Groups can be defined as a logical set containing educators, classes, rooms and subjects that have to be available at the same period of time for a certain number of times.
I have tried to leave it as flexible as possible without impeding on the functionality of the program. It is entirely up to you how complex or simple you would like them.
Most of the calls for support stem from the misunderstanding of the way the grouping is meant to take place in TimeDesign. I hope that this document will enlighten you and make your timetable planning easier.
As can be seen from the information in the circle, the minimum number of periods required for this class is fifty six whereas the class only has forty nine available periods in the cycle (this is the available periods AFTER the Master timetable has been copied to the classes). This is an immediate indication that either the grouping has not been done properly or too many periods have been allocated to each group. In the above case it was actually the latter and by reducing the minimum periods per cycle to seven, we had a perfect allocation of periods to forty nine.
I define a group as the educator or educators and the class or classes involved that all need to have the same period or periods available for this group to reserve that period or periods for itself.
You are able to configure a variety of different types of groups and I will attempt to show you some different combinations.
This kind of group is what the bulk of your groups will be made up of, a single class, with a single educator and subject. You can see, the picture on the right shows the same educator, the same subject and a different class. This is the correct way to do your basic groupings. Here just the educator and the class involved need blank periods in common for the program to slot the group into.
This group is a single class that gets split up, i.e. half the class goes to one subject and the other half goes to another. Here both educators and the class must have blank periods in common for the program to slot the group into.
This group is two classes where both classes go to one subject with a single educator at the same time. Here the educator and both the classes must have blank periods in common for the program to slot the group into.
This group consists of two classes where half of each class goes to one subject and the other half goes to another. Here both educators and the classes must have blank periods in common for the program to slot the group into.
This is another extreme example where you can have four classes going to a single educator for a single subject.
This time a single class is split into three smaller units each going to a different educator.
Here we have four classes being split up into three sub classes going to the relevant educator. Once again all three educators and all four classes need to have blank periods in common for this group to get slotted into.
This last image shows that either the Master timetable with the breaks and assembly has not been copied to the classes and educators( Menu Actions - Master TT to All) or not all the groups have been created for the class or finally the minimum number of periods per cycle need to be adjusted to cater for the excess free periods of the class.
The bulk of your groups would consist of a single class, a single educator, the subject taught, and the room used, but as you can see, you decide what's going to suite your requirements best.