In the daily operations of a training institution, scheduling classes is truly a "massive project."

In the daily operations of a training institution, scheduling classes is truly a "massive project."

In our day-to-day work, we encounter many issues. For instance, during a long period last year, our scheduling staff frequently complained:

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• "A new class has just been enrolled, but the schedules of the teacher, students, and classroom don’t align at all."

• "Parents request last-minute class changes, and after multiple adjustments, even we end up confused."

• "After working all afternoon, we realized two teachers were scheduled for the same classroom at the same time."

Scheduling doesn’t just affect the institution’s revenue—it directly impacts every student’s learning experience, so there’s no room for carelessness. To reduce errors and improve efficiency, we’ve explored various methods to enhance scheduling, such as using Excel or AI to assist with the process.

However, these methods are not perfect. In daily practice, as the number of courses increases, scheduling becomes overwhelming, and many conflicts—like teacher time clashes—cannot be detected by these methods. Our teachers still have to manually calculate and adjust the schedules.

Due to these daily frustrations, morale in our work has not been high. One parent even noticed the low spirits of one of our teachers and mentioned that at another school they attended, they used a highly effective scheduling method—a useful tool that handled everything on the computer.

So, we reached out to the founder of that tool to discuss how they manage scheduling.

The founder told us that when they first designed the scheduling feature, they surveyed over 100 training institutions, covering subjects like art, music, gymnastics, baseball, and swimming. While these institutions had different scheduling requirements, their core goal was the same: to arrange various times, teachers, and classrooms in the shortest possible time.

The founder also shared their approach to scheduling:

Core Principle: Avoid Conflicts

During scheduling, "conflict detection" is essential to preemptively avoid potential errors.

• A teacher can only be in one classroom at a time.

• A student can only be in one class at a time.

• A classroom can only host one class at a time.

Outcome: If this step is overlooked, common issues include:

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• Parents complaining: "The teacher promised to make up a class this week, but it clashes with my child’s regular class!"

• Teachers frustrated: "How could I be scheduled to teach in two classrooms at the same time?"

By adhering to these three "ironclad rules," the foundation of scheduling remains solid.

Clarify the Four Key Elements of Scheduling

Scheduling revolves around four elements:

1. Class time
2. Class/course
3. Teacher
4. Classroom

The founder explained that by first determining the relatively fixed elements and building the schedule around them, the process becomes much faster. Once a teacher’s availability is confirmed, scheduling becomes clearer, avoiding situations where a class is scheduled only to find out the teacher isn’t available.

Approach Scheduling from Different Angles

Following the founder’s advice and using their tool, we started scheduling from different perspectives:

• Start with the teacher
  

Determine the teacher’s schedule and teaching load first to avoid time conflicts. This ensures teachers don’t have to work overtime unexpectedly, keeps their morale stable, and prevents the awkward situation of a teacher being double-booked.

• Start with the classroom
  

Determine the available time slots for each classroom, allowing only one class per time slot. This prevents parents from arriving to find "no available classroom" and reduces chaos caused by last-minute room changes.

• Start with the class

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Pre-assign classes to teachers and schedule class times and classrooms with a single click. This way, parents can immediately see "who the teacher is, which classroom, and what time" when enrolling. Transparent information reassures parents.

In practice, it’s indeed very straightforward. We opted to "start with the class" for scheduling:

• First, select the class.

• Then, set the course start and end times in the system.

• Determine the number of sessions, and assign the teacher and classroom.

If there’s a conflict, the system automatically prompts for adjustments. Once resolved, the schedule is finalized.

This approach makes the entire scheduling process clear and efficient.

Even for last-minute adjustments, only specific elements need to be modified, and the system automatically checks for conflicts. Teachers and parents no longer have to argue over "misaligned information."

Whether it’s a small or large institution, scheduling should be treated as a systematic project.

By leveraging a scheduling system and following clear principles, errors can be minimized, daily operations can run more smoothly, teachers can work with ease, parents can feel assured, and students can enjoy a better learning experience.