Optimization - EMS Software
OPTIMIZATION: INCREASING EFFICIENCY IN THE ROOM SCHEDULING PROCESS Michael Lamb EMS Software | Implementation Consultant October 28, 2015
Optimization What is optimization? Optimization is a powerful tool to help you place courses into the best rooms, based on a combination of enrollment, length, instructor importance, time block conformance, preferences and requirements. 2 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization What is optimization not? Optimization is not a one button press solution to room scheduling. Optimization is intended to make your scheduling process easier and more efficient, but it will still require some attention from you to get the best results. Also, optimization cannot create rooms for you, so if you’re over-scheduled, optimization will point it out but not fix the problem. 3 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization Optimization utilizes the preferences you (or your users) have put on courses to try to find the best (optimal) location for your courses. You have control over how the process unfolds, and how much weight the optimizer gives different aspects. You also always have the final say on course locations. Think of the optimizer as giving you room “recommendations”, which you can then use or not use. 4 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization What do you need?
5
•
Courses with preferences If you don’t set any preferences on your courses, you (or your faculty) are likely going to be unhappy with the results. However, this doesn’t mean to go overboard; if you set too many preferences (specifically requirements), you’ll tie the optimizer’s hands in such a way that it can’t do its job.
•
Completed configuration You MUST have completed the “Match Course Type/Room Type” configuration step in order for the optimizer to run. If you haven’t completed this step, the optimizer will be unable to place any courses in rooms. You also must have rooms attached to your Domain.
•
Time to run and analyze the results The optimizer process itself is pretty quick (depending on the number of courses, but usually just a few minutes). However, if you’re running the optimizer ten minutes before you have to publish course locations, you’re setting yourself up for a bad experience. You want to make sure that you’re running the optimizer in advance of publishing so that you have time to review the results and make adjustments as necessary. © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization How does the optimizer work? The optimizer will take all of the courses that you’ve selected for optimization when running it and first “rank” them. It then takes the courses in rank order and attempts to find rooms for them. The “rank” is based on the weight sliders we’ll see in a minute; these sliders are how you tell the optimizer to give more or less preference to different pieces of optimization. These weights are then transferred into a “score” which is given to each course. The course with the highest score is ranked as “1”, and the second highest as “2” and so on. Once the rank has been determined for all courses, the optimizer goes back to the highest ranked course and attempts to find a room for that course. It will look at the preferences on the course to help determine what the pool of rooms available for that course are and find a room that is free and has the capacity to hold the course. If the optimizer finds a room for the course, it places it in that room and moves to the next course. If no room meets all requirements, the course will be kicked out as an exception and the optimizer will move on to the next course. 6 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization Your options when optimizing:
7
•
You can choose which academic units to optimize (need to optimize Physics before History? You can)
•
You choose how much weight the different pieces of optimization will have (just don’t set them all to 1000 as that will defeat the purpose of giving weights)
•
You can choose to exclude certain rooms from the optimization (the optimizer will treat those rooms as though they don’t exist and not place any courses into them) © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization How to make the optimization process less stressful: •
When will you be running optimization?
•
Will you be optimizing all classes together, or broken up by academic unit? If by academic unit, make a list of the order you’ll be running the academic units
•
What are your due dates (either for yourself or your departments) to get preferences into the system before optimizing?
•
Will you be excluding any rooms from any of your optimizations? If so, consider making a view of excluded rooms to easily be able to pull them over instead of having to try to remember what spaces are being excluded every time
8 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization Post-Optimization Review: You can view the optimization results in the “Resolve” screen of the optimization. You can also view optimization results (by optimization scenario) with the following tools: •
Academic Browser (list of courses/course dates)
•
Academic Book (graphical view of course locations)
•
Preferences Summary (listing of all preferences in the scenario, and how many were met versus unmet)
•
Unmet Preferences (listing of all courses that have at least one unmet preference)
9 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
OPTIMIZATION: INCREASING EFFICIENCY IN THE ROOM SCHEDULING PROCESS Michael Lamb EMS Software | Implementation Consultant •
Don’t forget! Complete the session feedback survey in the EMS Live! 2015 mobile app to increase your prize winning chances!
Optimization What is optimization? Optimization is a powerful tool to help you place courses into the best rooms, based on a combination of enrollment, length, instructor importance, time block conformance, preferences and requirements. 2 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization What is optimization not? Optimization is not a one button press solution to room scheduling. Optimization is intended to make your scheduling process easier and more efficient, but it will still require some attention from you to get the best results. Also, optimization cannot create rooms for you, so if you’re over-scheduled, optimization will point it out but not fix the problem. 3 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization Optimization utilizes the preferences you (or your users) have put on courses to try to find the best (optimal) location for your courses. You have control over how the process unfolds, and how much weight the optimizer gives different aspects. You also always have the final say on course locations. Think of the optimizer as giving you room “recommendations”, which you can then use or not use. 4 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization What do you need?
5
•
Courses with preferences If you don’t set any preferences on your courses, you (or your faculty) are likely going to be unhappy with the results. However, this doesn’t mean to go overboard; if you set too many preferences (specifically requirements), you’ll tie the optimizer’s hands in such a way that it can’t do its job.
•
Completed configuration You MUST have completed the “Match Course Type/Room Type” configuration step in order for the optimizer to run. If you haven’t completed this step, the optimizer will be unable to place any courses in rooms. You also must have rooms attached to your Domain.
•
Time to run and analyze the results The optimizer process itself is pretty quick (depending on the number of courses, but usually just a few minutes). However, if you’re running the optimizer ten minutes before you have to publish course locations, you’re setting yourself up for a bad experience. You want to make sure that you’re running the optimizer in advance of publishing so that you have time to review the results and make adjustments as necessary. © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization How does the optimizer work? The optimizer will take all of the courses that you’ve selected for optimization when running it and first “rank” them. It then takes the courses in rank order and attempts to find rooms for them. The “rank” is based on the weight sliders we’ll see in a minute; these sliders are how you tell the optimizer to give more or less preference to different pieces of optimization. These weights are then transferred into a “score” which is given to each course. The course with the highest score is ranked as “1”, and the second highest as “2” and so on. Once the rank has been determined for all courses, the optimizer goes back to the highest ranked course and attempts to find a room for that course. It will look at the preferences on the course to help determine what the pool of rooms available for that course are and find a room that is free and has the capacity to hold the course. If the optimizer finds a room for the course, it places it in that room and moves to the next course. If no room meets all requirements, the course will be kicked out as an exception and the optimizer will move on to the next course. 6 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization Your options when optimizing:
7
•
You can choose which academic units to optimize (need to optimize Physics before History? You can)
•
You choose how much weight the different pieces of optimization will have (just don’t set them all to 1000 as that will defeat the purpose of giving weights)
•
You can choose to exclude certain rooms from the optimization (the optimizer will treat those rooms as though they don’t exist and not place any courses into them) © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization How to make the optimization process less stressful: •
When will you be running optimization?
•
Will you be optimizing all classes together, or broken up by academic unit? If by academic unit, make a list of the order you’ll be running the academic units
•
What are your due dates (either for yourself or your departments) to get preferences into the system before optimizing?
•
Will you be excluding any rooms from any of your optimizations? If so, consider making a view of excluded rooms to easily be able to pull them over instead of having to try to remember what spaces are being excluded every time
8 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
Optimization Post-Optimization Review: You can view the optimization results in the “Resolve” screen of the optimization. You can also view optimization results (by optimization scenario) with the following tools: •
Academic Browser (list of courses/course dates)
•
Academic Book (graphical view of course locations)
•
Preferences Summary (listing of all preferences in the scenario, and how many were met versus unmet)
•
Unmet Preferences (listing of all courses that have at least one unmet preference)
9 © 2015 Dean Evans & Associates LLC | Confidential & Proprietary
OPTIMIZATION: INCREASING EFFICIENCY IN THE ROOM SCHEDULING PROCESS Michael Lamb EMS Software | Implementation Consultant •
Don’t forget! Complete the session feedback survey in the EMS Live! 2015 mobile app to increase your prize winning chances!
