Hours allocation policy

It describes a breakdown, it does not schedule

A policy states: so many lessons, of such a length, for such an audience. It builds no lesson of its own and places none on the grid.

Scheduling work is carried out on the Distribute the hours and create the lessons screen, and there alone: that is where lessons are created, adjusted and placed. All the policy does is tell that screen what it should hold — and point out when it does not.

Where a policy sits

A policy belongs to the course — the subject as it is taught to one class. Two classes following the same subject each have their own. A course split by type (lecture, tutorial) counts as a separate course, hence a separate policy.

Opening the policy of a course

In the timetable, open a class then its Courses tab. Each course unfolds onto its options; the Hours allocation policy entry opens the editor through the Hours allocation policy button.

The editor lists one rule per series of expected lessons. An input row waits at the bottom of the table; fill it in and confirm it with Add. Each saved rule can be duplicated or removed through its end-of-row buttons, and Approve saves the whole set.

The columns of a rule

Code — the code of these lessons in the institution's own nomenclature. Optional, and free: two rules may carry the same code when they describe the same teaching unit split over two rhythms, or one teaching shared between several groups.

Group — one or more groups of the class. Left empty, it means No group: the lesson addresses the whole class. Several groups named together form a single audience, as on a lesson.

Teachers and Classrooms have three states, the same as on a lesson:

• left empty, they impose nothing: the rule takes no position, and the lessons it creates are free on that side. They are completed afterwards like any other lesson;
• No teacher and No classroom demand lessons that carry none;
• a list demands exactly that one.

Hours distribution — the number of lessons and the length of each: 4 × 2 h. A single rule only describes lessons of identical length; a volume split into different lengths is stated over several rules.

Recurrence — the rhythm wanted: twice a week, or once every three weeks, for example. This is an instruction addressed to automatic generation: it tells it how to spread the lessons over time. The rhythm plays no part in the gap check, which only judges whether lessons exist.

Two settings govern this column, at two levels. The class carries Recurring lessons: its lessons repeat on a weekly pattern instead of being positioned one by one — a setting that only exists on a calendar timetable. A course of that class can opt out through Outside recurrence: its automatic positioning will then follow no pattern. So the column appears only on a recurring course of a recurring class; elsewhere the policy still states how many lessons and of what length, but nothing of their rhythm.

Automatic lets the rhythm be derived from the number of lessons against the teaching weeks: eight lessons over twelve weeks give two lessons every three weeks.

Keep this rhythm and the number of lessons consistent with each other. A rhythm that calls for more lessons than the rule holds cannot be met: the count turns red to say so.

Comment — free text for whoever will place these lessons: "room in a U shape", "mornings preferably". The Comment button fills in as soon as a comment exists. The comment reads on hover.

Putting a rule to sleep

A rule asking for 0 lessons is asleep, flagged in orange: it expects nothing and reports no gap, while keeping its group, its teachers, its length and its code for later. This is how a series is suspended without losing its description.

Entering it as a spreadsheet

The Table icon switches the list to Table, one row per rule and one column per piece of information. The switch is there to paste a whole policy from a spreadsheet, in one go, rather than rule by rule. Switch back to the list for the dropdowns and the checkboxes: both views work on the same policy.

Reading the gap

On the Hours distribution screen, each course carries a conformity indicator under its hours counter. Its colour sums the situation up:

A lesson matches a rule when it respects all of it: the same groups, the same teachers, the same classrooms and the same length. One of those differing is enough for it to count as a gap.

Hovering details the situation rule by rule: what each one asks for, what it gets and its comment if it has one. The lines that follow, where there are any, gather by group the lessons without a match — those the policy does not describe.

The same gap surfaces in the timetable's diagnostic panel, under the heading Gap with the hours allocation policy. You find it there without going through the classes one by one (see Conflicts and diagnostic).

Create, reconcile, delete

Click the indicator to act. As long as no lesson has been created for this course, there is nothing to arbitrate: every lesson the policy describes is created straight away. Once some exist, a window opens and offers, for each rule, the following actions:

• Create the missing lessons, with the group, the teachers, the classroom and the length the rule imposes;
• Reconcile an existing lesson that strays from the expected criteria: it is adapted to the rule rather than re-created. The candidates are offered folded away, the closest first, with what would change;
• Delete the lessons without a match in the policy.

Nothing is ticked in advance on the deletion side; one lesson cannot be both reconciled and deleted.

Automatic allocation follows the policy

The Actions menu of the allocation screen offers an Automatic allocation in lessons of one, two or three periods. On a course carrying a policy, the policy wins: the lessons created are the ones it describes, whatever length the button carries. Courses without a policy follow the length asked for.

Finding the code on a lesson

On the allocation screen, in Sticky notes view, the card of a lesson shows the code of the rule it matches — provided it matches one rule only.

That code is not stored in the lesson: it is read back each time from what the lesson holds. Change its group, its teachers, its classroom or its length, and the code shown changes with it, or disappears if no rule describes it any more. Could two rules with different codes claim it? The card shows nothing, rather than choosing for you.