2.2 Basic Schedule Generation

In this scenario, the Scheduler tool is used by an scheduling administrator to generate a basic schedule. The scenario assumes that the instructor, room, and class databases have already been set up. For more information about the scheduler tool databases, please see section 2.3 Database Management.

Generating a schedule can be done in "phases". Each phase represents the generation of a different draft. For example, after Phase 1 a first draft schedule is generated. After making some administrative changes to the databases or preferences, a second draft schedule can be generated for Phase 2. Phase 2 may be repeated multiple times by an administrator. Finally, after reviewing the generated schedule, a final draft schedule would be submitted to the scheduling office in Phase 3. The following scenario describes an administrator going through these phases.

Phase 1 of basic schedule generation is the creation of the first draft. When the administrator clicks the "Generate New Schedule" button shown in Figure 2.1.1.1, the dialog box shown in figure 2.2.1 will open.

The administrator selects the quarter they wish to create a schedule for in the drop down box labeled "Quarter". When a quarter is selected, the administrator selects if they want to generate a schedule, create a schedule manually, or create a new schedule from an existing schedule. For basic schedule generation, the "Generate New Schedule" is chosen.

The "Generate New Schedule" option automatically generates a schedule for administrators. This option takes the quarter selected and creates a schedule that best accommodates to the instructor preferences, student input, available courses, and available rooms. If an administrator selects this option and clicks "Go", they will immediately be taken to the "View Schedule" interface to view the automatically generated schedule. Figure 2.5.3 shows the schedule view that is immediately shown to the administrator. See section 2.5 Viewing Schedules for more information on viewing schedules.

This completes Phase 1 of basic schedule generation. After viewing the generated schedule, the administrator can make various changes to the preferences of instructors and students to attempt to make a better schedule. These preferences can be altered as shown in Section 2.4.2 Administrator Preference Setting.

After altering the preferences, a second schedule can be generated if the administrator follows the above steps again. This completes Phase 2 of basic schedule generation. After the administrator reviews the schedule, they can choose to submit the schedule to the scheduling office or repeat Phase 2 and attempt to generate a better schedule. Once the schedule has been submitted to the scheduling office, Phase 3 of schedule generation has been complete.