Education operations
How do you read classroom occupancy and free slots in Course?
The Course room planner displays the selected institution's rooms and timetable slots in a grid. Select a day to see which cells contain lessons. Each room row shows how many slots are occupied that day, while the summary shows an overall occupancy percentage and the number of lessons on the shelf.
Occupancy describes how placed sessions are distributed across the timetable. It does not measure student numbers, actual attendance, or revenue. To understand where the schedule has unused space, read occupied, empty, and closed cells separately.
On this page
What do the planner indicators mean?
The occupied-slot count in a room row and the overall percentage cover different periods and use different denominators. Do not treat one as a direct check on the other.
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Occupied cell | A session placed in a specific room, day, and time slot. |
| Empty cell | No session is placed in that cell. |
| Closed time slot | The institution has blocked that day and time slot from use. |
| Shelf | Sessions that do not yet have a room assignment. |
| Room row occupancy | The number of occupied slots for that room on the selected day, shown against the timetable's slot count. |
| Overall occupancy percentage | Placed sessions across the institution as a share of all room, day, and time-slot cells. |
Check free slots before placing a lesson
Select the institution and day.
Open the institution's active timetable. Confirm that you are viewing the intended day and room row.
Distinguish open slots from closed ones.
Check whether an apparently empty slot is open or blocked. A blocked day and time slot applies across the institution, not just to one room.
Choose the lesson to place.
When moving a session from the shelf or another cell, read the placement indicators for the target. Teacher and student conflicts or room capacity can prevent placement in an empty cell.
Review the result.
After placement, check the session's location, the shelf count, and conflict indicators again. An increase in the occupancy percentage alone does not show that the schedule is correct.
What happens to existing lessons when a slot is closed?
Managing closed time slots requires a separate permission. If lessons are already placed on the selected day and time slot, the planner warns you when you close it. A lesson that remains in a closed cell may show a warning until it is moved.
Closing a slot does not automatically move its lessons elsewhere. Review the affected sessions and make any necessary moves. Check both the closed-slot indicator and where each lesson is actually placed.
Room capacity is different from timetable occupancy
Room capacity concerns how many students can fit in a session; timetable occupancy describes how many time-slot cells are in use. A room can have a full timetable while its classes have small rosters. Review the actual class lists to assess student numbers.
The current planner percentage does not remove closed slots from its denominator. If your institution needs a rate based on usable time, count open cells separately and compare them with placed sessions. That separate calculation should not be presented as the planner's built-in percentage.
Frequently asked questions
Are closed slots excluded from the overall occupancy percentage?
No. The current denominator includes every configured room, day, and time-slot cell.
Can any lesson be placed in an empty cell?
No. The closed-slot, teacher, student, and room-capacity checks must also allow the placement.
Do lessons on the shelf count toward occupancy?
No. Sessions without a room assignment are not included in the placed-session count.
Assess how Course fits your institution's workflow
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