Timetable activity class sizes are a critical element required for producing both a working timetable and a timetable that effectively utilises the teaching space that is available. The direct and indirect impacts of inaccurate or missing class sizes can be severe, to the students, staff and the institution. So what are these impacts?
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It may seem inconsequential because, surely, there is no such thing as a room being too big? And in a room where space is a limited, you simply grab an extra chair or two, don't you? But there may be other implications of when timetabling effective use of space is not accurate.
The impact of this is typically very noticeable.
If the timetable activity class size is set as smaller than the number of students who will be attending, there is a risk that this activity will be timetabled into a room with too small a capacity.
The outcome of this is overcrowding, with students forced to stand or sit on the floor . Or, if requiring equipment, being unable to attend.
The consequences of overcrowding to an institution are often significant, as any instances are typically remembered by students, resulting in less-than-stellar student experience feedback.
The direct impact of this is less noticeable to students and staff (and therefore more common).
If a classroom dimensions are larger than required then typically this will result in the activity being timetabled into a room that is too large.
Larger than required class sizes can have a severe impact on the timetable as they create an artificially higher demand for larger teaching space. This causes an increase of pressure on the larger teaching space and a reduction of the number of potential timeslots that activities can be timetabled into within these spaces.
In turn, this increases the risk of a working timetable not being produced or forcing the timetable to be unable to address student and staff preferences, thus impacting on the student and staff experience.
Ultimately this artificial demand for larger teaching spaces, due to larger than required class sizes, is often viewed as the real demand. The result of this can be severe, with institutions planning and constructing teaching spaces that reflect this artificially higher demand rather than the real demand, wasting significant resources.
If a timetable activity has no class size at all, this is typically due to a person requesting a specific room for an activity.
This solely relies on this person to be requesting a suitable sized room, removing the judgement of those that manage the normal room allocation procedure . This potentially runs the same risks as those activities with class sizes that are smaller or larger than required.
In addition, those that manage the room allocation procedure do not have the information to move this activity effectively, as they will be unaware of the size of room required. The only options available are to move this activity to the same or larger capacity space (worsening space utilisation per move) or to contact the person who requested this activity to determine a suitable move (slowing and complicating move process considerably).
Perhaps the most severe impact is that a 'classroom with no class size' prevents an institution from being able to utilise the timetable data for planning the estate, as predictions on the size of the rooms required cannot be accurately indicated. This can result in institutions providing teaching space for the perceived demand rather than the actual demand that could be determined via utilising accurate timetable data.
There is therefore a high risk in this scenario of significant funds being spent ineffectively.
If this is something you are interested in improving at your institution and would like to know more, please do get in contact via
he[email protected]. We work with institutions across the UK, Europe and beyond to improve how they timetable space, collect data and analyse it to produce an improved tutor and student experience.
