[sims] Nova T6 Help

[Leslie222]

Is it possible to limit the max number of periods a teacher teaches in a day (with Nova t6) . eg if there are 6 periods per day, can I ensure that a teacher is not auto allocated for more than 4???

Thanks,

Leslie

[vikpaw]

I'm pretty sure this is straight forward. I'd have to double check in the manual.

[vikpaw]

Hey, to EduGeek by the way.

I had a quick look and couldn't see the option, so I may have been mistaken and thinking about another program, probably TimeTabler which has more power.

 

I imagine it's quite a hard limitation to put in, to guarantee such a large amount of free time. I'm not a timetabler by trade, but one work around could be to create a 'Free' subject that must be taught, create 10 of them, and allocate 2 periods per day to the staff member and if it's restricted to 2 per day or just left open, most automation routines would try to balance the allocation of periods across the week so this would recreate a similar effect and hopefully allocate the teacher a set number of frees per day, whilst still trying to fill all blocks with the other lessons. Your teachers are lucky to have 30% off timetable

[PhilNeal]

Here's a reply from David Stott - the author of Nova-T:

 

Vik's suggestions are nearly what I would recommend: I’d do it with a non-class-code, rather than a “'Free' subject that must be taught”.

It’s basically a “floating placeholder” that’s wanted, limited to a day. So like PPA – but moveable within the periods of a single day.

 

Just need to emphasize that too many of these will lock the timetable up. It’s a judgement call.

If the user does create these floating NCC placeholders, and then the timetable refuses to complete, it’s probably time to remove them again…

 

If it were me, I think I might try doing the timetable first without the rule, then try to add in constraining NCCs like this slowly, and reschedule, as a form of optimisation. But it all depends how important the requirement is, and how blocky the curriculum is. (If it’s very full or large blocks, then optimisation is less likely to work.)

[Leslie222]

Thanks so much

I'm trying to switch over totally to nova, so far I've been using asc timetables and then entering each period manually in nova:(.

I can see that nova is powerful but sofas have never arrived at a "good" timetable . HVe even considered buying timetabler.

[vikpaw]

You should try a trial of timetabler, many find it more intuitive and the support is great and very pro-active.

It's pretty cheap annual renewal after the first year and I think as a nova user you get a discount.