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).

Insert [Insert]

Inserts a new course. See Modify or insert a course.

Modify [Enter]

Modifies the data of the current course. See Modify or insert a course.

Delete [Delete]

Deletes the current course.

Erase lectures [Ctrl+Del]

Clear allocated and timetabled lectures of the course.

Erase timetables [Shift+Del]

Clear timetabled lectures of the course.

Move up

Moves the current course up.

Move down

Moves the current course down.

Optimise room usage [Ctrl+G]

You can use this advanced selection to check and improve your current room selections. When you invoke this selection, the application displays to you the replacement options of all rooms of all courses one by one. Courses that cannot be improved by a room replacement are passed.

If you have several weeks in the school year, you can also optimise room usage only from a selected week on. This gives you often more degrees of freedom, since the system does not perform conflict check for the previous weeks. (Room conflicts, which remain in history, are not normally important today and in the future).

Once the application finds a course and room combination, where you can balance the room usage, the rooms are displayed in order of their desirability (in increasing order or maximum weekly load). Select the replacing room if appropriate to move to the next course and room (Replace). If you choose not to replace (Cancel), the application asks you to confirm continuation of the process.

If the course does not have any rooms yet, you can modify its content, with only the rooms on the right-hand side box, ordered in increasing order of maximum weekly load.

Selecting the most appropriate rooms is left on the user’s responsibility, since there are so many human factors to determine the best room choice in the last place. The room replacement list displays always only the logically permitted options, in order of their current usage, and balancing their load normally makes it easier to assign lectures into timetables.

See also Options|Maximum weekly load.

Split (course)

This selection allows you to split the course lectures in three different ways and perform typical allocation or timetabling operations automatically. In all submenus you first select the week from which the course is split in two parts. In all cases, course split results in two courses with identical collections, but without changing the original number of allocated lectures or assigned lectures.

Course split is often needed to change some of the components of the other course. This occurs for instance when the room or teacher have to be replaced from some week onwards.

When the new courses are created, their original codes are automatically replaced (by appending letters 'a', 'b', 'c' to the code). If you want to preserve the original course code, it is inserted in front of the course name, if you answer Yes to the question below:

Combine courses

You can automatically combine courses when they do not cause any conflicts. The application searches for pairs to combine and prompts you to accept the action. Note that combining courses is not necessary, but it can give you a better picture of the structure of all courses.

With similar collections

You can combine all courses with similar collections (list of components) by adding together their weekly-allocated lectures and constructing unions of their timetabled lectures. The selection automatically examines all pairs of courses having identical collections, prompts to combine them and lets the user to input new code and name for the new combined course, without altering the total amount of lectures of the courses.

In addition, you can optionally require that also the names of the pairs of courses to be combined must be identical.

If the answer is Yes, the two courses are combined, and if the answer is All, all subsequent similar courses are automatically combined (by selecting the code and the name of the first course). This tool is efficient in identifying reducing the number of unnecessary courses that have mistakenly been created twice, but having a similar structure.

With disjoint collections

You can combine courses having disjoint collections. These courses have no common components and combining of them means adding the collections of both courses together. This operation requires that timetables of both courses are identical (or empty). The selection automatically examines all pairs of courses satisfying these conditions, prompts to combine them. The name of the combined course is constructed from the codes of these combined courses. If the confirming answer is Yes, the two courses are combined, and if the answer is All, all subsequent valid pairs of courses are automatically combined (by selecting the code and the name of the first course).

View

Select grid font

Selects the font used in this view.

Course info [Ctrl+H]

Displays the list of the components (collection) of the active course. If you also want to replace some of the components, remove or add a component, select the appropriate component and then click Modify? button. For more information about this selection, click here.

Show collections

This selection displays or hides a window on top of the courses window, showing the collection of the current course. Double-clicking the list of courses has the same effect.

Show snapshot timetable

This selection will show/hide the following snapshot timetable of the current course and current week. User the arrow keys on bottom of the table to change the week.

Weekly lectures [Ctrl+W]

This selection shows/hides the weekly timetables and/or lectures of courses.

Find ... [Ctrl+F]

By entering the code or name (or a substring) locates the first course that matches the search criteria and makes it the active one. The search method is not case-sensitive. Press [F3] to locate the next code with the same search criteria.

Find by components ...

This extended search mode allows the user to locate only those courses that have some of the selected components in their collections or those that do NOT have any of them. Press [F3] to locate the next code with the same search criteria.

In collections

Finds those courses that have one or more of the selected components in their collections.

NOT in collections

Finds those courses that do NOT have any of the selected components in their collections.

Search again [F3]

Locates the next course that matches the search criteria and makes it the active one.

Best matches [Ctrl+B]

Finds other components with the most similar collections compared with the current (last activated) course. Courses are listed in the order of best match, each course code followed by the percentage number indicating the similarity of their collections (100%=exact match). This option can be used when creating a new course when the user is not certain if a similar (or near similar) course has already been created.