E10 - Master Grid Overview

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:54 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview
Display options
Best timetable or Minimise disruption
Score
Untimetabled classes
Meetings
Teacher Unavailability
Clashes/Problems
Actions

The Master grid builds and displays the entire cyclical timetable. This document explains the screen when a timetable has been built. Refer to other documentation on how to construct a timetable.

Overview

Each coloured square represents a single lesson of a class. The colour is usually that of the Faculty to which the class was assigned in Class data, unless this has been manually altered.
Classes are associated with Year levels which are listed down the left side of the screen.
For each year level, the classes in a column are either blocked on a line or via a link, or associated with a group. In this last case, each group (either letter or number) must have a class in that column. It is possible that there is a mix of both letter and number group classes in a column if a mix rule has been used.
Sub-classes should appear in the same column as their umbrella class.
Lock symbols mean the class is hard-coded to period via Periods column in Class data and cannot be moved.
Tack symbols mean that the class is pinned to the period. Classes are pinned / unpinned by pressing the letter 'P' on the keyboard.

Display options

Classes order

By default, the grid will display classes chronologically. It is possible to view by year structures.

View chronologically: Click on the text Periods to arrange columns in period order.
View by year structure: Click on a year level to arrange in Line order, or Groups order for lower years.

Class label

By default, Line numbers (or letters) will display on classes. There are times when it is useful to change the display label to something different. Use the Display dropdown to select which detail to display on each cell.

Class pop ups

Clicking on a cell will display details about the class, with further options available to be viewed.

Use the View icon to select which details to display. Click anyway in the white space to remove the pop up from view.

Tip: Pop up classes can be dragged around the screen.

Display sizes

Adjust the font size and cell size height and width to best suit your screen. Ideally in a single campus file, all periods in the cycle should be easily visible. E.g. MonA1 through to FriB6. Enter sizes until it best fits your screen then save. Your computer will remember your preferences next time you enter the master grid.

Best timetable or Minimise disruption

When constructing, 'Best timetable' is used to allow deep shuffling of classes to find the best solution.

'Minimise disruption' is best used where only minimal changes are desired to fix an issue, such as a teacher clash. A scenario is where a timetable has been in operation for the first few weeks of the school year, then, some unexpected staff changes occur, resulting in some teacher clashes. At this point we might ask E10 to solve the clashes without affecting too many other classes.

Score

The score represents the quality of the timetable, based on the penalty weights set for each factor that contributes to class placement on the grid. The algorithms aim to create a timetable with the lowest score possible.

Clicking on the score will show a slide out with the details of the issues.

Untimetabled classes

Classes which are not yet timetabled display in the grey section.

Meetings

Meeting 'classes' also display, as it is possible to set up meetings and E1 attempt to find a suitable location for them during the timetable construction.

Teacher Unavailability

Teacher unavailability display at the bottom of the grid. The cell will display with the teacher code displays (or as much of it that will fit according to the cell width setting). A padlock symbol indicates the teacher's unavailability has been hard coded in Teacher data. No padlock symbol indicates that the teacher's day off is flexible and can be altered.

Clashes/Problems

Dots that appear at the top of the grid indicate that there is a problem with one or more classes on that period. This could be a teacher or room clash, student body clash, or other. When manually picking up a class, more dots will appear to show what would happen should you move the class to that period.

blue	= teacher clash
yellow	= room clash
cyan	= a latent clash (see below Note #1)
black	= violation of a class's 'Periods' column, as per Class data F6
white	= same class / block i.e. just swapping a class / block with itself
red	= student-body clash
small blue	= cross campus teacher clash

Other colours and symbols:

orange	= teachers with spread issues
pink	= spread problem - too many periods in the one day
grey	= a fallback teacher required (visible if Score > ‘Classes with fallback teachers’ is selected)
yellow-grey	= a fallback room required (visible if Score > ‘Classes with fallback rooms’ is selected)
small cyan	= spread problem - too many doubles or not enough doubles
small violet	= minor spread problem such as too many last periods or periods spaced too far apart or something else. You can raise or lower the threshold for when the violet spots appear via Score > 'Minimum spread score to highlight'.

Note #1 - latent clashes
A 'latent clash' refers to classes which have not yet been assigned a teacher. It means you are guaranteed to get a teacher clash unless you move classes or violate the teacher requirements. They are usually easy to solve, because if eg if 10 classes have a latent clash, you may only need to move any 1 of the 10 classes and the clash will be resolved.

Actions

The options displayed in the action bar are explained in other Knowledge Base documents.

When classes are moved around in the Master grid, their previously assigned rooms will be lost (unless a room is hardcoded to a class or there is only one room option for a class).