Here is our take on basic school timetabling terms as we use them in the Prime Timetable. Complicated terms and terms specific to some countries or regions have been avoided on purpose. Interpret the following timetabling terms as best suits your organization, e.g. use ‘college’ or ‘university’ instead of ‘school’, or ‘pupil’ instead of ‘student’, etc.
School
Institution designed to allow and encourage student groups to attend school activities under the supervision of teachers.
Teacher / Educator / Professor / Tutor / Instructor
Person who teaches, guides, instructs, trains or helps another in the process of learning knowledge.
Student
Learner, or someone who attends an educational institution.
Room
Place where teaching, learning or any other school activity can occur, e.g. biology room, history room, but also dining room, reception hall, teachers’ room etc.
Class
Group of students or pupils attending a specific course or lesson.
Division
Different set of groups forming a class, e.g. 5A class has 2 divisions: one consisting of a group of boys and girls, and the other consisting of a group of English and French students.
Resource
Class, Teacher or Room
Subject / Activity
Activity that includes at least one school resource, e.g. Maths, English, Biology, but also school recess, lunch, some non-class activities like teacher meetings, sport events, etc.
Period / Time slot
Block of time used for lessons
Lesson
Structured period of time where a school activity is intended to occur.
School timetable
Table which displays lessons.
Card
Visual representation of a lesson.
Awaiting card
Card waiting to be scheduled, temporarily placed outside the timetable.
Pinned card
Card locked on a specific period, meaning it won’t be rescheduled during automatic timetable generation, e.g. a timetabler is already satisfied with the card’s position.
Timetable view
Table that displays lessons as cards designed for drag & drop and other scheduling work, e.g. class view, teacher view, room view, 5A class view, etc.
Timetabling / Scheduling
Process of creating a school timetable and publishing it to the Web for sharing or printing.
Timetabler
Person who creates a school timetable.
The basic timetabling rule
One school resource during one school period can be scheduled in only one lesson. Otherwise, there is a conflict!
Conflict
Group of cards on the same position or overlapping each other.
Window / Gap
Empty period between school activities.
Time request
Specifying whether a particular school resource or activity is allowed, forbidden, unwanted or mandatory in a certain period.
Constraint
Requirement which should be satisfied in the generated timetable, e.g. setting that windows are forbidden for all classes.
Automatic timetable generator
Software which automatically creates a school timetable based on provided input.
Manual timetabling
Process of creating a timetable manually by dragging cards.
Timetable validation
Process of validating a timetable, e.g. verifying that there are no conflicts and that all specified constraints and time requests are met.
School scheduling/timetable software
Software designed to simplify scheduling/timetabling process.