Glossary

Glossary of Terms

Room Booking Terms

Term
Definition
Priority Room Allocation Meeting (PRAM)             School-specific advanced bespoke priority room allocation session
Room Allocation Process (RAP) Annual core teaching activity room allocation process
Room Priorities The School/Unit which holds the booking priority over a space at different times of year
Allocation Priorities The set of rules and constraints the TTU works to when allocating teaching activities into School-priority and general spaces
Declaration date The date the TTU confirms the majority of teaching rom allocations for the coming year
Core Events Bookings which may be booked through the Timetabling Unit (excludes external and profit-making activities)
Lecture Style Room with tiered fixed seating
Classrom Style Room laid out in rows facing a presentation area
Boardroom Style Room laid out with chairs around a table
General Teaching Space Generic (standard kit) teaching space that can be used by any School
Specialist Teaching Space Non-generic space which has been designed for a specific use
Study Space Study room for booking by students
Meeting Space Space with the main purpose of facilitating meetings
Centrally managed rooms Space controlled and allocated by the Timetabling Unit
Locally managed rooms Space controlled by a School or Unit (allocation may be locally or through TTU)
Room Constraints Booking system settings which control room operational hours. Also help to maintain local specialist space bookable periods
Room information pages Individual pages containing information about rooms on the timetabling database

 

Timetabling Terms

Term
Definition
Timetable Data Preparation                                                It is the school's role to plan how and when classes are to be taught - to plan the timetable structure. They then provide this information to Timetabling who will enter this information in order to show this on class and student timetables, and book the rooms for classes.
Data Collection Spreadsheet A spreadsheet which is given to schools in February for them to use to reflect their teaching timetable and rooming requirements for the following academic year
Student Allocation The process of putting a student into a class on the timetabling system, allowing the student to see the class on their timetable
Whole- class teaching activities A class which every student in a course is expected to attend - for example, a lecture
Sub-group teaching activities Classes in which the course cohort is split into groups to attend - for example, a number of tutorials or a number of labs
Personalised Timetable An individual student's timetable, showing as much as possible of the classes and activities they are expected to attend each week
Office365 calendar A student's calendar which they can access using Microsoft Outlook calendars on MyEd. This can also be exported to phones by syncing your University email and Outlook calendar - called "Timetable on my Phone".
Jointly Taught This is when courses with different codes are taught together in a class - in the same room at the same time. For example regular students being taught alongside visiting students, or UG being taught alongside PG.

 

Timetabling System Terms

Term
Definition
Teaching Change Request Form                                              Form to request changes/creation to all core teaching
Group Change Request Form Form to allow students to change groups to make for a better personalised timetable
Web Timetables_My Timetable Allows you to see your personalised timetable
Course Timetable Browser Allows students and personal tutors  to plan course selections to avoid timetable clashes
 Path A course selection and programme building tool managed by Student Systems
LEARN Is the main University of Edinburgh Virtual Learning Environment, providing access to course materials, assignments, grades, feedback and more
EUCLID The student record system managed by Student Systems
Book Study Space Allows students to directly book a study space
 Web Timetables Allows staff and students to view the room allocations of courses as well as being able to view the bookings within a room or building. They can also view a personalised timetable of core teaching they have been allocated too.
 Web Room Bookings (WRB) Allows staff to request rooms for non teaching activities
Welcome Week Booking Form Used by schools to request their welcome week bookings
PG Room Booking Form Allows Postgraduate students to book rooms further in advance than the normal week in book study space
Society Room Booking Form Allows EUSA and EUSU societies to make booking requests for Timetabling managed rooms

 

Modelling and Reporting Terms

Term
Definition
Modelling                                                        Multidimensional analytics and planning service; in university context it has two large branches: space modelling which investigates, analyses, reports and offers recommendations on space usage, and curriculum planning, which investigates, analyses, reports and offers recommendations for curriculum building, changes and curriculum timetable efficiency.
Space modelling: Frequency of use The percentage of hours that a room is booked within a designated timeframe showing how much a room is used.
Space modelling: Occupancy The percantage of seats occupied in relation to the room's capacity within each booked hour, showing how well used the room is.
Space modelling: Utilisation Overall room utilisation percentage, looking at both frequency and occupancy parameters.
Space modelling: Real Size Actual number of room occupants / class attendees.
Space modelling:  Planned Size Expected or predicated number of room occupants / class attendees.
Space modelling: Room Projection Method (RPM) A method used to estimate potential room provision based on core teaching demand; allows to project room requirements, taking into the account student number growth.
Curriculum Planning Modelling and planning exercises conducted to investigate and provide recommendations for changes or new additions to the curriculum.
Curriculum Planning: DPTs (in TTU context) Degree Programme Tables as publicized from the basis of curriculum planning operation. The information on the current curriculum, such as core and optional courses, is used to create core programme pathways.
Curriculum Planning: Programme Pathway Possible combination of courses a student could take on a programme, e.g. each optional course creates a new course combination and a new pathway.
Curriculum Planning: Planning Student Sets student sets created to represent a student on each programme pathway within the modelling environment.
Curriculum Planning: Compulsory course / module A course on the curriculum that is complusory and has to be taken by all students on the programme.
Curriculum Planning: Recommended or Popular course A course on the curriculum that is part of a small selection of optionals, where there is a requirement to choose one course of another. Compulsory optional courses determine the number of programme pathways.
Curriculum Planning: Travel constraint Due to University having teaching across multiple campuses, some travel contraints exist. They relate to the minimum amount of time it requires to travel from one campus to another.
Heat-Map A visual summary of bookings' information, displaying the spread of requests (total hours or number of activities) across the  teaching week (e.g. how many activites are on Monday 09:00, Monday 10:00 etc).
Curriculum Planning: Compulsory clashes Clashes between core (compulsory) courses; idenitifcation of these is necessary for successful delivery of curriculum.
Curriculum Planning: Teaching Week Period of time where core teaching occurs; normally it's Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, with exeption of Wednesday, where it's 9am-1pm. Core teaching week is norally 40 hours long.
Curriculum Planning: Core Teaching Teaching that is part of curriculum, it is associated with a module (course)

 

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