What happens if the Unit of Study Coordinators have not been confirmed by the time data collection starts?

 ​If a Unit of Study Coordinator is absent, or has not yet been confirmed for the next year, the timetabling team may contact Program Directors (i.e. the person responsible for curriculum at program, major or degree level).

How will schools provide information about staff allocated to classes if this doesn’t get confirmed until much closer to semester?

Staff allocations to classes can be provided to the timetabling team, only if known during data collection. For example, the lecturer for the unit may be known well in advance, and if this information is provided, the timetabling team can schedule the lecture, avoiding times when the lecturer is known to be unavailable.  It is understood that a significant proportion of teacher allocations to classes are not known at this stage.

Why are we collecting data so early when there are so many changes to the timetable in the lead up to semester?

One of the aims of the recent changes to timetabling was to deliver an indicative timetable to staff and students as early as possible. The timeline has been designed to allow for data collection, scheduling and review of the timetable prior to publishing the timetable to students and staff as early as possible.

Hasn’t this data already been provided during other data collection processes?

Most of the data collected during this process is specific to timetabling, however, the process also involves verifying some foundational curriculum data. As part of continuous improvement, the university are trying to reduce duplication and improve the efficiency of data collection, whilst maintaining critical input from colleagues, year on year.

What is a ‘clashable’ teaching activity vs clash free unit combinations?

If an activity is recorded as ‘clashable’ in the timetabling system, that activity will be ‘allowed’ to clash with other teaching activities on a student’s timetable, as agreed by the Unit of Study Coordinators. The University creates acceptable ‘clashable’ activities in order to minimise clashes in a student’s timetable that are unacceptable and have a negative impact on their studies and experience. For example, a lecture which is being recorded might be deemed a clashable activity, because it would be acceptable for a student to attend an alternative class at that time and watch the lecture recording at their convenience. However, a tutorial, even when there are multiple options available, may not be deemed clashable because the students should be attending their tutorial each week and it should not clash with another activity/class.

This is distinct from ‘clash free unit combinations’ which are the rules in place to ensure key unit combinations that students enrol in are scheduled to enable students to select non-clashing activities across these units.  

I am no longer a Unit of Study Coordinator, how do I change this?

This needs to be updated in Sydney Student. You can find information on how to do this at the bottom of the Academic Model page on the intranet.

Do the timetabling team take into consideration fractional/part time teaching staff or those with Flexible Working Arrangements?

Yes

1. When scheduling the draft timetable, the timetabling team will avoid scheduling teaching staff on days they are not working, where there is known information on staff allocated to classes and known and approved fractional arrangements/flexible working arrangements provided during data collection stage. Note that the only a small percentage of allocation of staff to classes is known at this point, so the majority of staff allocation will happen under point 2.

2. Further, once the draft timetable is released, teaching staff will be assigned to classes locally (within schools and discipline areas) following local workload allocation practices. This allows additional opportunity for fractional/part time staff and those with approved flexible working arrangements to adjust timetable allocations. After the indicative timetable is published to students, the timetable team can still accommodate staff with fractional/part time arrangements or approved flexible working arrangements via requests to change the timetable through their local timetabling partner.

• Have the key clash free class combination options for students been considered?
  
• Do the spaces meet the teaching requirements?
• Does the sequencing meet requirements?
• Are the week patterns correct?
• Have the right units been timetabled?
• Do the pack up and set down times work?
• Have the ‘clashable activities’ and non-clashable activities been represented accurately?
• Has honorary staff unavailability been taken into consideration
• Have unavailable times for staff allocated to classes during data collection been taken into consideration?

• Are allocated teaching staff available to teach when scheduled?
  
• Are spaces appropriate for staff with disabilities? (changes can be requested for the room's accessibility properties that are needed, there is no need to provide detail about a specific staff member)
• Are technical staff available to undertake scheduled instruction/pack up and set down or other timetable dependent activities?
• Staff Clashes (once staff have been allocated to classes)
• Potential staff travel time clashes

Notes: 

This checklist focuses on improving the timetable before it's released to students. At this stage, you are not able to review number of class places against actual enrolment counts - adjustments for actual enrolments are done in the timetable allocation and adjustment phase.

Responsibilities for checking each aspect of the draft timetable will differ depending on Faculty/University school arrangements.

• The allocated teaching space does not match teaching delivery requirements provided during data collection;
• The allocated teaching space does not meet the accessibility needs of a member of staff
• The teaching delivery requirements have changed since the information was provided during data collection; or
• A requested room which matches teaching delivery requirements is available.

• The scheduled time does not match the teaching delivery requirements provided during data collection;
• The request is consistent with an approved flexible working arrangement that would make a teaching staff member unavailable to work at specific times of the week
• An identified staff member is fractional and unavailable at that time;
• The request is made to avoid clashes of an identified teacher, including travel time clashes;
• The request is made to minimise potential student clashes; or
• The request is made to accommodate technical set up and pack down times needed

Requests for changes of time can only be accommodated if appropriate teaching resources (such as teaching staff identified by faculties or University schools, and suitable venues identified by the timetabling team) are available at the requested time.

If, in rare circumstances your change can’t be accommodated during the draft review period the timetabling team will contact you.

If you have a request that doesn’t meet these criteria, please aim to resolve these at the local level, and speak to your Head of School if required.

Sydney Timetable

Description

Activity

A scheduled teaching event that students will attend. The combination of weekday, time and location constitutes a timetable activity. Repetition across weeks is considered as a single activity with a repeating week pattern. 

Activity groups

The types of teaching activities that can be applied to the delivery of a unit of study. For example, a student will attend the activity groups of two lectures, one tutorial and one lab per week.  

Adjusted size

The activity’s planned number of students (its planned size) plus the buffer value creates the adjusted size of an activity. 

Alerts

Alerts are provided to students as in-system messages in Sydney Timetable when a change occurs that impacts their timetable, e.g., they have been allocated to an activity, or an activity location has changed. 

Allocated

When a student is allocated it means that they are assigned to a specific activity. The full set of a student’s allocations to the activities in their enrolled units constitutes their personal timetable.  

Allocation mode

The allocation mode of activities determines how students can self-serve to do their allocation tasks. For example, at Sydney University most units are initially set to ‘preference mode’ to enable students to enter a set of preferred times. Once students have been allocated based on preferences, the allocation mode changes to ‘allocation adjustment’ which enables students to directly add or change activities. Once student allocation period is complete, allocation mode becomes ‘read only’ so that students cannot change allocations.  

Buffer

A setting that allows for variation in the number of students that can be allocated to activities. If a positive buffer is set, more students can be allocated than the original planned size of the activity. If a negative buffer is set, fewer students can be allocated than the planned size.  

Child subject

A subject whose activities are combined with another subject for timetabling purposes. Students may enrol in separate units of study, but the teaching delivery for these units is combined. 

Clashable activities

Activities that allow students to choose them even if they clash with another activity at the same time on that student’s timetable. University of Sydney has allowed clashable activities for lectures without attendance requirements, usually because they are recorded. 

Class lists

The list of students assigned to an activity.  

Notification

Emails generated by the system and sent to students when a change occurs that requires the student to take an action, e.g. an activity they were allocated to has been deleted and they need to select a different activity. 

Pending

A student’s allocation status for an activity group will be ‘Pending’ when they have selected their preferences, but have not yet been allocated to a specific activity.                                                                                                                   

Planned size.

The planned size is the activity size limit, or limit to the number of students who can be allocated to the activity.  

Preferences

Students select preferences by recording their preferred times from the scheduled activities available in an activity group. Students can rank the preferences from most to least preferred. Preferences are used as an input when students are allocated all of their activities in their personal timetables.  

Preference mode

An allocation mode than allows students to record their preferences for available activities.  

Section

Subgrouping of activities used to keep the same groups of students together across different activities. For example, a section may contain tutorial and lab activities, and the same students will be allocated to both. 

Student module

The module of Sydney Timetable used by students to manage their allocations and view their personal timetables. 

Subject

Unit of Study occurrences are referred to as subjects within Sydney Timetable 

Swap request

Students will be able to request a swap to another instance of a class (activity) if they would prefer it to their currently allocated activity. If a matching swap becomes available, the system will automatically change the students’ allocations. Swaps are available only until the end of the allocation period (week 2 of a standard semester). 

Sydney Timetable 

Sydney Timetable is the name given to the University’s version of Allocate +, a web-based student timetable management solution. It enables students to manage their timetable, staff to access timetable information and the timetable team to manage student allocation. It also provides powerful management, reporting and analytical tools to help streamline the timetable processes for both staff and students. 

Waitlist

Students will be able to join a waitlist via Sydney Timetable if they are not allocated to a class (activity) and they are unable to get a place in a non-clashing class. If places become available, the students are allocated in the order they made the waitlist requests. The Timetabling Team will monitor waitlists and liaise with the faculties and schools to make additional places available where needed.