1.5.2. Visual Scheduling System
Visual Scheduling System (VSS) is an application for Colleges, to help the administration schedule their teachers and resources. They make a point to be speedy and efficient. They even go so far as to say it will save 80% of the normal time. VSS makes the program easily accessible by making the UI very simple and easy to use, and keeping the hard work behind the scenes. Any of the groups of information can be seen easily on screen. Its color and visual nature are part of its selling points. Other users have claimed that scheduling conflicts and organizing are much easier when it is categorized in colors. It also has the ability for fine tune the results afterward, so its customizable. VSS also has a wide variety of help available, from on-screen help to a step by step user manual. The program also shows information on total teaching hours, room utilization, costs, and clashes.
Good Features:
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Emphasis on speed and efficiency
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Simple look and use (hiding the technicalities)
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Ability to fine tune the end result
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Other various totals and statistics of the generated schedule
Bad Features:
All the features in the VSS seem useful and have a purpose. The only problem that one might conceive is that it gives too much information.
Missing Features:
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An auto generate schedule function. The VSS is easy to use, but much of the work still has to be done by the user, with drag and drop.
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A load last quarter function. It seems as if each quarter you must start fresh.
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A get teachers preferences function. The VSS still has the administrator in charge of figuring out when a teacher wants to work. A teacher with special time constraints must keep reminding the administrator, because the program won’t stop them.
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A get students preferences function. VSS doesn’t allow any student involvement at the moment.
The VSS program is a great starting point for our product, but it still lacks what we consider to be core functions of our intended product.
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