When students have 8 hours a day, divided into groups

[FaustFET]

Hello,
in my school the maximum number of hours per day for students is 7 (35 hours per week, 5 working days). In some situations, students are allowed to have 8 hours a day, but in that day they must be divided into groups at least once (group A - the first half of the class and group B - the second half of the class). Students are divided into groups when they have exercises, usually 2 hours.

Is it possible to set this constraint in advance, i.e. if the students have 8 hours a day, they must be divided into groups at least once that day?

Best regards,
Igor

[Volker Dirr]

hmmm... I think there is no way exactly like want you requested, but there are different variants possible. In fact i think the first 2 variants are even betters, because your idea of the requested rule is an pedagogic/educational reason for the students.

In my opinion the easierst variant and best variant for the students is to just select such a divided group activity and place it in the 8th hour. (activity preferred time + day)

If that is too strict, then you must work with the constraint "a set of activities occupy min time slots". So you select all divides group activities of a group and need to select:
a) all 8. hours (i think this is also a very good variant)
or
b) a whole day (but in that case you must care about, that only this day is the day with 8. hours) (this is more like what you request, not exactly, but i don't like this variant. It is only a pseudo reason. Why, because maybe the day with the 8. hours should have subjects like sport, music, ... so "easy" subjects.

[Liviu Lalescu]

Hello, @FaustFET ,

Maybe it is possible to make a FET customization for what you need.

[xtzetzias]

I'm not sure if i've understand the case but i'll take my chances and make a try for a solution:

What if you made an 8 hours-per-day schedule, made a 1+1+1+1 dummy activity (let' call it "LastHour"), restrict it to take place only during the 8th hour. Then use another restriction so that LastHour and your Excercise activity have minimum 1 day between them.
Does it make any sence?

[Liviu Lalescu]

Interesting, simple, and elegant, @xtzetzias , but I am not sure I understood exactly the initial post, to confirm your solution.

[xtzetzias]

Thanks. Let's hope that it is useful to FaustFet

[Liviu Lalescu]

My first impression was that his situation would be much more difficult, with gaps and late beginnings allowed for his students, with day with >8 hours. But it might be as simple as you say.