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MEETING PATTERNS: FAQs & Troubleshooting

Table of Contents

FAQs
Troubleshooting
Related Articles 

FAQs

How can I assign a TBA meeting for a non-integrated school?

Overview | How to Do It | Usage Limitations | Integration Notes & Limitations

Overview

  • When a section needs to have a meeting assigned, but the day and time is either unknown or should not be specified, the user can add a TBA meeting.

  • The process for assigning a TBA meeting varies depending on whether or not your institution is integrated. The process outlined below is recommended for non-integrated institutions only. If your institution is integrated, we recommend you follow the steps outlined here

  • TBA applies to both days and times; TBA cannot be set for just days, or for just times.

 

How to Do It

PATH: Academic Scheduling > Section Dashboard > (Select Section)

 

Step 1: Navigate to the above path. 

 

Step 2: Scroll down to the “Meeting Patterns & Rooms” card.

 

Step 3: Click “+ Meeting Pattern”. 

Step 4: Click “Select TBA”. 

 

Usage Limitations

If you have a section with multiple meetings, attempts to combine custom times for one meeting with a TBA time in another meeting will result in display issues, and will attempt to display custom times and standard times by showing a "select option" input instead of the custom times:

Any section with at least one meeting set as TBA will assume all meetings are standard meeting patterns, and therefore if you need to use custom meeting times for at least one meeting, please create the “TBA” meeting manually as “no days” or “times” rather than using “TBA” as shown below.

Integration Notes & Limitations

  • Depending on your SIS, upon merging the TBA meeting might no longer appear as “TBA”. Instead, the meeting might now display as a nonstandard meeting pattern with no days or times selected.This is because TBA is a field that cannot be directly integrated, and so empty fields must be sent instead.

  • If a meeting is flagged as TBA in Coursedog, but has days or times set in the SIS, this may cause the two systems to display different data, as Coursedog will ONLY show "TBA", regardless of the day or time values set. To remedy such cases, you can remove the TBA meeting and re-add it without a "TBA" flag. 

What does “ignore relationships” mean?

Overview | Making “Ignore Relationships” Visible | Setting “Ignore Relationships” to “Yes” | Example Use Case

Overview

  • The advanced settings for Meeting Patterns & Rooms includes a field for “Times Ignore Relationships”.

  • This field is intended for institutions that need to establish overrides at the Meeting Pattern level for the purposes of our Relationship conflict computation.

  • More specifically, Ignore Relationships allows us to specify on a MEETING level which meetings should be excluded from the relationship conflict computation. In other words, if “Ignore Relationships” is selected, then Coursedog will not include the meeting in the check for relationship conflicts.

  • The “Times Ignore Relationship” field is hidden by default in advanced settings.

  • If set to be visible, its value defaults to “No” in the section editing modal.

 

Making “Ignore Relationships” Visible

We do NOT recommend enabling this field for PeopleSoft customers given "combined sections" (i.e. sections with a Same Time, Same Day, Same Room relationships) must have ALL meeting patterns respect said relationship. If it is determined you can safely enable this field, follow the below steps. 

 

Step 1: Navigate to Academic Scheduling > Settings > Templates > Section Template.

 

Step 2: Select the gear icon (Advanced Settings) on the Meeting Patterns & Rooms card.

Step 3: 

  • Uncheck the blue box next to “Ignore Relationships” to make it visible.

  • If the box is checked, it is hidden. If the box is not checked, it is visible. 

 

Setting “Ignore Relationships” to “Yes”

Follow the below steps to signal that the second Meeting Pattern does NOT need to abide by the Same Time Same Day Same Room constraint.

 

Step 1: Navigate to Meeting Patterns & Rooms > Set Details.

 

Step 2:

  • Set “Ignore Relationships” to “YES”.

  • This action must be performed for all Sections in the relationship.

 

Example Use Case

Overview | If “Ignore Relationships” = “No” (Default Setting) | If “Ignore Relationships” = “Yes”

Overview

  • A scheduler cross lists section BIO 106 - 001 with section HIST 100 - 001.

  • Let's assume both sections have multiple Meeting Patterns.

    • The first Meeting Pattern in both sections corresponds to the lecture component, which must take place at the same time/day/room for both sections (cross listed); these are signaled with a blue arrow in the image below.

    • However, the other Meeting Pattern(s) may correspond to other components (e.g. seminar, lab, etc.) that do NOT necessarily need to take place at the same time/day/room for both sections; these are signaled with an orange arrow in the image below.

If “Ignore Relationships” = “No” (Default Setting)

If we set “Ignore Relationships” to “No”, then the Section would flag a conflict given some Meeting Patterns are not respecting the Same Time Same Day Same Room relationship.

 

 

 

If “Ignore Relationships” = “Yes”

If “Ignore Relationships” is set to “Yes”, noted sections will be excluded from the relationship conflict computation, and you will no longer see conflict violation notices in the Section Dashboard.


Are meeting pattern rules based on an individual department schedule or the full schedule? 

Meeting pattern rules, such as “no more than 33% in primetime”, are based on the full schedule. The full schedule. 

Troubleshooting

Meeting Patterns Showing up as Non-Standard

Custom vs. Standard Meeting Patterns | Problem Overview | Solution Overview

Custom vs. Standard Meeting Patterns

When you set a meeting pattern in the section editing modal, you have two options: standard meeting patterns and custom meeting patterns. You can learn more about both here.

 

Standard Meeting Patterns

 

Custom Meeting Patterns

 

Problem Overview

In some cases meeting patterns will show up as non-standard.

 

Solution Overview

Cause/Solution One (Not Yet Synced) | Cause/Solution Two (New Standard Meeting Pattern Added)
Cause/Solution Three (Improper Meeting Pattern Groups) | Cause/Solution Four (Unsatisfied Meeting Pattern Group Filters)

Cause/Solution One (Not Yet Synced)

  • If you assign a custom meeting pattern to a section, it will be considered non-standard (even if it consists of the same days and times as an existing standard meeting pattern), but this will be fixed during the nightly sync with your SIS.

  • If your integration is not turned on, the meeting pattern will continue to be considered as custom. To fix this manually, simply delete the custom meeting pattern and add the desired standard meeting pattern.

 

Cause/Solution Two (New Standard Meeting Pattern Added)

A similar issue will occur when you add a new standard meeting pattern. That is, any sections that are assigned to an analogous custom meeting pattern will remain custom until a sync with your SIS.

 

Cause/Solution Three (Improper Meeting Pattern Groups)

Another reason your meeting patterns might be considered non-standard is if your meeting pattern groups are not set up properly. One common misconception is that a meeting pattern that meets once a week would satisfy the conditions of the following meeting pattern group: 

 

However, a section scheduled to meet only on Monday from 8:00-10:50 a.m. would be considered non-standard because the above group has Monday through Friday set as its default meeting days. That is, in order for a section to satisfy this meeting pattern it would have to meet from 8-10:50am on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. In order for the above pattern to work for a section that meets once a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday there would need to be 5 different meeting pattern groups, each with a different default meeting day.

 

Cause/Solution Four (Unsatisfied Meeting Pattern Group Filters)

In order for a section to be considered standard, it must satisfy all fields that are built in a standard meeting pattern group. For example, even if a lab section satisfies the times and days specified by the following meeting pattern group, in the below scenario it will be considered non-standard as its section type is not “Lecture”: 

 

To see a meeting pattern group’s details, click the group info button in the top right corner of its card:

 

Meeting Patterns Changing Order

Overview

If your meeting patterns are changing order in your user interface (UI), this is likely tied to your SIS.

 

Reason

For schools with integration data, Coursedog sorts the meeting patterns of sections with multiple meeting patterns in a way that aligns with how they are sorted by the school's SIS, rather than sort them in the order that they were added by the user.

 

Double-Booked Conflicts for Non-Weekly Recurrences and Hybrid Sections

Overview | Non-Weekly Recurrence | Hybrid Sections

Overview

Coursedog assumes Meeting Patterns have a weekly recurrence. If a school has non-weekly recurrences (i.e. sections that meet bi-weekly, for example), this could potentially lead to double booked conflicts. This article walks you through how to account for non-weekly recurrences and hybrid sections.

 

Non-Weekly Recurrence

Problem Overview | Workaround | Workaround Benefit

Problem Overview

The following example illustrates how a non-weekly recurrence could lead to conflicts: 

  1. If Art 100 Section 1 meets M W F at 8AM on weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. in Room 1 and taught by Instructor A and

  2. Art 100 Section 2 meets M W F at 8AM on weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. in Room 1 and taught by Instructor A and

  3. We assign the M W F 8AM time block, Room 1, and Instructor A to both sections, we will get a (false) double booked room and double booked instructor conflict. This is because Coursedog assumes both sections meet M W F every single week, and had no concept of a meeting pattern "recurrence pattern".

 

This issue may be particularly common with Colleague clients, since Colleague has a "recurrence" concept for its meeting patterns:

 

Workaround

In order to make sure the meeting dates accurately reflect the recurrence pattern in Coursedog with current functionality, users must make sure the start and end date at the “Set Details” level are accurate. 

 

Step 1: Go to Academic Scheduling > Section Dashboard > (Select Section) > Meeting Pattern card > Set Details    

 

 

Step 2: Make sure the dates encompass times when the section actually does meet. For example, if the section meets M W F bi-weekly, you should have one meeting pattern "row" per week (see multiple rows above). 

 

Step 3: Set the start/end date for the week in “Set Details”. 

 

Workaround Benefit

There are several benefits to the above approach:

  • Coursedog will now recognize that there is no double booked room nor double booked instructor conflict to flag – the false warning goes away.

  • In Events, the room availability is accurately reflected. For example, if a section only uses Room 2 every other week, Room 2 will accurately be displayed as available during the section's “off” weeks.

  • The Optimizer should recognize the dates at the “Set Details” level and will be able to operate accordingly.

 

Hybrid Sections

Problem Overview | Workaround | Workaround Benefit

Problem Overview

You will also need to create multiple meeting patterns for hybrid sections (i.e. sections with online and in-person components). Otherwise, you might wind up booking/blocking a room when it isn’t actually being used. The following example illustrates how a hybrid section could impact room availability: 

 

  1. If a section meets MWF from 10-10:50, but only the Monday session is in person, Coursedog will automatically assume the room assignment applies to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

  2. There is not a way to isolate the room assignment to only a portion of the meeting pattern. 

 

Workaround

In order to avoid any unnecessary room bookings, we will need to create and assign two unique meeting patterns for this section. In this case, we need a Monday 10-10:50 meeting pattern with a room assigned. We also need a WF 10-10:50 meeting pattern without a room assigned. 

Workaround Benefit

This will allow the scheduler to factor all meeting times into the schedule without utilizing a room that won't be occupied.


Meeting Patterns Being Wiped for Relationship Sections (PeopleSoft Only)

Problem Overview

Your SIS is PeopleSoft, and you’ve noticed meeting patterns disappearing from sections that are part of a relationship. 


Explanation

  • This can happen if a relationship is created after one section had Meeting Patterns and the other(s) did not.

  • PeopleSoft propagates the meeting data of one section to another section when two sections are combined.

  • It is likely that PeopleSoft propagated the data of the section without Meeting Patterns to the other section(s), essentially clearing the existing meeting patterns. 


How to Fix It

You can do one of the following: 

  1. Adjust the Meeting Pattern for one of the already created Relationship's sections so that the changes propagate to the other.

  2. Remove the sections from the relationship; set the meeting pattern on both sections; add the relationship to the section. 


How to Prevent It

Either create relationships when both sections don’t yet have meetings assigned or create the relationship after both sections have the same meeting pattern assigned.

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