Teaching School: building, sending and publishing the timetable

The timetable

The "Timetable" screen builds the timetable from the teachers, classes, subjects and approved constraints.

• "Build a timetable" creates a version. Every build is a new version, and the board can highlight what changed against another version.
• "Longest solve time" sets how long the system searches. A choice in seconds (up to 50) is computed on the page and you can stay on it. A choice in minutes, and any school with more than 400 lessons a week (a grouping counts once), is computed in the background: the "Solving in the background" panel shows progress, you can close the page and come back, and "Cancel the solve" stops it (no new timetable is saved). When the solve ends an email with a link arrives: "The timetable is ready", or a message that no timetable was found, that time ran out or that the solve did not finish.
• After a background solve that ended with a timetable, the next one can start only an hour later (the message says in how many minutes). A solve that failed, was cancelled or found no timetable does not count.
• The board can be viewed "By class" or "By teacher". You can drag a lesson to another place, "Lock" a lesson so that a new build will not move it, and "Unlock" it later. "Solve again" builds again and keeps the locked lessons and, as far as possible, everything else.
• A table shows which of your wishes were met and which were not, with the reason. When no timetable is possible, the system says which constraints are in conflict.
• "Send to teachers and publish": the proposal goes to all the teachers by email. Each teacher opens their link, sees the proposal and can write a comment. A comment becomes a constraint that waits for your approval, and only an approved constraint counts in the next build. "Publish" makes the version the school's timetable, and the previously published version moves to the archive.
• "Export to Excel" downloads a version, a sheet for each class and each teacher.

The "No gaps for classes" rule

In "More", under "The school week", there is the rule "No windows for classes": a class is not left with a free lesson in the middle of the day. If it makes a build impossible, turn it off. Gaps will be rare, but they become possible.

Versions and the board

• Every version is in one state: draft, sent to the teachers, published or archived. Next to the version it says what created it: a new solve, a manual change or the teachers' comments. "Archive" is possible for a draft and for a proposal, and you publish another version to move the published one to the archive.
• The stats line shows how many lessons there are, how many wishes were not met and how long the solve took. A note "a good timetable was found, not proven to be the best" means the system stopped when the time ran out and did not prove that no better one exists.
• A lesson whose teacher is not set yet shows "teacher set when solved": the choice was left to the solve.
• "Solve again" solves again and keeps the locked lessons and, as far as possible, everything else. "Solve a new one from scratch" starts from scratch, and a window says that there are locked lessons: "Keep the locks" or "From scratch, no locks".
• "Discard changes" cancels all the changes that are waiting for a solve.

When a timetable cannot be built

The board says that a timetable cannot be built with these rules, and shows the smallest group of rules that contradict each other. The explanation is either written by a language model and checked against the list, or it is a fixed explanation of the system, and it says which of the two. Every rule on the list is a constraint, a locked lesson, a teacher's maximum hours a day or a school rule; release or change one of them to try again.

When the problem is in the structure, the message says what to change:

• A grouping includes classes from different grades: keep classes of one grade in the grouping.
• A teacher set for a lesson is unavailable all week: release the unavailability constraint or choose another teacher.
• There is no teacher for a subject: add a teacher who teaches it, or set a teacher in the class cell.
• One teacher is set for two levels of the same grouping: choose another teacher for one of the levels.
• A class has more lessons than places in the week: lower the hours or add lessons a day in "More".
• A teacher has more lessons than she can teach: move lessons to another teacher or raise her maximum hours a day.

In the "What was met and what was not" table, in the "Reason" column, the system explains why a constraint was not met or not applied, for example that the subject was not found in any class, that a class has no homeroom teacher, that a shared room needs a subject, or that the system cannot yet apply a constraint of this kind.

Building, sending and publishing, step by step

1. On the "Timetable" screen choose "Longest solve time" and press "Build a timetable". A new version is created.
2. In the "What was met and what was not" table check which constraints were not met and why.
3. To change: press a lesson and then "Move" and choose another cell, or "Lock" to fix it in place. You can also drag a lesson to another cell.
4. Above the board you see how many changes are waiting for a solve and how many lessons will look for a new place. "Solve again" solves according to the changes.
5. "Mark what changed compared with version" highlights the cells that changed on the board.
6. When ready, press "Send to teachers", choose the language of the letter and press "Send to all teachers".
7. Under "Who received it and who answered" you see who received it, who opened it and who wrote a comment. A comment enters the next build only after you approve its constraint on the "Constraints" screen. Then press "Solve again from the feedback". A comment that should not enter gets "Decline the comment".
8. Press "Publish" and confirm. The version becomes the school's timetable, and the one published before it moves to the archive. The first publish starts the 14 days to pay.