Courses view

Other views: Components | Weeks | Timetables

Having first created the list of some or all of the components you can then create the list of courses in a similar technique, using the commands Insert, Modify and Delete or the corresponding buttons. Courses are sets of components defining all teaching requirements for the institution (such as school or university). For each course, you must select its own set of components (=collections) to define how it is synchronised with other resources (classes, teachers, rooms) and also define the lectures for all weeks or terms and later assign them in timetables. Courses can also be any other events, such as meetings, appointments, tests, etc. and the number of components (persons, rooms, equipment) for each course can vary from one to 240.

Before you start creating your courses, add first some components (classes, teachers, rooms) in Components view. Create your first course by clicking Insert.

Go then to Modify or insert a course where courses and their structures are explained in more detail.

When you select to modify an existing course (by clicking Enter or [F2]), the following window is displayed:

When you create a new course, none of the components exists in the left box. In this example, lectures have already been assigned into timetables, and Mimosa allows you to add only those components to courses which do not cause any conflicts.

When the list of courses is double-clicked, the list of components of the course plus its timetable are automatically displayed on top of the course list (if they exist). Double-clicking the list again hides them.

When creating a new course, you must also supply a collection of components, which are treated as simultaneously with the course plus the total number of lectures that must be allocated to weeks (MAX).

See section Modify or insert a course for examples about different types of courses.

The order of the courses in the list can be changed with the help of the Move up and Move down buttons or by sorting them all according to some appropriate criteria (Tools|Sort). Note that it is very easy to import the list of courses and their components via Clipboard, provided you have entered it in a spreadsheet application with a specific format below (Code, Name, Category number, MAX):

Menu selections:

Edit

With Edit menu selections you can modify the list of courses.

Duplicate (course)

This command duplicates the last activated course by creating a new course with the same

The code for the new course is generated automatically by using the old stored code as the basis (by appending letters a, b, c,…). You can change the suggested new code and modify all fields of this course later on.

Duplicate (course) many times

This selection is a generalisation of the above Duplicate course once selection, but it also enables to automatically replace a selected component in the courses that are going to be duplicated. This feature is useful in cases, where the same course is held for several classes by the same teacher and in the same room.

CourseClassTeacherRoom

Course1Class1TeacherRoom
Course2Class2TeacherRoom
Course3Class3TeacherRoom
Course4Class4TeacherRoom
Course5Class5TeacherRoom

After you have selected a component of the course to be duplicated, you are prompted to select one or more components of the same category that are going to replace the original component in duplicated courses. You can replace the automatically generated course code after each course is created or do it afterwards.

Copy onto the Clipboard

Codes of all selected courses are copied onto the Clipboard. You then have menu selections, where you can specify the content of the Clipboard. In each selection, you always have as the first field the course code, but the other fields in that row depend on the particular menu selection. Many selections have analogous formats with the respective selections in Components view.

The last selection Use timetabled lectures applies timetabled lectures (instead of lectures allocated to weeks).

You can select a subset from the courses and components to focus only on those codes that are of interest at the moment. If you first select "Use timetabled lectures", the results are calculated from already timetabled lectures (including Manual rooms), instead of weekly allocated lectures.

In selection 6, The Clipboard content is typically a large matrix containing as rows, lists of all components that can be added to the corresponding course without causing conflicts. This can be used as a list containing all permissible selections.

Paste from the Clipboard

Course codes, names, category numbers (1-7), the maximum number of lectures and, optionally, course collections can be pasted from the Clipboard and added to the list of courses. If a matching course code is found, the name and category is replaced. If collections are also pasted, all those components which have not already been created and not found in the component list are automatically omitted. Collections can be pasted in various modes (Replace, Add, Remove).