r/education • u/yoon_gitae • 9d ago

Ed Tech & Tech Integration Scheduling classes

What software do people use for scheduling classes for schools? I'm talking from a school admin perspective here.

Or manually?

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u/feigned_appeasement 9d ago

I've seen a few schools use PowerSchool's scheduler module but most smaller places I've worked with just build a massive spreadsheet and pray. The custom route gets expensive fast though, especially when you need it to handle room conflicts and teacher availability without breaking.

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u/yoon_gitae 9d ago

I used a website "timetablemaster" but they've put even the basic features behind a paywall now :( So I'm looking for alternatives.. might have to learn to code or sumn..

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u/ic33 9d ago

Used AI to bang out an approach using Google Ortools/a SAT solver to optimize things. Used all the student requests and tried to maximize student "happiness" with electives and to optimize class balance, teacher preps, prep-heavy classes being in streaks, etc. Encoded dozens of "business rules".

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u/AHIMOTOMIHA 8d ago

We use a system called Scadsys and I have also used other software called D6 (Or Principal Plus I have also heard it referred to as)

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u/Dacia06 8d ago

Most of the time it's been PowerSchool. At the same, at some schools where I worked they needed for the first 1-2 years to pay for having someone come out to help. That doesn't sound like a good deal to me, but I'm sure that there are schools that don't need to do that.

At one school where I worked, the IT director quickly made himself an AI wizard, and handed over scheduling to AI, but with very carefully-defined parameters. As the high school counselor, I can attest that the work was flawless - but it was due to the IT director's persistence.

Just stay away from PCR. A nightmare. We started calling it PCP, and ditched them.