.
If teachers have plenty of availability, meetings can be added before generating the schedule, and the program will place them automatically.
To create a new meeting, go to Schedule Data and create a course, but without assigning any group, only the teachers participating in the meeting.
We recommend labeling the subject as "Meetings" or something similar to easily filter and view these courses later.
Once the meeting is created, assign the teachers and room, and the meeting will be available to add to the schedule.
If you add it after generating the schedule, go to the Schedule Editor, select any schedule of one of the participants, and the meeting will appear with the symbol "P" (meaning it’s pending to be placed).
Click on the meeting, and then you can drag it to the available slots (which show the availability of all teachers participating in the meeting).
Allowed Days and Prohibited Times
The schedule generator allows you to specify allowed days and prohibited times for courses, lessons, teachers, groups, and spaces in the schedule.
To add these preferences, enable the columns for Allowed Days and Prohibited Times in the Schedule Data tabs. To do this, click Edit Columns and enable the columns.
Once enabled, you can add these preferences to any course, lesson, group, teacher, or room.
Using Allowed Days
The Allowed Days option lets you specify the days when a course or lesson takes place and the days when the teacher/group/room is available.
Keep in mind that there must be consistency between the different elements. Otherwise, the program will indicate an error in Data Analysis.
For example, if a teacher is only available on Monday but a course can only be held on Friday, it will be impossible to schedule it, and the program will alert you to this inconsistency.
Using Prohibited Times
The Prohibited Times option allows you to block specific time slots on certain days of the week, ensuring no lessons are scheduled during those times.
To introduce a new prohibited time, click the option, and a window will open where you can create the blocks. Each block must have a name, which will appear in the schedule (you can hide these times in the printed schedule if you prefer).
We recommend blocking only the necessary times, as excessive blocks can severely limit the ability to create a schedule.
If you want to block an entire day, it’s quicker to use the Allowed Days option described above.
Configuring the Number of Lessons and Minutes per Week
To configure the number of lessons and minutes per week for a course, go to Schedule Data.
Each course has two fields that allow you to control the number of lessons and the total minutes per week that you want the course to take place.
The Planned Duration field allows you to assign the total number of minutes per week that the course should take place. For example, if you want the course to last a total of 120 minutes per week (2 hours), simply go to the field, select Minutes/Week, and enter this value.
You can also plan by total hours for the entire course, and the program will automatically calculate the minutes per week.
The Lessons field allows you to assign the total number of lessons and their duration. For example, two 60-minute sessions (which in total are the 120 minutes per week planned).
The Minutes/Week duration and the sum of the total duration of all the lessons for each course must match. If they don’t, the program will notify you so you can review it.
To modify the lesson duration, expand the course and use the Lesson Duration field to adjust the length of each lesson.
You can also delete lessons with the trash can symbol found at the end of the lesson.
And you can add lessons to a course using the icons indicated in the following image:
- The + icon allows you to add a lesson individually.
- The icon with three dots allows you to add more than one lesson at once (with the duration previously configured using the Other option). For example, if you want to add three 60-minute sessions by default, you can configure this option and add them with one click.
Creating Group Splitting and Parallel Courses
This option allows you to configure courses that must take place at the same time, whether for the same group or different groups.
You can configure different cases such as:
- Electives: more than one course takes place simultaneously, and students from different groups are divided. For example, I have four electives for high school that occur at the same time, and students from different groups divide according to the elective they choose.
- Group Splitting: more than one course takes place simultaneously, and students from the same group are divided. For example, I always want the Religion and Educational Attention courses to take place at the same time so students attend the course they have chosen.
- Parallel Courses: more than one course takes place simultaneously across different groups. For example, I want all first-year tutorials (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) to take place on Friday at the last hour.
It is essential to configure parallel courses and group splitting before generating the schedule. Otherwise, the program will not place the lessons correctly and will assume the groups are overloaded with sessions, as it will not place simultaneous sessions in the same slots.
To configure this option, go to Schedule Data and select the Parallel Courses option for any course (if it’s not enabled, you need to enable it in Edit Columns).
Once selected, a pop-up window will appear where you can configure parallel courses. To create a new pairing, find the courses you want to pair on the left side (you can filter by course name) and drag them to the right side, above "+ Drop a course here to form a new set of parallel courses."
After dragging them, click Link Lessons to configure how you want the different lessons to be distributed.
Once inside, you can drag the various lessons from each course to the right side to create the groupings you want.
If you want all lessons to be parallel, you should pair them all.
If you want some lessons not to be parallel, you can leave them as is, indicating which ones you want to be held separately and which ones you want to be held simultaneously.
Course Tagging
The label functionality allows you to add labels to courses, teachers, groups, and classrooms.
To activate the TAGS column, click Schedule Data > Edit Columns (in the Courses, Groups, Classrooms, Students section).
Once the field is enabled, you can define custom labels for each element.
To add a label, click on the column and type the label (to create a new one) or select an existing label (already created previously).
Using Tags for Search
Tags allow you to filter information much faster. For example, if you want to group courses from different groups and subjects, you can assign them a common tag.
Once tagged, you can enable the TAG field in the search bar.
Once activated, if you search by label name, you can filter and make bulk changes faster to all elements labeled with the same tag.
Using Labels in Courses to Create Specific Schedules
Labels also allow you to create specific schedules only for the labeled courses.
For example, if I want to see a schedule with all the MATH courses in the school, I can label them with the MATH label and then filter the schedule in the SCHEDULE EDITOR to only see the schedule for the courses with that label.
Using Labels for Complementary Hours and Duty Management
Labels also allow you to manage complementary hours and duties. To see how this works, read the complete tutorial.