Dear FET Team,
I recently came across your timetabling software and believe it may be well-suited for my use case.
I work as a staff scheduler for the Departments of Mathematics and Chemistry at a large public university. While our Registrar centrally schedules primary lectures in general assignment classrooms, individual departments are responsible for scheduling secondary discussion sections associated with those lectures.
In Mathematics, discussion sections are scheduled into department-controlled classrooms. In Chemistry, however, sections are placed in shared instructional spaces, and departments must adhere to very specific day-of-week and time-block patterns (e.g., M/W/F vs. T/Th blocks), along with numerous constraints to avoid conflicts with lectures, laboratories, room availability, and instructor assignments.
I am hoping that there may already be an existing FET model or example configuration that I could adapt, rather than building everything from scratch.
Use Case #1 – Mathematics
Five department-controlled classrooms, each with a defined seating capacity
Standard discussion section time blocks (screenshots attached)
Each academic term, I receive a list of courses, each requiring a fixed number of discussion sections and a maximum enrollment per section
Example: Math 3 requires 4 discussion sections with a maximum capacity of 35 students each
Each course has several scheduling constraints, including:
Discussion sections must not conflict with the lecture meeting time
The first discussion section must occur after the first lecture meeting of the week
Discussion sections should not be scheduled immediately before or immediately after the lecture to allow for transition time
Example: Math 3 lecture meets M/W/F from 9:20–10:25 a.m.
Use Case #2 – Chemistry
Discussion sections are scheduled into general assignment space (no department-specific rooms)
Uses the same standard discussion time blocks as Mathematics
Each course requires a defined number of sections and a target capacity
Additional constraints include:
No conflict with lecture meeting times
First discussion section must occur after the first lecture meeting
Avoid scheduling discussion sections immediately before or after the lecture
Avoid conflicts with scheduled graduate-level courses for that quarter.
Avoid conflicts with other large lecture courses that students will take during the same quarter. This will vary by course.
Overall, I am trying to determine whether there is an existing FET configuration, sample file, or documented approach that models this type of hybrid scheduling environment—where lectures are pre-assigned, and departments schedule constrained secondary sections around them.
Any guidance, examples, or recommendations you could share would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time and for developing such a flexible and powerful scheduling tool.
Best regards,
Patricia
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I recently came across your timetabling software and believe it may be well-suited for my use case.
I work as a staff scheduler for the Departments of Mathematics and Chemistry at a large public university. While our Registrar centrally schedules primary lectures in general assignment classrooms, individual departments are responsible for scheduling secondary discussion sections associated with those lectures.
In Mathematics, discussion sections are scheduled into department-controlled classrooms. In Chemistry, however, sections are placed in shared instructional spaces, and departments must adhere to very specific day-of-week and time-block patterns (e.g., M/W/F vs. T/Th blocks), along with numerous constraints to avoid conflicts with lectures, laboratories, room availability, and instructor assignments.
I am hoping that there may already be an existing FET model or example configuration that I could adapt, rather than building everything from scratch.
Use Case #1 – Mathematics
Five department-controlled classrooms, each with a defined seating capacity
Standard discussion section time blocks (screenshots attached)
Each academic term, I receive a list of courses, each requiring a fixed number of discussion sections and a maximum enrollment per section
Example: Math 3 requires 4 discussion sections with a maximum capacity of 35 students each
Each course has several scheduling constraints, including:
Discussion sections must not conflict with the lecture meeting time
The first discussion section must occur after the first lecture meeting of the week
Discussion sections should not be scheduled immediately before or immediately after the lecture to allow for transition time
Example: Math 3 lecture meets M/W/F from 9:20–10:25 a.m.
Use Case #2 – Chemistry
Discussion sections are scheduled into general assignment space (no department-specific rooms)
Uses the same standard discussion time blocks as Mathematics
Each course requires a defined number of sections and a target capacity
Additional constraints include:
No conflict with lecture meeting times
First discussion section must occur after the first lecture meeting
Avoid scheduling discussion sections immediately before or after the lecture
Avoid conflicts with scheduled graduate-level courses for that quarter.
Avoid conflicts with other large lecture courses that students will take during the same quarter. This will vary by course.
Overall, I am trying to determine whether there is an existing FET configuration, sample file, or documented approach that models this type of hybrid scheduling environment—where lectures are pre-assigned, and departments schedule constrained secondary sections around them.
Any guidance, examples, or recommendations you could share would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time and for developing such a flexible and powerful scheduling tool.
Best regards,
Patricia
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