Concatenated lessons

Concatenated lessons are two lessons that must be placed consecutively within the day. The solver guarantees that they follow each other with nothing in between.

Typical cases:

• a 2-hour practical built from two 1-hour blocks,
• a lecture followed by a tutorial (an introductory lecture, then an application tutorial),
• a 2-hour double exam session on a 1 h × 2 slot.

Creation

Drag and drop one lesson under another in the hours distribution view. The two lessons then appear stuck together, one below the other, forming a single block.

Detaching

The "scissors" button that appears on hover between two concatenated lessons splits the concatenation. The two lessons then become independent again.

Why not create a single, longer lesson?

Good question. Two main reasons to concatenate rather than lengthen:

1. The lessons can have different types (a lecture concatenated with a tutorial), or different teachers, or different rooms.
2. You want the statistics to count two separate lessons (two lesson-log entries) rather than one.

If all the attributes are identical, lengthening a single lesson is simpler. Concatenation brings flexibility where it is needed.