two MSc courses with electives and compulsory subjects

[ggiakas]

Hi

I am new on timetabling and I am trying to make the second semester timetable for two MSc courses (MSc1 and MSc2) running on the same weeks (1 week per month).

The first course MSc1, has 7 subjects all electives (say MSc1-A, MSc1-B, etc) with 20 students. Currently all subjects will run.
The second course MSc2 has just 4 subjects (MSc2-A, MSc2-B, MSc2-C and MSc2-D) but all compulsory.

The interesting thing is that some of the activities of the two courses are the same and they run from the same teacher, i.e. one Teacher may teach the Biochemistry subject in both courses (so to have for example MSc1-A  with MSc2-A in the same class). There is no space problem.

I am trying to find a strategy on how to enter the student data correctly. For MSc2 all students run all 4 subjects so this is fine.

But for the MSc1 this is mixed. For the moment I have created one year (2015-2016), two groups (MSc1 and MSc2). I am puzzled with subgroups, if needed.

Many thanks for your time and effort.

Giannis

[Liviu Lalescu]

Year is not 2015-2016, but a year of students.

Maybe add year Y, and divide it automatically by two categories. In category 1, divisions MSc1-A, ..., and in category 2, divisions MSc2-A, ... . But I am not sure. We may talk some more.

[ggiakas]

This is an 1 year course for Both Msc anyway so it doesn't make a difference I suppose

[ggiakas]

I have created a ppt to explain the structure of the two courses

[Liviu Lalescu]

I think you attached the same file twice. Could you/me remove one of them?

I'll try to read and understand better in the next interval. Also, maybe Volker will answer better than me. I am not good at understanding students' structure. But maybe you should make a division like I wrote in my previous post, and see what you get.

Maybe you could define a real student = a FET subgroup, and create groups and a year based on subgroups. This can be done easier if you import from CSV (comma separated values) students file.

[Liviu Lalescu]

To see the students' structure in a CSV file, export one from FET and open it with a text editor.

Note: In standard FET, you cannot let a student choose his activities. Each activity must have a specific students set attached to it.

[Volker Dirr]

the csv idea with subgroup=students name will be the "best", since you don't need to think closer.

but now i check your sheet some more and saw some special stuff:
MSc2 = In fact students have no choise. They must take the same. So no need to care about a diffetrent structure there.

About MSc1: You might set that manually. Since there are not many subject possible at the same time. Maybe just place them at the same time to avoid students gaps.

About you attached paper:
You need to care about the problem of page 1 and 2 by doing a correct students structure. So you need to add correct years/groups/subgroups.
Your problem of page 3 and 4 is easy: Just add those students and groups into an activity.