Course Timetabling Data Entry Manual

UniTime Version: 4.2

Last Update: December, 2017

Table of Contents:
Rooms 4
Rooms Page 4
Room Types 5
Classrooms 5
Computing Laboratories 5
Teaching Labs 6
Departmental Rooms / Additional Instructional Rooms 6
Special Use Rooms 6
Non-University Locations 6
Room Columns 6
Name 6
Capacity 6
Availability 6
Departments 7
Groups 7
Features 7
Room Detail Page 7
How to Add Rooms 9
Room Type 9
Distance Check 9
Room Check 9
Controlling Department 9
Room Sharing 9
Setting and Editing Room Preferences 11
Room Features 12
Adding Room Features 12
Adjust Room Features 14
Room Groups 15
Adjust Room Groups 16

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Instructors 18
Managing Your Instructor List 19
Adding New Instructors to Your List 19
Instructor Detail 20
Setting Instructor Preferences 21

Instructional Offerings 22
Adding/Removing Courses 24
Instructional Offering Configuration 25
Set up or Modify Instructional Offering Configuration 25
Modifying Class Limits 27
Grouping 27
Configuration of Independent Study/Research Courses 29
Setting Managing Department and Other Class-specific Parameters 30
Multiple Class Setup Form Fields 31
Assign Instructors 32
Adding Notes to an Instructional Offering 33
Schedule of Classes Note 33
Schedule Book Notes 34
Adding Consent at the Offering Level 35

Preferences for a Scheduling Subpart 36

Time Preferences 39
Room Group Preferences 39
Room Preferences 39
Building Preferences 40
Room Feature Preferences 40

Preferences for an Individual Class 40

Add Instructors 40
Add Notes to Schedule Manager 40

Cross-listed Courses 42

Add Distribution Preferences 43

Edit an Existing Distribution Preference 45

Tips and Tricks 46

Glossary 47
Distribution Types 47
Distribution Structure Definitions 53
All Classes 53
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Progressive 53
Groups of Two 54
Groups of Three 54
Groups of Four 54
Groups of Five 54
Pairwise 54

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Rooms
The first step in timetabling data entry is to ensure that all rooms to be scheduled are
maintained in UniTime.

Select Courses > Input Data > Rooms in the menu

Rooms Page
The rooms page, shown below, provides an overview of rooms that can be used for your
classes or examinations together with the properties of these rooms, such as room features or
room availability.

Select a department in the filter, or leave Managed in there. You can also choose to see the
rooms for examinations. The rooms that can be used by this department will appear. To export
this list to a PDF or a CSV, use the More > Export button.

The filter can be used to filter the list of rooms by department, type, size, room features, room
groups, or only to show rooms that are available for event management. Use More > Columns

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to show/hide certain columns, More > Sort By to order the table by certain column, More >
Department and Availability to control how departments and room sharing is displayed.

Room Types
The rooms are divided based on their room types. Typically, you will see classrooms, teaching
labs, department rooms, special use rooms, and non-university locations. For example, the
following room types can be used:

Classrooms
Instructional rooms assigned to the selected department from the central pool of rooms.

Computing Laboratories
Computing laboratories assigned to the selected department from the central pool of rooms.

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Teaching Labs
Departmental teaching labs used for instruction, such as chemistry and biology labs.

Departmental Rooms / Additional Instructional Rooms

Additional departmental space used for class meetings, such as departmental conference
rooms.

Special Use Rooms

Special Use Rooms that belong to the department, such as offices, exist in the room inventory.
However, they are not considered as being instructional rooms.

Non-University Locations
Non-University locations are places that are not listed in the room inventory (e.g., a hospital in
town).

Room Columns

Name
Building abbreviation and room number for rooms. The location name for non-university
locations.

Capacity
Seating capacity of the room is the maximum number of students who can have a class there at
the same time. Note: Use 9999 for unlimited capacities. Rooms on campus (not non-university
locations) usually need to match the official room inventory. You can request a change in
capacity for Rooms other than Classrooms in the Contact Us screen (use the category "Request
any other administrative change").

Availability
Availability is a time grid showing how times in the room are divided among departments that
share this room (the list of these departments is in the Departments column). All times in white,
which is the default color, are shared by all departments listed in the Departments column (and
no one else). All times in gray are not available for timetabling. Roll your mouse over the grid to
see exact times of special assignments (e.g., a department assigned particular hours - English
department has a departmental meeting on Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. – 5:20 p.m.).
The department that controls this room can change the availability on the Edit Room page. The
controlling department is underlined in the Departments column. Otherwise, a department can
only change sharing of the times that are already assigned to it (e.g., to pass some of these
times to another department).

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Departments
The Departments column lists the departments sharing this room. The department that controls
the room can add/remove departments to/from the list on the Edit Room page.

Groups
This category lists the groups to which this room belongs (e.g., EDUC 101 belongs to the
Classroom room group). You can add/remove the room to/from a group in the Edit Room form.
This form is accessed from the Room Detail form by clicking on the Edit Room button). Read
more about room groups in the description of the Room Groups form.

Features
The Features column shows a list of items or equipment found in the room. There can be a list
of global room features that are defined and maintained administratively for all rooms, for
example:
● 2 Computer Projectors (2CmptProj)
● Audio Recording (AudRec)
● Chalkboard<20 Ft (Ch<20Ft)
● Chalkboard>=20 Ft (Ch>=20Ft)
● Computer (Comp)
● Computer Projection (CompPr)
● Document Camera (Docucam)
● Fixed Seating (FixSeat)
● Horseshoe Arrangement (Horseshoe)
● Tables and Chairs (Tbls&Chrs)
● Tablet Arm Chairs (TblArmChr)
● Theater Seats (ThtrSeat)
The room features can be grouped into categories using room feature types. You can define
your own (departmental) features for the rooms owned by your department on the Room
Features screen; all such features also will be displayed on the Rooms screen.

Room Detail Page

When working with rooms from your department, click on any line with information about a room
to get to a Room Detail form. If you hover your mouse over a row containing room information,
you will notice that the row appears in blue. You will be able to change some properties of the
room, such as availability or room sharing, in screens accessible from this Room Detail screen.

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8
How to Add Rooms
If you cannot see the rooms you want to use and you do not have the necessary permissions to
add the room yourself (the Add New button is not displayed on the Rooms page), use the Help
> Contact Us screen to send a request for the room to be added.

To add a new room, click the Add New button on the Rooms page. Fill in the required
information.

Room Type
Select room type. Based on the room type (room or non-university location), you will be able to
choose a Building and Room Number (for a room) or a Name (for non-university location).

Distance Check
By default, this checkbox is checked, which means that if a class at this location is back to back
and the distance is too great, it will cause a conflict for students. Also, back-to-back classes
cannot be taught by the same instructor.
When unchecked, there is no time conflict between back-to-back classes (one at this location,
the other one in some other room), and the classes can be taught by the same instructor.

Room Check
By default, this checkbox is checked, which means that the location is considered to be an
equivalent of a room. This means that there cannot be two classes at the same time.
When the checkbox is unchecked, there can be two or more classes taught at the same time at
this location. For example, if the location is a hospital, there can be different classes held
throughout the hospital at the same time.

Controlling Department
Use the drop down to choose the controlling department for this room or non-university location.

Room Sharing
It is possible to share a room or a certain time in the room with another department. Follow the
steps below to share a room:
● In the Rooms screen, click on the room that you want to share with another department.
This will open the Room Detail screen for the selected room.
● The next screen shows Room Detail. Click on Edit Room button. That takes you to the
Edit Room screen. See the Room Sharing section.

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 ● Select the department with which you want to share the room (either using the plus icon
or Add Department button. This adds the department to the list of departments who
share the room – this list is displayed to the right from the time grid.
● If needed, assign particular times to the other department and keep the rest for yourself.
You may assign a time to a department if you click on the department in the list to the
right from the time grid and then click on times that the department should use. An
example of this kind of sharing is depicted in the following screenshot.
Note: If you do not assign times explicitly, both of the departments will be able to
timetable their classes at any times (that is the “free for all” color) and the department
which commits the timetable first gets the requested time. The other department will
need to use the times that remain.
● Click Update Room

Note: If you are not the owner of the room (your department is not the controlling department),
when you set up sharing of a room with another department, you cannot take the room back

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from the department. You will need to ask the other department to give up that room (in a similar
way as setting up room sharing – they would just select their department from the list and click
the X icon, then Update), or you will need to contact the administrator (e.g., using the Contact
Us screen).

Setting and Editing Room Preferences

Room preference on a particular room allows the user to exclude some of his/her rooms from
the timetabling process, or use that room only if absolutely necessary (for example, if the
department wants to keep one of its rooms empty for unexpected events).

To set up room preferences proceed with the following steps:

● Select Courses > Input Data > Rooms in the menu. This takes you to the Rooms
screen.
● Select your department (or Managed Rooms) and hit Search.
● Click on the room in your list of rooms. That takes you to the Room Detail screen.
● Click on the Edit Room button
● This takes you to the Edit Room screen. Set the room preference in the Room Sharing
section, next to your department.
● Click Update Room

The meaning of the preference levels is as follows:

● Prohibited – never ever use this room (even if required on a class).
● Strongly Discouraged – this room is used only if either:
○ The room is required for a class, or
○ The room is preferred or strongly preferred for a class and the solver is not able
to put this class into another room.
● Discouraged – this room is used if either:
○ The room is required for a class, or
○ The solver is not able to put this class into another room.
● Neutral – the default value for room preference.
It is not recommended that you use any other preference level on the room itself.

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Room Features
There might be special features you want to choose in your rooms (e.g. Audio Input Mac
computer labs).

The following instructions will guide you through setting up a feature for your departmental room
and indicate which rooms have this feature:

● Click on Courses > Input Data > Room Features in the menu. That takes you to the
Room Features screen. Here, you will see the features currently listed as your room
features, as well as a list of your rooms which have been flagged as having those
features.

Adding Room Features

You only may update your features for departmentally owned rooms. The Global Room
Features must be updated by an administrator. The following steps will guide you through
adding other features to your department room:

● Click Add New button. This takes you to the Add Room Feature screen. Here, you can
set up the feature you plan to add. Select a name that is helpful to you.
Note: ignore the Global checkbox. It is for administrative use only.

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● Supply the name of the feature and abbreviation.
● When applicable, select Feature Type or leave at No Type.
● Select Department.
● You can provide room feature Description. This is an optional field.
● Select rooms that the room feature applies to. Please note that only the rooms that meet
the filter from the Room Features screen are listed.
● Click Create Room Feature

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Adjust Room Features
You only may update your (departmental) room features. The Global Room Features must be
updated by an administrator. The following steps will guide you through adding other features to
your department room:

● Click on the room feature you want to adjust.

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 ● This takes you to the Edit Room Feature screen. In the Edit Room Feature screen,
you will have a list of rooms from your room list set up in the previous section. Click the
box for all the rooms that have this feature. Please note that only the rooms that meet
the filter from the Room Features screen are listed.
● Click Update Room Feature

Room Groups
Within the Room Groups form, you can categorize multiple rooms/labs under one name e.g., if
you have multiple laboratories for Biochemistry, you can create a room group named Biochm
Lab. The group can be named anything that is helpful to you. Note: you may only update your
Departmental Room Groups, not the Global Room Groups.

The following instructions will guide you through creating a Room Group:
● Click on Courses > Input Data > Rooms Groups in the menu. That takes you to the
Room Groups screen. Here, you will see the groups currently listed as your room
groups, as well as a list of your rooms which have been flagged as having those groups.
● Click Add New Group
● Supply the name of the group and abbreviation.
● Select Department.
● You can provide room feature Description. This is an optional field.
● Select rooms that the room group applies to. Please note that only the rooms that meet
the filter from the Room Groups screen are listed.
● Click Create Room Group

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Adjust Room Groups
You only may update your (departmental) room groups. The Global Room Groups must be
updated by an administrator. The following steps will guide you through adding other groups to
your rooms:

● Click on the room group you want to adjust.

● This takes you to the Edit Room Group screen. In the Edit Room Group screen, you
will have a list of rooms from your room list set up in the previous section. Toggle the

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 checkbox for all the rooms that have this group. Please note that only the rooms that
meet the filter from the Room Groups screen are listed.
● Click Update Room Group

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Instructors
The second step with timetabling data entry will be to ensure that all instructors who will be
assigned to classes are maintained within UniTime. You will see the list of your instructors when
you click on Instructors in the left-hand side menu. Before you start working on classes, make
sure that the instructor list is complete.

Select Courses > Input Data > Instructors in the menu

If the instructor list is not complete, you can manage your instructor list or add a new instructor.

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Note: You may use the Export PDF button to print a copy of all your listed instructors.

Managing Your Instructor List

To view and manage your instructor list:
● Click Manage Instructor List. It has two parts: (a) Instructors in the Department List,
and (b) Instructors not in the Department List.
● Check names to add instructors to your list.
● Uncheck names to remove them from the list (the checked ones will be in your list).
● Click Update.

Adding New Instructors to Your List

To add a new instructor who is not in the Manage Instructor List:
● Return to the initial Instructors page.
● Click the Add New Instructor button.
● For a new instructor, the only mandatory field is his/her last name. You can also lookup
the instructor by clicking the Lookup button.

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 ● Provide instructor’s External Id. This way, the instructor’s name will be matched with the
university records, which is necessary to get the instructor’s name to the Student
Information System. It is also needed when the instructor is teaching classes from
multiple departments.
● If you know the instructor’s career account username, enter it in the Account Name field.

Note: It is sufficient to only enter instructors that should be assigned to a class.

Instructor Detail
From Instructor Detail screen, you can also continue to other screens to edit instructor
information and change their personal preferences.

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To change personal information:
● Click Edit Instructor button
● This takes you to the Edit Instructor screen. From here, you may change information
for this instructor (i.e. notes, email, etc.).
● When you are finished, click Update

Setting Instructor Preferences

You can set preferences of instructors in this section. These preferences are then inherited on
any class to which you assign this instructor. The following instructions describe how to set an
instructor’s Time, Building, Room Feature, Room Group, and Distribution preferences:

● In the Instructors screen, click on the name of the person whose preferences you want
to enter.
● That takes you to the Instructor Detail screen. Click Edit Preferences button
● Edit the preferences.
● When finished entering instructor preferences, click Update

There are Time, Room, Building, Room Feature, Room Group, and Distribution preferences you
can enter, just like on scheduling subparts or classes as described in the section on
preferences. Note: It is not necessary to have an entry in every preference.

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Instructional Offerings
To see the list of instructional offerings, click on Courses > Input Data > Instructional Offerings in
the menu. If you have more than one subject area, select the subject area you want to work with
from the drop down menu and click Search. If you have only one subject area, it will display
automatically.

Navigation Information: In this application, the filter at the top left of the Instructional Offerings
screen can be used to display a variety of informational items pertaining to your offerings. Click
the plus sign (+) to the left of the filter to display these items. Select the checkbox(es) to choose
which items you want to display. When finished, you can close the filter by clicking on the minus
sign (-) to the left of the filter.

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Note: In most cases, an instructional offering is an equivalent of a course. Within UniTime, if you
need to get back to the Instructional Offering Detail screen, select and click the row that
contains the subject and course number.

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Adding/Removing Courses
Check whether all of the courses that should be offered for this semester are in the list of
Offered Courses. If not, scroll down to the Courses Not Offered list in the lower part of this
screen or use the Not Offered Courses link located at the top right corner of this page to get to
the list quickly.

Note: You may use the Edit > Find on this Page (or Ctrl+F), to search for a specific piece of data
(e.g., to find a course).

If the course is displayed in the Not Offered Courses list, then:

● Click on the course you wish to offer. This will take you to the Instructional Offering
Detail screen.
● Click the Make Offered button which takes you to the Instructional Offering
Configuration screen.
● This screen is discussed in the Instructional Offering Configuration section of this
manual.

If the course is not displayed in either section of this page, then:

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 ● Click Add New button. This takes you to the Add Course Offering screen.
● Enter the Course Number and other information as needed.
● Hit Save button. This will create the course and take you to the Instructional Offering
Detail screen discussed in the next section

If an instructional offering is on the list of offered courses, but it is not to be offered this term,
then:
● Click on the instructional offering (the line with the course number).
● This takes you to the Instructional Offering Detail screen.
● Click on Make NOT Offered.

Note: This action removes most of instructional offering details for this course (classes,
reservations, limits, etc.). Please use caution.

Instructional Offering Configuration

Set up or Modify Instructional Offering Configuration

To set up/modify the configuration of an instructional offering (note: arranged hours offerings are
described later in this section):
● In the list of Instructional Offerings, click on the line that contains the number of the
course you want to set up or modify.
● This takes you to the Instructional Offering Detail screen. Click Edit Configuration.
● That takes you to the Instructional Offering Configuration screen.

Description of the fields:

● Configuration Name: Descriptive name of configuration. You may leave this field blank,
and the system will generate a system name for you.
● Configuration Limit: Controls how many students can enroll in a configuration of the
instructional offering. This field is the Master control for the configuration limit and may
only be set manually.
● Instructional Type:
○ Add - Select from drop down menu the additional instructional type you need for
this course offering, then click Add.
○ Delete - x icon next to instructional type already listed removes that particular
instructional type.

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● Limit per Class: Limit for each section with this instructional type.
● Number of Classes: The number of classes of this instructional type you want to offer.
This is calculated by the application (config limit/limit per class), but can be overwritten in
this field.
Note: If you can’t evenly divide your limits out to sum to the overall Configuration Limit,
you will need to make one of the instructional type limits sum to greater than or equal to
the overall configuration limit. See Modify Class Limits for additional information.
● Minutes per Week: Total number of minutes that a class meets per week. It is important
that your instructional offerings have the correct number of minutes per week in this
screen as this will determine the time patterns that are available for you to use for this
class. Note: 1 hour of class is usually equal to 50 minutes.
● Number of Rooms: Number of rooms you require per class. The default is 1.
● Room Ratio: Used to indicate when you need a room with a capacity different from the
size of the class. The default is 1.0 which means the room should seat the number of
students in your class. This can be decreased or increased.
Example: A class of limit 20 with a room ratio of 0.5 needs a room of at least 10 seats,
you can see the Minimal Room Capacity on the Class Detail screen.
● Managing Department: Used to determine which manager will timetable this class. See
Setting Managing Department if you have classes within the same instructional type
needing to be timetabled by different managers.

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Modifying Class Limits
Select the Class Setup button on the Instructional Offering Detail screen to adjust the limits
individually. If a range of room sizes are possible for all classes within an instructional type (e.g.,
you want 10 computing labs that seat a range of 17-23 students each), contact an administrator.
Most users will never use a range. This option adds flexibility where applicable.
Note: The ability to enable class limit range must be set in the Preferences > Settings, set Show
the option to set variable class limits to yes.

Grouping
Besides filling in the fields, you need to set up grouping in the Instructional Offering
Configuration screen if it is necessary for the instructional offering.

If an attendance relationship must be maintained across types of instructions within a course

you will need to do a grouping (e.g., Lec 01 with Rec 01 with Lab 01). Grouping should be used
only when necessary as student scheduling flexibility is reduced when grouping is used.

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If you want to group Lecture and Recitation, click on the arrow located next to the Recitation
subpart.

Consequently each of the three lectures will have four recitations. Students in the first lecture
will be scheduled to the first four recitations; students in the second lecture will be scheduled to
the next four recitations, etc.

Note: In the terminology of this manual (and the terminology of the authors of the application),
the instructional type that is more to the left is called a parent and the instructional type that is
indented relative to the other type (after the arrow to the right has been clicked) is called a child.

Note: It is important that you setup the configuration before you start adding time/room
preferences on the classes, since a change in configuration could result in deleting the
preferences from your classes.

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Configuration of Independent Study/Research Courses
For independent study courses there are two options.

Option 1: The following steps are required if the course does not require a room for meetings
and time statement is arrange hours:
● For the Configuration Limit enter 9999.
● Choose the appropriate instructional type (IND or RES) from the dropdown menu.
● Click Add. The configuration name will be system generated. You also can supply your
own configuration name.
● Set the limit per Class to 9999 (9999 = unlimited). Press Tab. This will automatically
generate the Number of Classes.
● Tab to the number of Minutes per Week. Enter 0 (indicates arr hrs).
● Tab to the Number of Rooms. Enter 0.

Note: You can indicate the number of hours to meet (e.g., arr1, arr2), if applicable, by entering
an amount in the Minutes per Week box (e.g., 50 minutes, 100 minutes, etc.).

Option 2: The course requires a room for meetings

● For the Configuration Limit enter 9999.
● Choose the appropriate instructional type (IND or RES) from the dropdown menu.
● Click Add. The configuration name will be system generated. You also can supply your
own configuration name.
● Set the limit per Class to 9999. Press Tab. This will automatically generate the Number
of Classes.
● Tab to the number of Minutes per Week. Enter 0.
● Tab to the Number of Rooms. Enter 1.
● Use required room preference on each class to indicate the room.

In this case, you need to set a limit for that offering and proceed as you would for any other
course: select and add the correct instructional types, set limits per class, number of classes,
then set up preferences.

When you are finished with settings in the Instructional Offering Configuration screen, click
Update. That takes you back to the Instructional Offering Detail form. If you have done any
grouping, you will see that one of the subparts is indented, indicating the grouping relationship.

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Setting Managing Department and Other Class-specific Parameters
Externally managed timetables (such as Large Lectures and Computing Labs) are created and
solved separately from departmental timetables. Note: The Managing Department determines
who timetables the class.

● Select and click on the subject and course number.

● This will bring you to the Instructional Offering Details screen. To change the
Managing Department and/or change limits on specific classes of the same instructional
type (from the same scheduling subpart) click on the Class Setup button on the
Instructional Offering Detail screen located on the right side under the Configuration line.
● This takes you to the Multiple Class Setup form. Make the necessary changes to the
fields for the individual class.
● Click Update.

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Multiple Class Setup Form Fields
Managing Department: Used to indicate who is going to timetable the classes of this
scheduling subpart (instructional type). Select from the drop down menu. The default
“Department” means that the class is timetabled by the department of the subject area of the
controlling course offering.

Date Pattern: Used to indicate when a class meets during the term. If other than default, select
from pull-down menu.
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Assign Instructors
UniTime has two methods of assigning instructors to classes.

Method #1 – Assign Instructors

● Select the row containing the subject and course number. This will take you to the
Instructional Offering Detail form.
● From the Instructional Offering Detail screen, select the Assign Instructors button.
● The Assign Instructors screen allows you to assign instructor names for each section of
the course. If you wish to assign more than one instructor, you will need to click the (+)
icon and an additional row will appear. If you wish to delete a row click on the (x) icon.
● Click Update

Method #2 – Assign Instructors

● Select the class/section to which you want to add an instructor.
● Within the Class Detail screen you may assign an instructor by selecting the Edit Class
button.

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 ● From the Edit Class form, select an instructor name from the Instructors drop down
list. Click Add Instructor.
● Adjust the percent share and click Update.

Adding Notes to an Instructional Offering

Schedule of Classes Note

If you wish to add a note that will apply to each class within the course offering, you will need to
do the following:
● Select and click on the row containing the subject and course number.
● You will now be on the Instructional Offering Detail screen. Click Edit Course
Offering.

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Schedule Book Notes
If you wish to add a note to a particular section(s) within an offering, you will need to do the
following:
● From the Instructional Offerings screen, select the course offering you wish to add a
note to by selecting and clicking on the row with the subject and course number.
● In order to assign a note to one of the sections you will need to select the particular
section from the Instructional Offering Detail screen.
● This takes you to the Class Detail screen.
● Select the Edit Class button at the top of the screen. The Edit Class form will provide
you with the opportunity to add a note to this section.
● Click Update.

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Adding Consent at the Offering Level
The user has the ability to add consent required at the offering level and at the section level.
Note: When placing a consent flag at the offering level, the consent will then apply to each class
or section.

The following instructions illustrate this functionality:

● From the Instructional Offerings screen, select the course offering you wish to add
consent to by clicking on the row with the subject and course number.
● Click on the Edit Course Offering button, and you will be directed to the Edit Course
Offering form.
● From the Consent drop down list, select the type of consent you wish to place on the
course (this will apply to each class associated with the offering).
● Click Update.

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Preferences for a Scheduling Subpart
To set preferences for the whole scheduling subpart (i.e., LEC), that is, for all classes in that
scheduling subpart, click on the line with the name of the subpart in the Instructional Offering
Detail screen.

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Note: Individual class preferences may be set using the Edit Class screen. See Preferences for
an Individual Class.

Now you are on the Scheduling Subpart Detail screen. On this screen, you see information
about the subpart. Click Edit Subpart.

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That takes you to the Edit Scheduling Subpart form. Here you can set preferences that will
apply to all classes in that subpart.

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Time Preferences
It is essential that you select the appropriate time pattern from the drop down menu and click
“Add Time Preference.” You will see an error message if no time pattern is selected (i.e., “Time
pattern not selected”). The options you can see reflect the Minutes per Week that you setup in
the configuration. If you have the correct number of minutes per week but cannot see the time
pattern that you need, please contact the administrator (e.g., by using the Contact Us screen).

After you click “Add Time Preference”, a time grid appears where you can mark your time slot
according to your preferences. For example, if you prefer the class to be MWF morning, you
click on Strongly Preferred, and then click on the time slots corresponding to MWF morning.

Room Group Preferences

The default room group for departmental classes is Classroom, but you can change that to any
room group you have created, or just delete the default room group.

Room Preferences
In the first column use the drop down menu to choose the room you prefer (note: the list will
show the manager with whom you are working). In the second column, you must select a
preference. You can add more than two rooms by clicking on Add Room Preference for each
additional room you want to add.

Note: If you had a room preference for a room that you had previously (e.g., during the last like
semester), but you don’t get it this semester, this preference is not rolled forward.

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Building Preferences
Similar to Room Preferences, except only buildings are listed.

Room Feature Preferences

With this drop down menu you have the capability to request rooms with specific equipment
(e.g., audio recording in the lecture rooms or Mac computers in the computing lab).

When you finish with preferences, click Update at the top or bottom of this page to save all of
your preferences for the scheduling subpart. This takes you back to the Scheduling Subpart
Detail screen. This screen will allow you to verify your changes.

Preferences for an Individual Class

To set up preferences on an individual class, click on the class you wish to adjust from the
Instructional Offering Detail screen. This takes you to the Class Detail screen.

Click Edit Class to go to the Edit Class form. There are several more preferences you can set
on a class than on a subpart. This is where you will set the instructor’s name, notes for the
manager, and any other individual choices for the class. This screen works just like the subpart
screens listed above (e.g., Time, Room, Building, and Room Feature Preferences).

Add Instructors
To add Instructors, click Add Instructor. This will give you the ability to choose additional
instructors from a drop down list of available instructors setup previously (see Instructors).

Add Notes to Schedule Manager

Include Notes to Schedule Manager for externally managed classes by entering anything that
you cannot express by preferences that you see in this screen.

For your departmental classes, these notes will be notes to yourself. Click Update.

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41
Cross-listed Courses
Any courses that meet together need to be set up as a cross-listed offering. This insures student
course information will reflect the total demand as well as insure the same time(s) and
location(s) are assigned for all courses in the cross list.

The following instructions will help you set up cross listing of courses for your department(s):
● In the Instructional Offering Detail screen, click on Cross Lists. This takes you to the
Instructional Offering Cross Lists screen.
● On the Instructional Offering Cross Lists form, click on the course offering drop-down
menu.
● Select the other course that you want to cross list from the drop down menu, click Add.
Only courses that are not offered are listed. If the course is not there, it needs to be
added, either by the department you are cross-listing with, or by an administrator.

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 ● After selecting/adding a Course Offering you can see that one of the courses is the
controlling course. You may choose which of these you prefer to be the controlling
course by clicking on the controlling button for that course. The two courses will now be
treated as one instructional offering and both courses will be listed under the controlling
course. The noncontrolling course will now appear in light gray directly under the
controlling course on the Instructional Offering Detail screen.
● When finished click Update and this takes you back to the Instructional Offering Detail
screen.

Add Distribution Preferences

To have your classes distributed a certain way throughout the week (e.g., back-to-back or same
time/same room), select Courses > Input Data > Distribution Preferences in th menu. This takes
you to the Distribution Preferences form.

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To add a new distribution preference
● Click on Add Distribution Preference
● Select the Distribution Type from the drop down menu. When you select one, a
description will appear under the drop down box. A detailed description for each
distribution type is also available in the glossary.
● Select the Structure from the drop down menu. After you select the structure, a
description of the structure will appear under the drop down box. A detailed description
of each type of structure is also available in the glossary.
● Select the Preference Level.

● Click Add Class to add the first classes to this distribution preference.
○ Select the subject area in the first column,

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 ○ Select the course number in the second column,
○ Select the scheduling subpart in the third column,
○ Select whether you want to include all classes from that scheduling subpart or
only a particular class (that is done in the last column).
● Repeat steps above until you have all the classes you need in this Distribution
Preference.
● Click Save.

Edit an Existing Distribution Preference

● To edit an existing distribution preference, click on the distribution preference line you
want to edit in the list of distribution preferences and edit it.
● Make your changes and click Update.

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Tips and Tricks
● To print out your list of classes with preferences, use the Export PDF button available in
the Classes or Instructional Offerings screen.
● There are shortcut keys in most screens – just roll your mouse over a button or link and
you will see what the shortcut keys for that action are. A list of basic ones:
○ Update: Alt +U
○ Back: Alt +B
○ Next: Alt +N
○ Previous: Alt +P
○ Edit Subpart (in Subpart Detail screen): Alt +E
● Click on day of the week in a time grid to put preference in for all day.
● After selecting in a drop down menu click outside of drop down to insure mouse wheel
does not change selection.

Comments about Edit Class

● For the departmental classes (those timetabled by you, not by an external manager), the
Notes to Schedule Manager go to you, the departmental timetabler.
● Instructor preferences are applied to class when you are adding a new instructor and
select “OK” as the answer to “Do you want to inherit preferences?” If you later update
the preferences of this instructor, the preferences on your departmental class will also be
updated (unless you put some particular preferences on the class itself – in that case,
the class preferences have the top priority and cannot be overwritten by instructor’s
preferences).

Order of priority in the instructor preferences and/or the room preferences:

● Class
● Instructor
● Scheduling Subpart

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Glossary

Distribution Types
Back-To-Back Classes must be offered on adjacent days and may be placed in different
Day rooms. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: classes cannot be
taught on adjacent days. They also cannot be taught on the same days.
This means that there must be at least one day between these classes.

Minimize Use Minimize number of groups of time that are used by the given classes. The
Of 1h Groups time is spread into the following 10 groups of one hour: 7:30a-8:30a,
8:30a-9:30a, 9:30a-10:30a, 4:30p-5:30p.

Minimize Use Minimize number of groups of time that are used by the given classes. The
Of 2h Groups time is spread into the following 5 groups of two hours: 7:30a-9:30a,
9:30a-11:30a, 11:30a-1:30p, 1:30p-3:30p, 3:30p-5:30p.

Minimize Use Minimize number of groups of time that are used by the given classes. The
Of 3h Groups time is spread into the following 3 groups: 7:30a- 10:30a, 10:30a-2:30p,
2:30p-5:30p.

Minimize Use Minimize number of groups of time that are used by the given classes. The
Of 5h Groups time is spread into the following 2 groups: 7:30a-12:30a, 12:30a-5:30p.

Same Given classes are treated as they are attended by the same students, i.e.,
Students they cannot overlap in time and if they are back-to-back the assigned
rooms cannot be too far (student limit is used).

Same Given classes are treated as they are taught by the same instructor, i.e.,
Instructor they cannot overlap in time and if they are back-to-back the assigned
rooms cannot be too far (instructor limit is
used). If the constraint is required and the classes are back-to-back,
discouraged and strongly discouraged distances between assigned rooms
are also considered.

Can Share Given classes can share the room (use the room in the same time) if the
Room room is big enough.

Spread In Given classes have to be spread in time (overlapping of the classes in time
Time needs to be minimized).

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Minimize Minimize number of rooms used by the given set of classes.
Number Of
Rooms Used

Precedence Given classes have to be taught in the given order (the first meeting of the
first class has to end before the first meeting of the second class etc.).
When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged:
classes have to be taught in the order reverse to the given one.

Back-To-Back Classes must be offered in adjacent time segments but may be placed in
different rooms. Given classes must also be taught on the same days.
When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: no pair of classes can be taught
back-to-back. They may not overlap in time, but must be taught on the
same days. This means that there must be at least half-hour between these
classes.

Back-To-Back Classes must be offered in adjacent time segments and must be placed in
& Same Room the same room. Given classes must also be taught on the same days.
When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: classes cannot be back-to-back.
There must be at least half-hour between these
classes, and they must be taught on the same days and in the same room.

Same Time Given classes must be taught at the same time of day (independent of the
actual day the classes meet). For the classes of the same length, this is the
same constraint as same start. For
classes of different length, the shorter one cannot start before, nor end
after, the longer one. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: one class
may not meet on any day at a time of day
that overlaps with that of the other. For example, one class cannot meet M
7:30 while the other meets F 7:30. Note the difference here from the
different time constraint that only prohibits the actual class meetings from
overlapping.

Same Days Given classes must be taught on the same days. In case of classes of
different time patterns, a class with fewer meetings must meet on a subset
of the days used by the class with more meetings. For example, if one class
pattern is 3x50, all others given in the constraint can only be taught on
Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. For a 2x100 class MW, MF, WF is allowed
but TTh is prohibited. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: any pair of
classes cannot be taught on the same days (cannot overlap in days). For
instance, if one class is MFW, the second has to be TTh.

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1 Hour Given classes must have exactly 1 hour in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of another. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 1 hour in
between. They may not overlap in time but must be taught on the same
days.

2 Hours Given classes must have exactly 2 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 2 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

3 Hours Given classes must have exactly 3 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 3 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

4 Hours Given classes must have exactly 4 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 4 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

5 Hours Given classes must have exactly 5 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 5 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

6 Hours Given classes must have exactly 6 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 6 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

7 Hours Given classes must have exactly 7 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 7 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

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8 Hours Given classes must have exactly 8 hours in between the end of one and the
Between beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint, given
classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or (strongly)
discouraged: classes cannot have 8 hours in between. They may not
overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

Different Time Given classes cannot overlap in time. They may be taught at the same time
of day if they are on different days. For instance, MF 7:30 is compatible with
TTh 7:30. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: every pair of classes
in the constraint must overlap in time.

90 Minutes Given classes must have exactly 90 minutes in between the end of one and
Between the beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint,
given classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or
(strongly) discouraged: classes cannot have 90 minutes in between. They
may not overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

4.5 Hours Given classes must have exactly 4.5 hours in between the end of one and
Between the beginning of the next class. As with the back-to-back time constraint,
given classes must be taught on the same days. When prohibited or
(strongly) discouraged: classes cannot have 4.5 hours in between. They
may not overlap in time but must be taught on the same days.

Same Room iven classes must be taught in the same room. When prohibited or
(strongly) discouraged: any pair of classes in the constraint cannot be
taught in the same room.

At Least 1 Given classes have to have 1 hour or more in between class. When
Hour Between prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: given classes have to have less than 1
hour in between.

Same Start Given classes must start during the same half-hour period of a day
Time (independent of the actual day the classes meet). For instance, MW 7:30 is
compatible with TTh 7:30 but not with MWF 8:00. When prohibited or
(strongly) discouraged: any pair of classes in the given constraint cannot
start during the same half-hour period of any day of the week.

Less Than 6 Given classes must have less than 6 hours from end of first class to the
Hours beginning of the next class. Given classes must also be taught on the same
Between days. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: given classes must have
6 or more hours between. This constraint does not carry over from classes
taught at the end of one day to the beginning of the next.

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Meet Together Given classes are meeting together (same as if the given classes require
constraints Can Share Room, Same Room, Same Time and Same Days all
together).

More Than 1 Given classes must have two or more days in between. When prohibited or
Day Between (strongly) discouraged: given classes must be offered on adjacent days or
with at most one day in between.

Children If parent classes do not overlap in time, children classes can not overlap in
Cannot time as well. Note: This constraint only needs to be put on the parent
Overlap classes. Preferred configurations are Required All Classes or Pairwise
(Strongly) Preferred.

Next Day The second class has to be placed on the following day of the first class (if
the first class is on Friday, second class have to be on Monday). When
prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: The second class has to be placed on
the previous day of the first class (if the first class is on Monday, second
class have to be on Friday). Note: This constraint works only between pairs
of classes.

Two Days The second class has to be placed two days after the first class (Monday >
After Wednesday, Tuesday → Thursday, Wednesday → Friday, Thursday →
Monday, Friday → Tuesday). When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged:
The second class has to be placed two days before the first class (Monday
→ Thursday, Tuesday → Friday, Wednesday → Monday, Thursday →
Tuesday, Friday → Wednesday). Note: This constraint works only between
pairs of classes.

At Most 6 Classes are to be placed in a way that there is no more than six hours in
Hours A Day any day.

At Most 7 Classes are to be placed in a way that there is no more than seven hours in
Hours A Day any day.

At Most 8 Classes are to be placed in a way that there is no more than eight hours in
Hours A Day any day.

Linked Classes (of different courses) are to be attended by the same students. For
Classes instance, if class A1 (of a course A) and class B1 (of a course B) are linked,
a student requesting both courses must attend A1 if and only if he also
attends B1. This is a student sectioning constraint that is interpreted as
Same Students constraint during course timetabling.

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 At Most 5 Classes are to be placed in a way that there is no more than five hours in
Hours A Day any day.

Back-To-Back Given classes have to be taught in the given order, on the same days, and
Precedence in adjacent time segments. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged:
Given classes have to be taught in the given order, on the same days, but
cannot be back-to-back.

Same Given classes must be taught at the same time of day and on the same
Days-Time days. This constraint combines Same Days and Same Time distribution
preferences. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: Any pair of classes
classes cannot be taught on the same days during the same time.

Same Given classes must be taught at the same time of day, on the same days
Days-Room- and in the same room. Note that this constraint is the same as Meet
Time Together constraint, except it does not allow for room sharing. In other
words, it is only useful when these classes are taught during
non-overlapping date patterns. When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged:
Any pair of classes classes cannot be taught on the same days during the
same time in the same room.

Same Weeks Given classes must be taught during the same weeks (i.e., must have the
same date pattern). When prohibited or (strongly) discouraged: any two
classes must have non overlapping date patterns.

Ignore Student All student conflicts between the given classes are to be ignored.
Conflicts

The following distribution types do not exist in UniTime by default, but they can be registered by
one of the scripts available at GitHub://UniTime/Documentation/Scripts.

N Hour Work Classes are to be placed in a way that there is no more than N hours
Day between the start of the first class and the end of the last class on any day.
N can be 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12

Max X Days Classes must / should be placed in no more than X week-days.

X can be 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6

No Break There should be no break between classes during the day. Two consecutive
classes are considered in the same block if the time between them is not
greater than M minutes.

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 At Most 1 There should be no more than one break between classes during the day.
Break Two consecutive classes are considered in the same block if the time
between them is not greater than M minutes.

At Most B There should be no more than B breaks between classes during the day.
Breaks Two consecutive classes are considered in the same block if the time
between them is not greater than M minutes.

Max M Min There needs to be a break of more than B minutes after each block of at
Blocks most M minutes. Two consecutive classes are considered in the same block
if the time between them is not more than B minutes.

Minimize Free There should be less than M minutes of free time between the first and the
Time On A Day last class during any day.

Distribution Structure Definitions

All Classes
The constraint will apply to all classes in the selected distribution set. For example, a
Back-to-Back constraint among three classes seeks to place all three classes sequentially in
time such that there are no intervening class times (transition time between classes is taken into
account, e.g., if the first class ends at 8:20, the second has to start at 8:30).

Progressive
The distribution constraint is created between classes in one scheduling subpart and the
appropriate class(es) in one or more other subparts. This structure links child and parent
classes together if subparts have been grouped. Otherwise the first class in one subpart is
linked to the first class in the second subpart, etc. For example, if there is a distribution
constraint between subpart S1 (having classes A1, A2) and subpart S2 (having classes B1, B2,
B3, B4), individual class constraints will be created as follows:

If S1 is the parent of S2 (e.g., recitations B1 and B2 belong to lecture A1, and recitations B3 and
B4 belong to lecture A2):
Constraint posted between classes A1 and B1
Constraint posted between classes A1 and B2
Constraint posted between classes A2 and B3
Constraint posted between classes A2 and B4

If there is no parent/child relation between subparts S1 and S2 (e.g., they are from different
offerings or the scheduling subparts are on the same level):
Constraint posted between classes A1 and B1

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 Constraint posted between classes A2 and B2
Constraint posted between classes A1 and B3
Constraint posted between classes A2 and B4

Groups of Two
The distribution constraint is applied only on subsets containing two classes in the selected
distribution set. A constraint is posted between the first two classes (in the order listed), then
between the second two classes, etc.

Groups of Three
The distribution constraint is applied only on subsets containing three classes in the selected
distribution set. A constraint is posted between the first three classes (in the order listed), then
between the second three classes, etc.

Groups of Four
The distribution constraint is applied only on subsets containing four classes in the selected
distribution set. A constraint is posted between the first four classes (in the order listed), then
between the second four classes, etc.

Groups of Five
The distribution constraint is applied only on subsets containing five classes in the selected
distribution set. A constraint is posted between the first five classes (in the order listed), then
between the second five classes, etc.

Pairwise
The distribution constraint is created between every pair of classes in the selected distribution
set. Therefore, if n classes are in the set, n(n-1)/2 constraints will be posted among the classes.
This structure should not be used with required or prohibited preferences on sets containing
more than a few classes.

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