Large room (several simultaneous lessons)

A large room is a classroom that can host several different lessons at the same time, with different teachers and groups unrelated to each other. You declare it by filling in the Maximum number of classes field on the room: this number sets how many distinct lessons can take place there in parallel.

Typical examples: an exam room, a hall, an outdoor space (courtyard, theater, sports field, museum...), a gym, a swimming pool — all places where several independent activities coexist.

Reserved for specialised rooms

The Maximum number of classes field only appears on a room that has a specialisation. You therefore first give the room a specialisation (sports, exam, swimming pool, outdoors…), then set its maximum number of simultaneous classes. This is consistent: a shared large room is always a space specialised for a particular activity, and the specialisation also serves to steer the right subjects to it.

How Omniscol uses it

On each time slot, the solver and conflict detection allow as many lessons to be placed in the room as the Maximum number of classes permits, as long as the sum of their headcounts stays within the room's capacity. Beyond either of these ceilings — too many parallel lessons, or capacity exceeded — Omniscol reports a conflict.

A room left without a Maximum number of classes behaves like an ordinary room: one lesson at a time.

Large room or multi-room?

The two notions play on the room ↔ lesson pair, in two opposite directions:

• a large room gathers several lessons in a single room;
• a multi-room lesson conversely occupies several rooms for a single lesson (its capacity is then the sum of the assigned rooms).