2.5.1. Admin Preference Setting
The admin can edit the priority of preferences by selecting 'Preference Settings' from the Edit
drop-down menu. A preference is a condition that is met as well as possible by the schedule generator,
but whose conditions are not necessarily met. This changes how the schedules will be generated, because
different priority will be considered by the schedule generator based on how the administrator arranges
these preferences. The administrator can then click and drag around the preferences to adjust which
has a higher priority. The preference with the highest priority is at the top, the lowest at the
bottom. Once the preferences are at the desired priority the administrator can click the 'Confirm Changes' button
to confirm these settings.
The preferences available for ordering are as follows:
time preferences - the hours that an instructor would prefer to teach.
time continuity (lecture/lab) - determines if a lecture and lab section will have adjacent time slots.
course - which courses the instructors would like to teach.
distance - how far a class can be away from another if it is taught by the same instructor.
WTU - the total number of teaching units an instructor may teach per quarter.
Important Note: These are not the preferences of the Instructors themselves. This is to set the priority of use
of the personal preferences set by the Instructor.
As seen above in Figure 2.5.1-2, the preferences can be rearranged to a different order. These changes
affect the way a schedule is generated in the following way:
If the preferences are set with Time Continuity and Distance as the highest priority, and Courses as a
lower priority, as seen in Figure 2.5.1-1, a schedule is generated based more on the instructor's time and
distance preferences
over course preferences, as seen in Figure 2.5.1-3. For example, Bellardo gets a course (CPE 101) rated lower
on the preference scale (a 7 instead of a 9), because the 7 priority course allows for a continuous lab/lecture
time in the same classroom.
