I want to make separate timetables for each term. The idea is that each a year group will have different classes in different terms:
Term 1
Class A
Class B
Class C
Term 2
Class D
Class E
Class F
But Class A and Class D will be at the same time, just during a different term. If I use the same timetable, I expect it will be confusing for students to see the same class at the same time on their schedule.
When I create a timetable for a year group (Say Year 1), I cannot make a second timetable for that year group because the Year 1 box is no longer visible. I am also not sure how to specify which term is associated with which timetable.
Is there a way to do this that I am just not seeing?
I am not sure this 100% possible, because the interface (as you note, and by design) restricts each year group to be associated with a single timetable in a single year. There were good reasons to code it this way, but it is possible it can work without this restriction. You could try to get around it by setting up the timetables you want, and then going into MySQL, and do the association to multiple timetables behind the scenes in the table gibbonTT. You can then use Tie Days To Dates (Admin > Timetable Admin in the main menu) to set the different timetables to different terms. This might back fire…but it might work!
If it does work, we could look at how to allow you to do it without going into the database with a code tweak in v14.
I will try that when I have a chance. Thanks for the table name.
I am still wrapping my mind around how Gibbon works and how our school can use it. In the Manage Courses and Classes page, when you go to Edit Class, the interface only allows you to specify a school year, not a term. It would be really helpful to add that option. It is super common to see courses offered for a single term, not only at the university level but also at the secondary level.
Our school has different classes in different terms all on one timetable. The way we go about doing this is to create separate Timetable Days for each semester, and use the Tie Days to Date to assign the term 1 days to the first term, and the term 2 days to the second term. This makes it so teachers and students can see all their courses on the same timetable without overlap or confusion, because the courses for each term will only show on the relevant days. It also allows mixing full-year courses with per-term ones, by timetabling a full-year course onto each term’s Timetable Day.
Based on your example, a simple implementation would be to create “Term 1 M-F” and “Term 2 M-F” as separate timetable days, then assign A, B, C to Term 1 M-F and D, E, F to Term 2 M-F. This assumes that your courses are each on the same day in the week, it gets a bit trickier when you have different times for courses throughout the week, but it’s still do-able. You may for example need a “Term 1 M,W,F” + “Term 1 Tu, Th” (and the equivalent for Term 2). For rolling timetables, you may need “Term 1 Day 1”, “Term 1 Day 2”, etc.
Here’s an example of our highschool timetable days, which have a M-Th and separate Friday schedule for each week.
Ok, that makes sense. Thanks, @skuipers. I think I can use that method for timetabling.
The issue lurking behind this is how to identify which classes are taught in which terms for transcript purposes. Using multiple timetable days feels like a workaround to me.
I appreciate your suggestion about about term controls for courses and classes. Perhaps for v14…
Sandra,
What do you think to David’s suggestion to add terms to courses? Or perhaps classes? Or both? Default could be all. Something for v14? Can you think of any knock on issues…other than even more complexity in the already complex tt rendering function!
