If a schedule has already been generated, and the user prefers not to manually edit the schedule, he or she can have the application make the changes instead by editing the criteria on which the application generates the schedule. The user changes information by selecting either 'Courses', 'Instructors', or 'Classrooms' from the category toolbar and then using the corresponding edit window. As an example, if the user notices that A. Keen is teaching CPE 101-01 from 10:10 AM to 12:00 PM in the View Schedule window (a portion of which is reproduced in Figure 2.6.3-1), and he or she wants to change the time of the course, he or she would change the times at which A. Keen is available to teach.
Figure 2.6.3-1: View Schedule window excerpt showing CPE 101-01 scheduled in the morning.
To change A. Keen's available times, the user enters the Instructors category, selects A. Keen from the instructors list, clicks 'Edit Instructor', selects the 'Time Preferences' tab of the Edit an Instructor window, and deselects the morning times. As shown in Figure 2.6.3-2, the afternoon times for A. Keen are already set as available, but if they were not the user could now set them as so.
Figure 2.6.3-2: Changing an instructor's time preferences.
After clicking 'OK' to confirm the time preference changes, the user updates the schedule by returning to the View Schedule window, most notably with the 'Update the Schedule' button and not the 'Generate a Schedule' button. Pressing this button will take the new changes into effect. One possible schedule would be with A. Keen now teaching CPE 101-01 in the afternoon as shown in Figure 2.6.3-3.
Figure 2.6.3-3: View Schedule window excerpt showing CPE 101-01 scheduled in the afternoon.
It is important to note that it is not guaranteed that A. Keen will still be teaching CPE 101-01. When a schedule is updated the only schedule blocks which are guaranteed to remain the same are those which have the 'Do Not Allow Auto-Generator to Edit' property checked in the Edit Schedule window (these are known as 'locked' schedule blocks). The auto-generator is given the flexibility to completely change a schedule block without this property, allowing the auto-generator to create the most fair schedule based on the most current information in the course, instructor, and classroom databases. The methods used to update the schedule are similar to those for initially generating the schedule, with the exception that locked schedule blocks exist and will not be changed.