timetabling operations group 20 th july 2015 – h.r.b. lecture theatre, robson building
TRANSCRIPT
Timetabling Operations Group20th July 2015 – H.R.B. Lecture Theatre, Robson Building
Agenda
1. Action Points from previous meeting
2. Location Allocation update
3. Student Allocation update
4. 1516 reports
5. Start of semester system support
6. Centralisation of Services update
7. Website update, new look and feel
8. A.O.B.
Action Points from previous meeting
ACTION POINT NUMBER
ACTION POINT DETAIL STATUS
AP1 Publish list of schools who use student allocation In progress
AP2 Meet with Economics and LLC to go over solution to Semester 1 / Semester 2 splits (benefits for student allocation)
Done
AP3 Publish online times of data feeds In progress
AP4 Circulate list of 90+ locally allocated general teaching rooms that TTU will allocate into as part of MAP
Done
AP5 Circulate WIKI link Prior to start of term – when exception reports are generated
AP6 Report performance issues to Scientia Upgrade to 3.12 Oct 15
AP7 Feed back performance issues to IS Apps to test performance in different locations
Upgrade to 3.12 Oct 15
AP8 TTU to continue to investigate how to introduce travel constraint functionality
Offline testing in progress
Location Allocation Update
Dates Planned and actual
ProcessData Review and allocation period
Challenges
Reduced space, more activities than ever before
Tough decisionsHolyrood will be more heavily used
StatisticsHeadline numbers and advice
Location Allocation - DatesPlanned and actual
STAGE PLANNED DATE STATUS
Official Timetabling Process Launch 4th February 2015 As planned
Deadline for School submission of core teaching activities
29th May 2015 As planned
Data Review and allocation period 1st June 2015 – 5th July 2015 Period extended to 20th July 2015
Confirmation of initial allocations to Schools by Timetabling Unit
6th July 2015 Delayed until w/c 20th July 2015
On-going allocations and whittling of outstanding teaching allocations
6th July onwards, building up to start of Semesters 1 and 2
w/c 20th July onwards, building up to start of Semesters 1 and 2
Web Room Booking allocations Summer/Autumn 2015 Being done as and when possible re. core teaching allocations
Location Allocation - ProcessData Review and allocation period
Following the 29th May deadline for School submissions, the TTU has been conducting the following work in advance of this week’s announcement email:
Checked and tagged all core teaching activities requiring centrally-allocated locations
This year - almost 8000 activities were worked with by declaration dayLast year - A little over 6500 were worked with by D-Day
Tagged and batched-up activities into relevant scheduling groups
This year 43 different scheduling groups have been usedLast year - 31 were used
Ran multiple offline scheduling exercises for Central Area, King’s Buildings and Holyrood Campuses
This year up to 10 full-run offline exercises have been conducted to inform the live exerciseLast year - Fewer than 5 offline exercises were required
Some of this year’s offline modelling exercises have tested the flexibility of allocations for each campus
Location Allocation - ChallengesReduced space
Location Closures
Central Area CampusDavid Hume Tower (Ground Floor and up) = 22 locations
Old College (Phase 1) = 14 locationsAppleton Tower (Level 2 and up) = 7 locations
King’s Buildings CampusAdditional general teaching locations closed around campus due to university directives = 5 locations
Holyrood CampusCharteris Land (all General Teaching spaces) = 13 locations
Thomson’s Land (G9 and G10) = 2 locations
Location Allocation - ChallengesMore activities than ever before, Holyrood to the rescue
More activities
• General growth in the quantity of activities created by Timetablers
• Some Schools’ activities have also increased as a result of splitting-up semesters – actually offers a better chance of finding space
Holyrood Campus
• Holyrood Campus will be more heavily used than ever before, coping with a greater number of Central Area activities
• Allocations going to Holyrood have been carefully selected in the first instance to focus on 2+hour activities, thus limiting travel constraint problems
Location Allocation - StatisticsDeclaration Day headline numbers
ACADEMIC YEAR
TOTAL ACTIVITIES(declaration day)
Allocated Activities
Unallocated Activities
Allocated to 1st Preference %
**1516 7417 6393 (86.19%) 1024 (13.81%) 79.75%
1415 6686 6190 (92.58%) 496 (7.42%) 86.46%
1314 6005 5693 (94.88%) 312 (5.12%) 87.32%
** 1516 numbers are rough, will change a little for declaration day but still give an indication of the shifts for this year
Location Allocation - StatisticsFrequency of use by teaching slot
Location Allocation - StatisticsFrequency of use by teaching slot
Student Allocation Update
• Bulk, “whole-class” allocations commenced 16/07/15
• 8,500 Students with timetables so far
• Student course enrolments updated daily
• “whole class” allocations updated daily
• Student timetables (via MyEd) updated instantly
Sub-Group Allocation by School
School Level of allocationBiological Science Full
Biomedical Science Full
Business School PGT
Divinity Full
ECA Partial
Economics UG
Education Partial
LLC Partial
Sub-Group Allocation by School
• Training workshops delivered as required
• Carole-Anne Marshall/Marianne Brown lead TTU support
• Schools determine timing of sub-group allocations
Student Allocation – Project Update
• Project proposal to deliver:– Student self-sign-up system– Office 365 calendar feed of timetable information– 2015 -2018 implementation timeline
• Did NOT receive approval for sponsor funding
• Proposal will be re-submitted in 2016
1516 Reports
TIMETABLING DATA REPORTING REQUIREMETNS
SCHOOLS TTU
BI SUITE Reports
SSRS Reports
SPACE UTILISATIONReports
SSRS Reports
Student Sets Double
Allocated
Student Sets Double Booked with 2nd Activity
Class List Reports:Attendance sheet by Course Code
Class List Reports:Attendance sheet
by Activity
Accessible by Schools via: BI Suite Tool
Accessible by Schools via:Timetabling WIKI page
https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/TIM/Timetabling+Unit+Reports
Module size exceeds Room Capacity whole Class Sessions
Room Accessibility Report
EXCEL Extract
Accessible by Schools via:email on request
Accessible by Schools via:email on request
Module size exceeds Room Capacity whole Class Sessions
EXCEL Extract
Accessible by Schools via:email on request
Accessible by Schools via:email on request
1516 Reports
1. BI Suite Report – Class Listhttps://www-test.bobi.is.ed.ac.uk/BOE/BI
2. SSRS Student Sets Double Booked with 2nd Activityhttps://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/TIM/Timetabling+Unit+Reports
3. SSRS Module Size Exceeds Room Capacity Whole Class Sessions https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/TIM/Timetabling+Unit+Reports
1516 Reports
4. SSRS Student Sets Double Allocated
Start of semester system support
Lessons learned from 14/15:– Rebuild database during w/c 17th August to minimise risk of data
corruption– Quick switch to manual data updates in event of data interface failure– Keep large write-backs and refreshes outside business hours
Coming soon (Oct 15):– Enterprise v3.12– Introduces the “forced refresh”
Centralisation of Services update
Centralisation of Services update
Timetabling Data Location Allocation Student Allocation0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
School Preferences
PrimaryTier 1Tier 2
College Timetabling Centralisation
CSE • Not interested in additional “timetabling” support at this stage
• Agreed to recommend pilot with one School to determine possible long-term position
• Has agreed to resource transfer to cover “rooming” element of proposal
• May consider additional funding to secure modelling support as part of KB Masterplan
HSS • Provisionally in favour of full support service proposal
• Business case to be considered at Oct 15 PRG
• Would prefer consistent support model across colleges
MVM • Interested in full support service – pending further gap analysis and pilot scheme work
Centralisation of Services update
Timescale for change:
Timetabling Unit Website UpdateNew look and feel
Any other
business?