Timetabling Operations Group
20th 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
TTU to continue to investigate how to introduce travel constraint
functionality
Upgrade to 3.12 Oct 15
AP8
Offline testing in progress
Location Allocation Update
Dates
Planned and actual
Process
Data Review and allocation period
Challenges
Reduced space, more activities than
ever before
Tough decisions
Holyrood will be more heavily used
Statistics
Headline numbers and advice
Location Allocation - Dates
Planned 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 - Process
Data 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 day
Last 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 used
Last 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 exercise
Last 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 - Challenges
Reduced space
Location Closures
Central Area Campus
David Hume Tower (Ground Floor and up) = 22 locations
Old College (Phase 1) = 14 locations
Appleton Tower (Level 2 and up) = 7 locations
King’s Buildings Campus
Additional general teaching locations closed around campus due to university directives = 5 locations
Holyrood Campus
Charteris Land (all General Teaching spaces) = 13 locations
Thomson’s Land (G9 and G10) = 2 locations
Location Allocation - Challenges
More 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 - Statistics
Declaration Day headline numbers
TOTAL ACTIVITIES
**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%
(declaration day)
Allocated
Activities
Unallocated
Activities
Allocated to 1st
Preference %
ACADEMIC
YEAR
** 1516 numbers are rough, will change a little for declaration day but still give an indication
of the shifts for this year
Location Allocation - Statistics
Frequency of use by teaching slot
Location Allocation - Statistics
Frequency 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 allocation
Biological 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
BI SUITE
Reports
Class List Reports:
Attendance sheet
by Activity
Class List Reports:
Attendance sheet
by Course Code
Accessible by Schools via:
BI Suite Tool
TTU
SSRS
Reports
Student Sets
Double
Allocated
Student Sets
Double Booked
with 2nd Activity
EXCEL
Extract
Module size
exceeds Room
Capacity whole
Class Sessions
Module size
exceeds Room
Capacity whole
Class Sessions
Accessible by Schools via:
Timetabling WIKI page
https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/TIM/
Timetabling+Unit+Reports
SSRS
Reports
Accessible by Schools via:
email on request
SPACE UTILISATION
Reports
EXCEL
Extract
Accessible by Schools via:
email on request
Accessible by Schools via:
email on request
Room Accessibility
Report
Accessible by Schools via:
email on request
1516 Reports
1. BI Suite Report – Class List
https://www-test.bobi.is.ed.ac.uk/BOE/BI
2. SSRS Student Sets Double Booked with 2nd Activity
https://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
School Preferences
18
16
14
12
10
Primary
Tier 1
8
Tier 2
6
4
2
0
Timetabling Data
Location Allocation
Student Allocation
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 Update
New look and feel
Any
other
business?