The Basics of Time Table Designing

In the previous post we discussed about the crediting system and how it works at VIT. Most of must be wondering what this FF is in the Crediting system..? Isn’t it complicated enough to prefix it with FF..? Well things get simpler as you understand and fascinating once you use it.. The FF stands for FULLY FLEXIBLE, making the whole name Fully Flexible Crediting System “FFCS”. Each word has a significant meaning hidden in it. All of you are now familiar with CS, let me explain you “Flexible”

As the word says, our crediting system is flexible; it can adjust in the way you want. What does adjust..? The answer is TIME TABLE. In this system, you decide which subject you want to study, at what point of time in your course, under which faculty, in which class room of the campus and at which time? That is why I call it power of choice. Here is an in depth detail of the things function at VIT.

First of all, the word “FULLY” is a bit controversial when it comes to FFCS at VIT. It shall be discussed in future articles.

Draft Time Table

More famously known as the slot time table, it is a default time table for every student at VIT.

And there are only 2 reactions when you look at this time table for 1^st time without knowing anything

1. Why is it an alpha-numeric table and where are the subjects..!!
2. Morning 8:00 to evening 7:30… are u kidding me..!!!!

Not to worry followers, the actual time table is less than half the size of the slot time table.

As you see, the time table (tt) is divided in 14 theory slots; A1, B1... G1 and likewise A2, B2… G2. The 1s are for morning and the 2s are for evening. There are 3 lectures of subject A, B & G and 4 lectures of subjects C, D, E & F throughout the week. 1 of each lecture in every subject is prefixed with a ‘T’.

Also under the theory slots are the lab slots. L1 to L60. These for the labs.

The basic thing is to append the subject you want to choose to these slots.

Choosing and appending

The system is completely computerized. When you sit to choose the courses, you will have a wide range of choices to choose from. Everyone will be provided with a copy that mentions the courses that are to be chosen ideally according to your semester. Search the subject you want in the search bar. You can search either by the name or by the course code or even by the school (that offers the subject)

For example, School of advance sciences offers Multivariable Calculus in the 1^st sem. You can search by the following ways:

1. In search by school, select SAS.
2. In search by name, write Multivariable calculus.
3. In search by course code, write MAT101 (the code will be given in the copy)

The search results will be displayed in a tabular form with columns for the name, code, L, T, P, C, a VIEW button and a REGISTER button. The moment you spot your subject, click on register. The next screen is again a table that has columns for the slot, the faculty name, the room no. where the lectures are going to take place, the total number of seats in that particular class, the number of seats that are gone and the number of seats that are left. Select the slot by considering the faculty available and the room and building where you will have to go for the lectures.

Example

For Modern Physics PHY101

slot	faculty	Room	Seats total	Seats registered	Seats left
B1	Prof. XYZ	MB102	65	32	33
B1	Prof. ABC	MB103	65	21	44
D1	Prof. DEF	SJT203	65	10	55

If you think this slot and venue suits you, select it.

For embedded subjects in the same screen you will have to choose your lab slot. These options are given under the table of theory slots in similar fashion. The moment you select your class, and press the final register button, you will be taken back to your home screen where a similar kind of table read as registered courses will display all the details about your subject with a delete button. This is for deleting the course if you think that you have done a mistake by putting this subject in this place.To rectify it, delete the course and re-register just as before.

The home screen will also display your time table thus far. It will be a blank time table and only those slots will be filled where you have chosen the subjects. Since it is a computerized system, no lectures can over lap each other. If you choose some theory slot and then try putting a practical slot at the same time when there is 1 of your theory slots, the system will reject it.

And thus by searching, researching and a bit of gambling, you register and append your subjects to the given slot.

This is the basic functioning of FFCS registrations, this is how you have to make your own time table, this your POWER of CHOICE!!!

Stay tuned for upcoming posts on special tips regarding the registrations and of course the much awaited critical review.

-Post Courtesy

Ronak Pramod