Once learners have been load balanced according to their actual enrolments and any discrepancies have been dealt with as far as possible, you can do the following:
Generate the timetable
When this process is performed, any existing events for the courses that are timetabled using Block Matrix will first be deleted (in the selected session only), and the new events then created. For this reason it is important to consider when these actions are performed and to ensure that any additional events for these courses are timetabled after the generation process has been run from Block Matrix.
Click the Generate Timetable button on the Block Matrix ribbon to run the timetable generation process.
This process creates timetable events in the ebs database in accordance with the load-balanced and adjusted matrix and course groups.
If you have specified staff members and rooms for course groups at either block level or for individual periods, these will also be associated with the timetable events. Similarly, if you have specified event types for course groups, these will be applied to the events generated. Otherwise, the default event type associated with courses, as defined in reference data, will be used.
Allocate learners to groups
Click the Allocate Groups button on the Block Matrix ribbon to allocate learners to groups.
Note: This can be done before generating the timetable, but it is recommended that you generate the timetable first.
This carries out the following tasks:
- Removes learners from the existing (UIO) groups for Block Matrix courses
- Deletes existing course groups for Block Matrix courses
- Creates new course groups based on the model built in Block Matrix for Block Matrix courses
- Allocates learners to the newly created groups based on the load balancing data from Block Matrix
The load-balanced allocation of learners calculated is then replicated in the timetable, allowing learner timetables to be displayed, printed, and distributed.
After this step adjustments to the timetable will normally be made in ebs: shape, working directly with the live timetable for the current or future session. However, there are still some tasks which can be performed using Block Matrix.