Timetable Interviews: Event Status 3 - Generate schedule

Modified on Fri, 26 Sep at 6:36 AM

Each status is explained in its own detailed article.

Generate schedule status is only applicable to Timetabling mode. For schools using Booking mode, proceed to the document 'Timetable Interviews: Event Status 4 - Open to book'.

After families have entered their availability times and the teachers they wish to see, the Administrator is able to generate the schedule using Tes's advanced algorithms.

Steps to generate a schedule

1. Edit the event and select the Generate schedule status.

A new option will display for the event.

2. Select 'Generate schedule'.

A new window will display with many settings to check prior to generating the schedule, as well as a number of tabs showing schedule results.

3. Check / edit settings

Interviews

If interviews exist, for example, teachers who are also parents have already booked, or if the Administrator has manually booked some appointments, there may already be some data in this section.

The Administrator can choose to Pin these bookings in place, or regenerate afresh.

Rooms

Choose whether to keep any existing room assignments that may have been entered into the Event set up > Rooms tab, or reassign rooms afresh.

Parameters

Interview duration: this has already been entered during the event set up, but can be changed here if necessary.
Max auto-granted interviews per child: self-explanatory.
Max minutes a parent can be idle: While families may have entered their availability as several hours, the Administrator can set the maximum time the family can have between appointments.
Max back-to-back interviews parents can be given: forces a gap between appointments when maximum consecutive booking is reached. Note that the minimum value that can be entered here is 1. When 1 is entered, Tes will attempt to prevent back-to-back interviews for parents, where availability allows, thus forcing a gap between all parent interviews. To decrease the chance of parents getting back-to-back interviews when the value above is 1, it is recommended that the advanced parameter for Back-to-back interviews for parents, above ideal max, as shown below, is set to a very high weight such as 1000.
Max minutes between teacher breaks: self-explanatory.

Advanced...

The back end algorithms may be changed by the user if they wish to do so. Each setting has an onscreen Explain button to assist.

Early marks

This setting allows the algorithms to favour scheduling appointments earlier rather than later, allowing the teachers to go home early if the demand to see them means they will not have a full schedule. The system can force a desired number of slots to be free after the last booked interview, perhaps for administrative purposes.

4. Generate

Select the Generate button to generate the schedule.

5. Check the results

Statistics

A large number of statistics based on the generated schedule are displayed on screen, and each has its own explanation.

Event schedule

The overall event schedule will display.

- Select the Excel icon to take this table to an excel file

- If the event has multiple sessions, select the session date to see the schedule for the session

- Hover over a student code to see the name of the student booked to see the teacher at that time

- Greyed out cells signify breaks or teacher unavailability

Teacher schedules

Teacher schedules will display.

- If the event has multiple sessions, select the session date to see the teacher schedule for the session

- Select a teacher from the right hand side to see their schedule

Family schedules

Family schedules will display.

- Select a student from the right hand side to see their schedule. If the students have siblings, these bookings will also display.

Room schedules

The list of teachers will display along with the room they have been assigned for the event.

- Select the Excel icon to take this table to an excel file.

6. Save and exit

The schedule may be completely cleared by selecting Event > Clear generated schedule if required.

At some stage in the process the Administrator will deem that this stage is finished, and will move onto the next status: Open to book