This is the first procedure that we have on how to run scheduler.
Run through simulations after block builder has run (and before, because why not!) excluding academic block and instructors and run it for only rooms, then add instructors, then add in blocks, this will help save some conflicts while you’re scheduling.
Run this my view “Prof on Group 1“ to look at all the instructors attached to held withs and add them accordingly.
Deactivate all the held withs, then re-activate them all to catch any that aren’t aligned with the same delivery information.
Take back all of the different room types that are actually REG rooms (SPLC, CIVEHR, ect)
Create a spreadsheet, or list that has all of the held with courses listed and their combined cap totals in order, this way you aren’t surprised after you’ve already scheduled a 300+ seat room and then you find you have one more to push in there!
check the PAM’s - fix as needed
take a back up in Timetabler
running scheduler starting with the highest capped courses first schedule them according to room size. Like start with the biggest room and schedule only it, then after those conflicts are dealt with, move on to the next biggest, and so and so on.
Email reps if you cannot schedule a course without overriding academic blocks, we in the past used to find a place with the fewest conflicts, turns out that’s a bad idea, and created more problems in the long run for the reps.
Keep scheduling in all the rooms until you’re done. If a rep hasn’t got back to you and you have finished, schedule them wherever, and then they have to figure it out.
After scheduler is “done” we run a bunch of validations trying to get instructors back to back in the same room (or pavilion if room isn’t possible) or close to the pavilion if we can. This isn’t always possible due to room size issues, if they are schedule in at 8:30 in M3 with a big class, then they have a 30 capped class next, clearly it’s not going into M3, but we can try for MC? Or move the courses so that there’s a gap for them.
We also go through the notes one more time seeing if there’s any that we couldn’t accommodate before, that now we can.
Once we are all done it’s usually time to hand it back to the reps.