Intake scheduling

Intake scheduling permits to use the same schedule or allocation of lectures all over again. In some institutions similar kind of courses are repeated several times during the school year. This tool may save a lot of time, if many courses repeat the same pattern over again. There are two approaches to solve this in Mimosa, and both are presented here.

Creating intakes by merging Mimosa files is an recommended approach, since in most cases the scheduled lectures do not have to be cleared during the process.

Create intake schedules by merging several files:

In Intake Scheduling the same pattern of all or selected courses are run several times during a year. The number of intakes vary, but the principle is the same. If the courses for all intakes are similar, it is easier to create timetables for only one intake and then duplicate results for other intakes. Typically groups or students are different in each intake. If group-based scheduling is applied, groups must be renamed for each intake. In case of personalised timetables, the students for each intake must be changed accordingly.

The simplest way to perform this task is Mimosa is to create separate files for each intakes, export them to text files with File|File Export and then merge them together with File|File Add selection. Mimosa provides a built in tool in this selection, which is described at the end of this section.

  1. Create a Mimosa file corresponding to the needed data of the first intake, including the allocation of lectures to weeks and scheduled in timetables.
  2. In order to repeat the same pattern for the upcoming weeks, recode the group or class codes and courses which will change along by intakes, for instance by using some suitable prefix (for instance ClassA becomes 1-ClassA, CourseX becomes 1-CourseX). Note that you can perform this operation easily with the Tools|Code conversion selection:

  3. Save this file on disk with a name Intake1.mfw.

  4. Shift the lectures right in Weeks view with the Edit|Insert week, to fit with the allocation of the second intake.
  5. Recode the codes as before (for instance ClassA becomes 2-ClassA, CourseX becomes 2-CourseX) and save this file on disk with the name Intake2.mfw.

  6. Repeat these steps for all intakes.
  7. Save the intake files in text files (say Intake1.mfw, Intake2.mxt, Intake3.mxt) with File|File Export, so that they can be combined into one file.
  8. Open one of the intake files (say Intake1.mfw) into Mimosa with File|Open
  9. Add all text files one by one with File|File Add command.
  10. Save the combined result with a new file name (say Intakes.mfw).

After all files have been combined the result might look like this (Components view):

Note that each group (LineA, LineB, LineC) requires a different code, since the groups are dependent on the intake.

In the Weeks view the patterns for each intake are easy to see. Note that using intake prefix in codes (rather than postfix) organises the codes in a more readable order. If the intakes are overlapping (which is not the case in this example), user may be forced to remove conflicts after adding the other intake files - or use the selection Tools|Check for conflicts.

In order to recode the components and courses across intakes with a minimum effort, use the Clipboard-based selection Tools|Code conversion and a spreadsheet application.

Intake scheduling is solved similar also in the case when intake weeks overlap. When files are merged, Mimosa automatically removes conflicts if they occur.

Use the built-in Intake scheduling tool:

This selection enables you to pick a set of courses and move them right or left and create various intakes of the selected courses. They represent courses for each intake, and the operation must be repeated as many times as there are intakes. If you have already scheduled lectures, moving of courses may cause conflicts. They are automatically cleared during the process.

When you apply this selection, Weeks view becomes automatically activated. Select first the courses you want to move right or left, starting from the first week.

When these courses have been selected they become highlighted. Click then either Move courses to right or Move courses to left. After each move, the grid is updated accordingly. When the move is complete, select Quit or [Cancel].

If you have already scheduled the lectures, moving the courses to other weeks may result in conflicts. They are automatically cleared after each move.