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Corporate

Information

& Computing

Services.

10-12 Brunswick St

Sheffield S10 2FN

Cliff Alcock

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (0114) 2223194

Scheduling Rules within Facility CMIS

Links, Blocks and Orderings

2016 Training Course

mailto:[email protected]

Scheduling rules: links, blocks and orderings

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Scheduling rules

Scheduling rules in Facility CMIS apply to individual events on the timetable, instead of to the whole

resource, and will determine how events are to be scheduled; for example, events at the same time

in different weeks, to follow one another in a specified order, to use the same resources such as the

same room.

The main scheduling tools in CMIS are:

Block Specifies that a number of events will have the same day & time. Optionally

you may also specify the Same Lecturer and Same Room for the blocked

events.

A Block must have at least two events, but there is no upper limit to the

number of events in a Block.

Ordering Specifies that any two events must be scheduled with a minimum/maximum

gap between them – this is sometimes referred to as ‘sequencing’.

Link Links can be used to spread or compress the scheduling of the events across

the day or week.

Links can also be used to limit the number of events scheduled per day e.g.

you could have 4 events to schedule and specify that there should be no

more than one per day.

Links can also optionally specify that events should have Same Lecturer,

Same Room, Same Weeks and Same Start Time.

Exclusions Specifies that a number of events should not be scheduled at the same

day/time.



Blocks

A Block in CMIS simply means two or more events that must have the same day and start

time. Often this will be used to group events which run in alternate weeks and can use a

single room, or else may be used to keep modules at the same time where they run across

two semesters.

Creating Blocks

To create a Block go to

Timetable | Blocks

the following window is opened

The top half of the window shows Blocks that have already been created. The bottom half

of the window shows which events are to be included in the Block.

Drag & Drop functions are used to create the Block, therefore it is useful to have a timetable

window open next to the Blocks window.



In the timetable window, highlight the events which are to be part of the block

Drag the events into the bottom pane of the Blocks window

The Block code is taken from the unit code of the first event in the Block. If several

Blocks are to be created for the same module the code will be coded .1, .2, .3 etc.

An optional name can be given to the Block – useful if there are several to be

created.

Tick the box to specify Same Staff – if required

Tick the box to specify Same Room – if required

Click New to save the Block

The Block will look something like the example below



Orderings

Orderings allow you to specify minimum or maximum gaps between two events. For example if ou

want to ensure that a tutorial will immediately follow a lecture you would set up an ordering with a

gap of 0 hours. This will ensure that whenever the lecture is scheduled the tutorial will follow; if the

lecture is moved then the tutorial will also move.

Orderings can only be made up of two events. If you want a number of events to follow one after

another then you will need to set up a ‘chain’ of orderings.

Orderings also have an option to be placed in ‘any order’ – meaning that either event could be

placed first.

To create an Ordering go to

Timetable | Orderings


The top half of the window shows Orderings that have already been created. The bottom

half of the window shows which events are to be included in the Ordering (First and

Second).

Drag & Drop functions are used to create the Ordering, therefore it is useful to have a

timetable window open next to the Orderings window.



Below can be seen an ordering in which a lecture for a Unit is to be followed, with a gap of 0

hours, by a tutorial group. This gap of 0 hours means that the tutorial will follow the lecture

immediately, wherever that lecture is scheduled.

In this example the lecture will be scheduled first to be followed by the tutorial. But you

may have examples where the order of the two events is not important, you simply need to

have the specified gap between the events, in such an example you can tick the Any Order

tick box at the bottom of the Ordering window.

Once the events have been added to the Ordering, you should

specify whether the minimum gap should be in Hours or Days

specify whether the maximum gap should be in Hours or Days

You may also wish to give the Ordering a name and/or owner so that it may easily be found later.

You should take care when using orderings where an event is scheduled at the start/end of the day

or week. For example, if you specify a minimum gap of two days between events, but then the first

is scheduled on a Thursday; there will be insufficient days in the week to ensure the minimum gap is

maintained.



Chains of Orderings

If you need to place several events in an order such as

A B C D

then this can be done in a single operation.

Open the Orderings window and click the Create button to open the Multiple Orderings window.

As before, drag the events you wish to put in order and specify the minimum and maximum gaps

between events.

Click Create and CMIS will create a chain e.g. 4 events following one another, as above, will create

three orderings AB, BC, CD.



Note: this does not create an ordering between a first event, with three other events scheduled

concurrently after the first. If you wish to achieve this such that the ordering is AB, AC, AD, then it

would be simplest to set up an ordering between events AB, and then a block which contains events

BCD.



Links

In CMIS links are used to create associations between two or more events which cannot be

expressed as a Block or Ordering. In addition links may be used to spread events out across a day or

week, or to compress events across the day or week.

Creating Links

To create a Link go to

Timetable | Links


The top half of the window shows Links that have already been created. The bottom half of the

window shows which events are to be included in the Link.

As before, Drag & Drop functions are used to create the Link, therefore it is useful to have a

timetable window open next to the Links window. The events required as part of the Link are

dragged into the lower pane, and when the New button is clicked the Link will be saved and shown

in the upper pane.



In the timetable window, highlight the events which are to be part of the link

Drag the events into the bottom pane of the Links window

The Link code is taken from the unit code of the first event in the Link. If several

Links are to be created for the same module the code will be coded .1, .2, .3 etc.

An optional name can be given to the Link – useful if there are several to be created.

Tick the box to specify Same staff – if required

Tick the box to specify Same room – if required

Tick the box to specify Same weeks – if required

Tick the box to specify Same start – if required

Click New to save the Link

The Link will look something like the example below

In this example, two lectures which follow one another have a link which specifies that they should

use the same room – they may, for example, have the same students in each session.

Often linked events will be taking place in the same week but need to use some common resource,

e.g. the same room over the course of several days.



Features of Links

Day Spread The drop-down allows you to select Day Spread which will try to spread the

events in the Link across the week or Day Compress which will compress the

Link across as few days as possible.

Time Spread The drop-down allows you to select Time Spread which will try to spread the

events in the Link across the day or Time Compress which will compress the

Link across the day.

Max events per day the default value here is 1 i.e. however many events are placed in the Link

only one will be scheduled per day. This can be useful for some

Programmes, e.g. some Masters, which have to be spread out across a

week. However, remember you may need to change the default value if

you want to allow more than one event to be scheduled per day.

Same room will place the same room in each event within the Link (you need to be

careful that individual events within the Link do not request different rooms

or room types – the request then become unviable.

Same staff will allocate the same Lecturer to each event within the Link.

Same weeks will schedule events in the Link in the same weeks – often only used for

exam scheduling

Same start will schedule events at the same start time each day.

Exclude from overlapping will prevent events from overlapping with one another



Exclusions

Exclusions are, in many ways, the opposite of Blocks i.e. they comprise a number of events which

must not be scheduled at the same time as each other.

In most cases however, clashing would prevent events from being scheduled at the same time i.e

they are events for modules on the same programme, or use the same room or same lecturer. If any

of these apply then CMIS would avoid, or at least warn the user, that a clash is being created.

You may therefore, not need to use exclusions at all.