Best Practices for Lab Definitions

Tips on how to define your lab sessions for optimal scheduling results.

The Foundation of a Great Schedule

The way you define your lab slots is the single most important factor in generating a high-quality, conflict-free schedule. The AI optimizer works within the constraints you provide, so clear and flexible definitions lead to better outcomes for both you and your students.

This guide covers best practices for each setting in the "Define Lab Slots" step of the schedule creation process.

Core Lab Settings

Lab Title / Code

Use a consistent and clear naming convention that helps you easily identify sections. For example: CHEM101-501, CHEM101-502, etc.

Min / Max Students

This is one of the most critical settings for the AI.

Min Students: The absolute minimum number of students required for a lab to be viable. Setting this too high can make a schedule impossible to solve if not enough students are available for that time.
Max Students: The maximum physical or pedagogical capacity of the lab.
Best Practice: Provide a flexible range between Min and Max students. A larger gap (e.g., Min: 8, Max: 12) gives the optimizer more room to find a good solution. A small gap (e.g., Min: 10, Max: 10) is very restrictive.

Time and Duration

Avoid Long Sessions: The AI penalizes schedules that force students into more than 3 consecutive hours of labs on a single day. If you have a 4-hour lab, consider splitting it into two 2-hour sessions.
Encourage Back-to-Back Labs: The AI gives a bonus to students who have back-to-back lab sessions to reduce gaps in their day. If possible, schedule your lab slots without gaps (e.g., a session from 9:00-10:00 and another from 10:00-11:00 is better than 9:00-10:00 and 10:15-11:15).

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Not Enough Total Capacity

The sum of "Max Students" across all your lab sections should be greater than or equal to your total number of students. If there are not enough seats, some students will inevitably be left unassigned, which the AI heavily penalizes.

Setting "Min Students" Too High

If you set a high minimum for every lab, it may be impossible to fill all of them, leading to an unsolvable schedule. It's better to have a lower minimum and let the AI balance the labs as evenly as possible.

Creating Small, Unnecessary Gaps

Defining labs with 15-minute gaps between them (e.g., 10:00-11:00, then 11:15-12:15) can lead to fragmented student schedules. The AI prefers and rewards back-to-back sessions, so define them contiguously where possible (e.g., 10:00-11:00, 11:00-12:00).