E10 - View lines: Results of line generation

Modified on Thu, 14 Aug at 12:52 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble
View lines
Scores and statistics
Action bar functions

Preamble

Once the 'Generate lines' action has been performed, it is time to view the results. The algorithm has attempted to find the best possible solution to meet student choice, school resources and the file parameters.

Once a solution is found, the user is taken to the Lines > Line results > View lines screen to see the suggested lines solution.

It is likely that users do not accept the first solution, and find that they have omitted entering some data, such as Rules, VLinks, Hlinks, Parameters etc. The data can be entered or tweaked, and then lines generated again until an acceptable solution is found.

View lines

Navigate to Lines > Line results > View lines

Example lines of a single year dataset (Year 11):

Example lines of a single year dataset, timetabled around another year (Year 10 around Year 12):

Example lines of a multi-year (Years 12, 11 & 10) dataset:

Lines screen explained

Each line is numbered or lettered, whichever is entered in the Elective data > Courses > Parameters: Letter or number of first line field.
If a multi-year level dataset has been set up, each year level will display in a separate row.
Each class shows the number of students in the class in brackets eg (23). If the class is at capacity (as entered in the Elective data > Courses > MaxS column), an asterisk will show after the number eg (25*).
Classes may be double clicked to show the list of students in the class.
Year long subjects take up the full cell of the line, and rotation based subjects show as half the space of the full year class.
If term based classes are set up, then these will show as quarters of the full year class.
Where there are rotated classes, the classes to the left of the line will run in Rotation 1, and the classes to the right of the line will run in Rotation 2. In the below image, 9AAP and 9AEP run on Line 1 for the full year. Classes 9BLD and 9DTC will run on Line 1 in Rotation 1, and classes 9ACT and 9FAI2 will run on Line 1 in Rotation 2.

Part timer information

Part time staff restraints are highlighted at the top of the line if the line contains a class that requires a part time teacher as the only teacher option. The class itself will also display the part time restraint.

Tes Timetable's line generation algorithm attempts to group classes requiring part time staff together to allow for greater timetabling flexibility, so it is very important that where known, the Teacher data has this information entered.

In the image below, we can see:

Line 1: There is a part time teacher who needs 2 days off as per the entry: pt 2d. The class 12VCD is the class who needs this teacher.
Line 2: There is a part time teacher who needs Monday off as per the entry: Mon. The class is 12REV
Line 3: There are a couple of restraints on this line; a teacher needs Monday off, plus there are some other needs (not displayed) where teachers need 2daysoff, and 3daysoff. The full display would provide the breakdown.
Line 5: There are no part time restraints on this line.

From a timetabling perspective when analysing the suggested lines, there may be concern that there are two lines (Lines 2 and 3) that cannot run on Mondays, but this is individual to each school's set up and for the user to determine.

Study, Places and Places Short

Study: Students who are not in a class on each line are included in the 'Study' number at the bottom of each year's line of classes. This Study number is shown on a rotation basis, as the study roster is done on a rotation based roster. It may be acceptable to have students in certain year levels in the Study number, ie not in a class on the line, as they may be allowed to be in a Study class when this line is running on the timetable, but in some years students must be in a class on every line. In that case, Study numbers communicate the number of students who have not received a full course, and need further counselling. (These students will also be highlighted in pink in the Student's results table).

Places: A warning is given if the total available places in classes on each line starts to get a little tight when considering the unallocated students (Study number). It is based on the MaxS entries form the Courses screen.
If each class on the line was to be filled to capacity, the 'Places' warning will show if there is room for 11 or less students. This is particularly helpful to ensure that in years where all students must be in a class in every line they can actually fit into a class, and also when considering how many new students could be accepted into the school and placed into classes.

Places short: If there are not enough available places for unallocated students in the classes on the line, based on the MaxS course entries, a warning will show of 'places short'. If this occurs, schools may need to add more classes, or increase MaxS class capacity.

In the image below, we can see:

Year 11: there are 8 students who are not in any of the classes running on Line 4. There are 17 places available in these classes, so the 8 students can easily be placed into these classes, and this would leave only a further 9 places for new students.
Year 10: there are 19 students in Rotation 1 and 25 in Rotation 2 who are not in classes. There are 14 places available in the classes in Rotation 1, and 19 places available in Rotation 2. Both rotations cannot fit the unallocated students, represented by the 5 places short message in Rotation 1 and the 6 places short message in Rotation 2.

Reserved lines

Where year levels have been restricted to run on only a certain number of lines (Lines > Elective data > Courses > Parameters > #Elective Lines) such as 3/6, the 'Reserved' line entry is displayed. This applies to multi-year datasets or datasets that are being 'timetabled around' other year levels.

Example: A Year 9 dataset's parameters include #Elective lines = 3/6, and is timetabled around Year 12. The algorithm will find the best three of the six Year 12 lines to place the Year 9 classes. The unused lines will display as 'Reserved'.

Offline

Any courses that were marked as 'offline' in the Elective data > Courses > Lines column show in the Offline column.
When classes are created, these classes will also be sent to the F6 Class data screen with class lists. They may need manual editing at this point, easily done in F6 Class data.

Dropped

If classes were not able to be placed onto any of the lines, they will appear in the Dropped column. Some analysis can be done to understand why the class could not be placed. It could be that the parameters allowed the 'Explore drops' feature, there were no available resources for it to be placed, or constraints were blocking them from the lines.

Display options

The display options of this screen can be found via the View Fields to show menu and include:

Use subject colours: Displays each class by faculty colour.
Sort by: Class code: Displays the classes alphabetically by code
Sort by: Class size: Displays the classes in each line by size (highest to lowest).

Manual manipulation of lines

Tes timestable provides the best solution when considering staffing options, part time staff availability, student choice, course and class constraints, as well as a 'Timetable flexibility' factor. However, it is possible to manually rearrange classes in the lines should this be needed. Classes can be dragged and dropped from one line to another, with the results being immediately updated in the statistics area at the bottom of the screen.

If there are problems with a manual move, a pop up will explain the issue, and could include:

a) having insufficient teachers to put the class in the line

b) having insufficient rooms to put the class in the line

c) constraints are being broken

In the example below, 12DES was in the dropped column, and manually placed onto Line 2. The message highlights the issue; the only teacher option for this class (EBLA) is already teaching in that line (11DES).

Pinning classes to Lines

Classes may be 'pinned' by clicking on the class and pressing P on the keyboard (pressing P again will unpin). Any pinned classes will display a 'P' on the pinned class. It is possible to pin certain classes in place, then optimise the lines solution to force that class to stay where it is while allowing the other classes to move around to find a better solution.

Scores and statistics

A statistics table displays underneath the lines outlining the results for all year levels included in the dataset. The table will update as manual changes are made or when selecting the optimise function.
Refer also to the Students and Analysis tabs for more analysis information.

Score

The Score will vary between schools, as every school is dealing with different data. As with all areas using Tes Timetable's algorithms, the lower this figure the better, as it is the result of penalty weightings.
Click onto the Score to display a pop up showing how the score is arrived at.

Sum student scores: The total of all penalty scores assigned to students who did not receive their main preferences (found in the Students results screen).

Part-timers: the algorithm reads the Teacher data part-time requirements and tries to group part-timers together on lines. This allows for greater flexibility when it comes time to place the classes onto the Grid. It would be no good to have several teachers needing Monday off, but have them all teaching on different lines. It would mean there are several lines that cannot be placed on Monday, and possibly not enough other classes that can run on Monday.

This is a good reminder to check that your part-time teacher information is correct for the following year, as it has a significant impact on the lines developed for the following year.

Success rate

The Success rate will also vary from school to school. Percentages in the high 90s are best, but not always possible, depending on the constraints at the school. Smaller schools running single number of classes for each subject will have a harder time getting a high result, whereas schools offering multiple classes of the same subjects can have them running across multiple lines, allowing greater shuffling of student subject placement.

Missed main preferences

This number is a total of the #missed column entries from the Student results screen. Note that it is not as useful as the Students not perfect figure.

Missed prefs (insufficient places)

This number represents the number of students who did not get a main preference due to insufficient places. These will already have been apparent in the Elective data > Courses screen.

Missed prefs (cancelled courses)

The number of students who did not get a main preference due to the course being cancelled.

Students missing units

This is an important piece of information; it is the number of students who do not have a full program. These students will need further counselling and discussion about which alternate subjects they might wish to undertake.

Students not perfect

This figure is the number of students who did not receive all of their main preferences. Many will have received their reserve preferences, so it is not the number of students with incomplete programs (see above 'Students missing units' field).

Collecting reserve preferences from students will assist in granting students a full program, and require less staff counselling time.

Action bar functions

Missed courses & preferences: An analysis tool displaying which subjects were missed, and how many, by students.

Optimise solution: The Optimise function is run after viewing the initial results and checking for obvious errors or omissions in the set up data.

Populate classes: This action can be performed to attempt to improve the student results without changing the line solution.

Create classes: The action to transfer the classes on lines to classes in Class data (F6).

Each of the Action bar functions has it's own detailed document.